SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION

NEWS... An Innovative Advanced Technology Company VOL. 23, NO. 1 HAMPTON, VIRGINIA SPRING ISSUE 2014

STC and UMBC Launch NanoSat Inside This Issue... orbit. The NanoSat is called Qubscout-S1 and PRESS RELEASE measures 2 in x 2 in x 5 in—about the size of a 1 STC/UMBC NanoSat tall coffee mug. This is STC’s and UMBC’s first 1 Silver Snoopy Award Science and Technology Corporation 1 AMS/STC Award (STC) and University of Maryland, Baltimore 1 Quality Corner County (UMBC) announced that they have 2 Purchasing Requisition APP successfully launched a NanoSat into low Earth 2 Safety Corner 3 CMMI Recertification 3 New Contracts 3 Security Corner 4 Honors and Awards

After a few months of orbit, the satellite will unfold (see figure) to increase drag and change its rotation rate. Dr. Mark Schoeberl, STC Chief Scientist (left) and Qubscout-S1 was built as a joint venture Mr. Steven Buczkowski, UMBC Ph.D. Student hold the satellite before shipment. between STC and UMBC. Qubscout-S1 will test a UMBC designed micro sun-sensor that satellite mission. Qubescout-S1 was launched can be used to find and point instruments from Yasny, Russia, on a Dnepr LV rocket as toward the sun. STC built the satellite frame part of the Unisat-5 payload. The launch took – Continued on page 2 (see NanoSat) Diagram of satellite showing how it will look after place at 0710 UTC November 21, 2013. The it is deployed and the panels unfold following a orbit is sun-synchronous with an orbit altitude few months of operation; initially the panels are folded onto the sides of the satellite (drawing by of 616 km (382 miles). UMBC students will AMS/STC Mrs. Barbara Schoeberl). be monitoring the satellite’s performance. Scholarship Award The American Meteorological Society NASA Space Flight Awareness Program's (AMS) has named Ms. Megan R. Angstadt Silver Snoopy Award mission, a commendation letter (stating the as the recipient of the AMS/STC Freshman mission the Silver Snoopy pin was flown on) Undergraduate Scholarship for 2010. Megan Congratulations Mr. Alton Coffey! and a signed, framed Silver Snoopy certificate. has completed her junior year (2012–2013) Alton received the Space Flight Awareness Pro- To qualify for this award, eligible candidates at the University of Oklahoma where she is grams Silver Snoopy award in support of testing will have made contributions toward enhanc- majoring in meteorology. for the new spacecraft for the NASA Multi-Purpose The AMS Freshman Undergraduate Crew Vehicle (MPCV), Scholarship is awarded on merit and is designed better known as Orion. Mr. to encourage outstanding undergraduates to Coffey, who is working on pursue careers in the fields covered by the the Langley Research Cen- award. Additionally, the students awards are ter Electronic, Metal, and announced from AMS in their Freshman year Composite Hardware Fab- but are not presented at the AMS meeting Sterling Silver until their Junior year. "Silver Snoopy" rication Support Services STC has sponsored lapel pin. (EMCHFSS) contract, was the scholarship since 1992. awarded the prestigious Sil- From left to right: Silver Snoopy Awardee, Mr. ver Snoopy Award at a ceremony on July 23, Alton Coffey, EMCHFSS Project Manager, Mr. QUALITY Corner 2013. The Silver Snoopy Award is part of the Jeff Manning, Shannon Walker, and – Purchas- NASA Space Flight Awareness (SFA) Program Lead Fabrication Supervisor, Mr. Leon Council. The PowerPoint Training Aids ing and Terms & Conditions have been and is the ' personal award. The award ing the probability of mission success, or made updated and are available on the STC is given personally by NASA astronauts as it improvements in design, administrative/tech- Intranet for any employee to access who is represents the astronauts' own recognition of nical/production techniques, business systems, involved in purchasing products or services excellence. The award consists of a sterling silver under a Govern­ment task or for STC. "Silver Snoopy" lapel pin flown during a NASA – Continued on page 2 (see SNOOPY) Page 2 STC Newsletter Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring 2014 Purchasing Requisition App – NANOSAT (Continued from page 1) and provided funding for the project. UMBC’s Two Programmers in the STC Manage- Tim developed the initial system which has Department designed, constructed, ment Information Systems (MIS) Depart- been in use at STC Headquarters (HQ) for over and tested the sun sensor. ment, Mr. Tim Brinkley and Mrs. Terri a year. This initial version supported the PR and STC is a small high-tech company approval process and was a significant Geisler, have devel- founded in 1979 in Hampton, Virginia. It oped a Web-based ap- step forward. When Terri joined STC, she was given the task of adding the provides science and engineering support plication for submit- services to the federal government and com- ting and processing comparison of quotes worksheet and some additional features identified mercial customers, including NASA, NOAA, purchase requisitions through early use. Terri, with sup- DoD, and the U.S. Coast Guard. STC has over (PRs) in compliance port from Tim and the purchasing 400 employees working at 27 locations in 17 with STC purchasing and accounting staff, worked to states in the U.S. and has a vigorous STEM procedure. As many of complete the project and added even educational program of which the Qubescout us know, purchasing Mr. Tim Brinkley, STC HQ. more features to make the app more initiative was part of. Other elements of STC’s goods and services as a user-friendly. educational program include publishing and Government contractor can be quite The new version editing the peer-reviewed Journal of Small complex, particularly in compliance is in use at HQ and Satellites (www.jossonline.com); and Science at our Electronics and with ISO 9001, AS 9100, and CMMI. and Technology International Education Fabrication Facility in STC has reviewed 3rd party software Program (www.STIEP.org). STIEP enables over the years and has not been able Hampton, Virginia for Beta testing. Beta student research internships under co-mentors to find one that meets our complex at NASA and other government labs. needs. Therefore, when Tim first and testing and resultant fixes are nearly com- “STC came to us with a launch oppor- Terri later joined STC to support and Mrs. Terri Geisler, STC HQ. plete and we plan to tunity in early September 2010 and asked if enhance our Electronic Task Order roll-out the app to our other office locations it was possible to put together a small satellite Management System (ETOMS), they were, in the coming weeks with company-wide mission to test a sun-sensor. They needed it in respectively, first assigned to develop a PR deployment soon to follow. Kudos to Tim about two months. Our students had already App to provide us a much needed utility and and Terri for completing a very useful tool been working on small satellites, so we had provide them training in ETOMS, the STC and cementing a team working relationship the capability and know how. Nonetheless, accounting system, and the programming that will serve them well as they proceed with putting something together this quickly has languages/techniques STC uses. ETOMS updates. to be some kind of record. I am really pleased with our students and faculty who made this SAFETY Corner possible,” said Physics Professor J. Vanderlei Wireless communication devices (WCDs) are more prevalent Martins who is the Principal Investigator on than ever and drivers using a WCD while driving are four times the mission. "We have a very innovative design more likely to cause an accident. Know your State’s regula- that uses commercial off-the-self materials. tions governing use of wireless devices while driving, espe- That, and using students, helped keep our cially texting while driving. Many contracts are now including costs very low." FAR 52.223-18, Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Qubscout-S1 was built in 2010, but due Messaging While Driving, for both company-owned or -leased to changes in attached payload availability was vehicles, Government-owned vehicles and privately-owned launched this year. Qubscout-S1 was orbited vehicles when on official business. "I HAVE TO HANG UP NOW. I'M CRASHING!" – Continued on page 3 (see NanoSat)

