A Year in Review: 2014

As the year 2014 comes to a close, I would like to take the time to reflect on some of the amazing accomplishments and events for NASA as an agency as well as the NASA Office of Small Business Programs.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden gives a speech at the announcement of the FY 2013 SBA Procurement Scorecard.

As you may know, NASA received the grade A on the Small Business Administration (SBA) Scorecard for FY 2013. I am proud of the efforts of the entire NASA Small Business team, as well as the Office of Procurement for helping us achieve this goal for the second year in a row. We look forward to continuing this success in the years to come.

The setup of the NASA booth at the Marshall Space Flight Center HUBZone Industry Day on June 11, 2014.

The NASA Office of Small Business Programs also successfully executed four Industry Days this year that were focused at increasing small business participation in three set-aside categories. The events took place at:

·      Armstrong Flight Research Center, February 4, 2014, Women-Owned Small Business Industry Day, 283 attendees

·      Marshall Space Flight Center, June 11, 2014, HUBZone Industry Day, 508 attendees

·      Langley Research Center, August 13, 2014, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Industry Day, 322 attendees

·      Kennedy Space Center, October 28, 2014, Women-Owned Small Business Industry Day and Expo, 318 registered attendees, 611 attendees

At the KSC WOSB Industry Day and Expo, we had the highest participation rate to date and we hope to continue this succes. For 2015, there are two Industry Days planned that I would like to encourage you to attend:

·      Stennis Space Center, February 3, 2015, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Industry Day – to register visit http://bit.ly/1yhkdPL.

·      Johnson Space Center, August 11, 2015, HUBZone Industry Day

A photo of some of the attendees at the October NIF meeting.

The Office of Small Business Programs also successfully hosted the inaugural NASA Industry Forum (NIF) Meeting in March in Washington, D.C. and the second at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in October. The goal of the NIF meeting is to ensure that the Office of Small Business programs remains engaged with each of the ten centers spread across the country; representatives from NASA headquarters meet with small business representatives from each of the ten centers along with the centers’ large and small business contractors to discuss the business environment and address any concerns. I am happy to celebrate a successful second year.

A shot of the filming for the HBCU/MSI video.

The NASA Office of Small Business Programs also held its first ever Historically Black Colleges & Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MSI) Partnerships Meeting at Marshall Space Flight Center in September. NASA is the only government agency with a goal for doing business with HBCU/MSIs and has reemphasized the HBCU/MSI One Percent Goal, so we were proud to host this event in order to encourage these institutions to do business with NASA. View the video we filmed for the HBCU/MSI Partnerships Meeting at http://bit.ly/1pUQ3DY.

I’d like to thank everyone for their contributions to NASA and the NASA Office of Small Business Programs this year, and we hope that we can continue to develop and grow in the year to come.