– SNOOPY (Continued from page 1) Mercury and Gemini Programs, when NASA Test Article (BTA), a mock up of the Orion flight and/orsystems safety or identification, took steps to infuse the space program with crew module at the LaRC Hydro Impact Basin. and correction or preventive action for errors. a renewed and strengthened consciousness His contributions were noted by the lead en- The SFA Program is a NASA-managed moti- of quality and flight gineer of the SPLASH vational and recognition program with invited safety. As NASA human project. A ceremony representation from NASA and contractors space flight programs was held at the Pearl having major responsibilities for human grew, NASA centers Young Theater where spaceflight mission success. It is managed by were requested to ex- Alton was presented NASA Headquarters Human Exploration pand their assistance his award by Astronaut and Operations Mission Directorate and was to government agen- Shannon Walker and established by NASA in 1963. The SFA pro- cies and contractors in Center Deputy Direc- gram became a formal program following the enhancing employee tor, Mr. Steve Jurzcyk. motivation. A reception was held The STC NEWSLETTER is published by Mr. Alton Cof- directly after the award Science and Technology Corporation, Alton was joined by his family (pictured above) at fey received the Silver the award ceremony and the reception. They had ceremony. Alton had 21 Enterprise Parkway, Hampton, the opportunity to share in Alton's achievement Virginia 23666. Snoopy Award for his his family in attendance significant contribu- and meet and talk with Astronaut Shannon Walker. to celebrate the special Editing & Layout: Delores Shackelford tions in support of drop tests for the Structural occasion. We want to congratulate Alton on (757) 766-5833/Fax (757) 865-1294 Passive Landing Attenuation for Survivability his well-deserved award and thank him for his Web site address: www.stcnet.com of Human Crew (SPLASH) project Boilerplate outstanding service. Again, Congratulations! Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring 2014 STC Newsletter Page 3

and software development efforts. No CMMI Recertification small task, when operational issues pop up, as New Contracts Congratulations! STC has achieved they always do. The MIS team always took steps another three years as a CMMI Level 2 certi- to meet deadlines for the CMMI effort, while • June 2013 – STC was awarded a fied company. STC received re-certification of keeping necessary systems up and running. year-long subcontract with Texas its CMMI Level 2 qualification this past year The final process for the CMMI certification A&M University under their NASA following a concerted effort by the MIS team required a two day assessment with the lead at STC Headquarters in Hampton, Virginia. Cooperative Agreement. Dr. Mark auditor and his team. This assessment took the The MIS team, led byMr. John Sullivan, and Schoeberl is the lead on this CM team through all three proposed projects supported by Mr. Mike McGuire, Mr. Tim subcontract that is using Trajec- requiring multiple one hour sessions for each Brinkley, and Mrs. Terri Geisler, provided project. These sessions included verification of tory Calculations to Study Mass an outstanding effort and support to the re- and Trace Gas Transport into the certification process. STC received its original project management, coding, testing, software CMMI Level 2 certification back in 2010. The quality management, metrics, and configura- Stratosphere. certification was set to expire in the spring of tion management. Each session was intense, • September 2013 – STC was 2013. In preparation for re-certification, the requiring project descriptions and detailed awarded a contract with Jet Pro- answers to questions about our processes, STC Configuration Management (CM) team pulsion Laboratory for Validation procedures, and how we document them. The began developing a plan for the re-certification Efforts for the AIRS Project. This process in the fall of 2012. The MIS team MIS team members all competently and profes- identified the proposed projects, and the sionally answered all questions thoroughly for contract will be completed in mid- necessary supporting documentation. As the the auditing team, leaving them satisfied with 2015. process ramped up, the team began to gather our understanding of STC’s processes. Fol- • September 2013 – STC won their the required artifacts, documents, processes, lowing the two day CMMI final assessment, fourth SciTech task order for "Enter- was a short, but difficult wait, to receive the and tests for submission to the Lead CMMI prise OSD/CLASS Support." Auditor. Weekly meetings were held with the final finding presentation. On April 30th, we MIS team to establish progress on current received our SCAMPI A Assessment letting • October 2013 – STC was awarded projects and the status of action items identi- STC know that we had passed and received a subcontract with SGT under their fied during the meetings. The team worked our CMMI Level 2 re-certification. Again, OMES contract. We are currently diligently on CMMI re-certification efforts, congratulations to the CM team and the MIS working on the first task order en- while continuing to support IT operations, team for a great job! titled, "GSFC System Review Support." Security Corner • STC has transitioned from PAIS Adverse Information – NISPOM 1-301.a. requires that all cleared IV to PAIS V and as of this date Government contractors report “adverse information” to the Govern- CLASSIFIED has been awarded 12 task orders ment on any cleared employees. Adverse information is defined as INFORMATION under our subcontract with Leidos “Any information that adversely reflects on the integrity or character of a cleared employee, that suggests that his or her ability to safeguard classified infor- (formerly SAIC). mation may be impaired, or that his or her access to classified information clearly may • STC continues to be awarded ad- not be in the interest of national security.” Cleared employees should report to the FSO ditional delivery orders under our (Facility Security Officer) any financial difficulties including garnished wages and credit NOAA Ancillary and Engineering card misuse, criminal conduct, arrests, traffic violations, substance abuse, bribery, fraud, BPAs in both Boulder, Colorado tax evasion, disloyalty to the U.S., hacking, mental disorders, foreign influence, personal conduct, sexual behavior, etc., concerning themselves or other cleared employees. and NOAA NESDIS.

– NANOSAT (Continued from page 1) along with a cluster of 28 other small satellites Twiggs for providing the design of his twin (see http://www.satelliteonthenet.co.uk/index. "pocket-sat" combination, and connectivity php/2013 [21 November]. Data from the to the Unisat-5 team at Rome, Italy; Mr. satellite will be downlinked to radio receivers Ravi Deepak of Taksha University (www. at UMBC. Students will analyze data from the taksha.org) for his support through the two sun-sensors to check their performance. entire process; Mr. Jeff Manning of STC's STC President, Dr. Adarsh Deepak, Electronics & Composites Fabrication Facil- noted that "Professor Martins’ group has ity in Hampton, Virginia, for getting the done an incredible job on this project. This machining of the NanoSat chassis completed joint venture sets the stage for more exciting in one day; Dr. Mark Schoeberl, STC Chief collaborations between STC and UMBC in Scientist, in managing the QubScout project; the future. It also shows how small companies Professor J. Vanderlie Martins for getting the working with a University team can be part of launch-ready QubScout completed with the Professor J. Vanderlei Martins of UMBC with the America’s space future." help of his UMBC students in 10 weeks; and satellite (on workbench, right) during construc- Acknowledgments: The following in- Professor Benjamin Malphrus, Morehead tion. Lower left, the micro-sun sensor, upper left dividuals and organizations contributed State University, Kentucky, for pre-launch shows body of satellite with sun sensor aperture significantly to the timely and cost-effective vibration testing at the MSU facility, and then in the center of the silver square. The satellite development of the NanoSat system leading delivering it for integration in to the Unisat-5 has a sun sensor on both sides. up to its successful launch: Professor Bob satellite in Rome, Italy. Page 4 STC Newsletter Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring 2014 HONORS and AWARDS STC's Milestone Loyalty Service Appreciation Program awards full-time and part-time employees for their loyalty of service to STC on reaching 3 years, 5 years, and every 5 years of service thereafter. Awardees are given the opportunity to select an award item out of the selection of awards available for the Awardees' milestone. The Awards are presented to Awardees at a luncheon held in their honor. 30 YEAR EMPLOYEE 25 YEAR EMPLOYEES 20 YEAR EMPLOYEE

Sidney Gerard AnnaMaria Clack Steve Freudenberger Dawn Erlich October 1984 March 1989 August 1989 March 1994

Not Pictured: 25 Year Employee: Bruce Gilbert, June 1989.

15 YEAR EMPLOYEES

Glenda Lissimore Kevin Knott Melissa Lyons March 1999 May 1999 May 1999 Not Pictured: 15 Year Employee: Eric Fausett, July 1992.

10 YEAR EMPLOYEES

Amy Stender Dr. Charles Davidson Joseph Grosso Dr. Scott Oblad Allyssa Martinez April 2004 February 2004 February 2004 March 2004 October 2004 Not Pictured: 10 Year Employees: Khristopher Shultz, March 2004.

5 YEAR EMPLOYEES Shannon Macken, April 2004; Melaina Mansanarez, January 2009; Erin Patrick, January 2009; Tamara Pendley, February 2009; Kevin Stone, February 2009; Kelly Clement, March 2009; Daniel Davies, March 2009; Victoria Dolly, March 2009; Brandon Nohr, March 2009; Bart Sagers, March 2009; Lucas Bell, May 2009; Brooke Haynes, May 2009; Lance Murdoch, May 2009; Kimberly Bowman, June 2009; Joshua Langlie, June 2009; Eric Putnam, June 2009; Kelly Zaledonis, June 2009; Roger Thompson, November 2009. 3 YEAR EMPLOYEES Joshua Peters, January 2011; Dr. Robert Melvin, April 2011; Sabrina Taijeron, April 2011; Sharon Broomall, May 2011; James Coogan, May 2011; William Girard, May 2011; James Rice, May 2011; Dr. Petrus Van Oevelen, May 2011; Arnold Consul, June 2011; Dr. David Schatzman, July 2011; Dr. J. Spackman, August 2011; Kyle James, September 2011; Susan Barlow, October 2011; Dr. Ioana Cozmuta, October 2011; Dr. Emre Sozer, October 2011; John Sullivan, October 2011; Darren Yingling, November 2011; Dr. Ava Walker, December 2011; Gabriela Westbrook, December 2011.