NASA Mentor-Protege Program Draws a Crowd Shortly after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas Feb. 1, an employee of NASA contractor ERC Inc. interrupted his vacation to write software that would help investigators determine the cause of the accident. ERC, a woman-owned small disadvantaged business, is one of about two dozen companies participating in NASA’s mentor-protégé program. Its mentor is Jacobs Sverdrup, a prime contractor at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. Reflecting on the relationship, ERC president and CEO Ernest Wu says, “I think we’ll be a better company. We are already better, stronger, as an organization. In fact, that was our prime incentive, not (only) to grow more business but to really strengthen our organization.” Sverdrup picked ERC in a competitive selection process involving more than 20 companies, according to Randy Lycans of the company’s Huntsville office. Wu said ERC had worked for Sverdrup as a subcontractor before establishing a mentor-protégé relationship. It’s up to small companies to find their own mentors, said Ralph Thomas III, NASA assistant administrator for small and disadvantaged business utilization. But once the companies formally enter the program, the space agency keeps close watch. “We have formal teleconferences every other month with each mentor-protégé team,” said Lamont Hames, the program manager at NASA headquarters. Unlike the Defense Department’s mentor-protégé program, NASA’s program offers no direct monetary reimbursement to mentor companies. Instead, the mentor can earn points in its evaluation and award fees. The goal is to expand NASA’s stable of capable high-tech contractors. “The mentor has to expend the capability of the protégé in a high-tech area,” Thomas said in an interview. The word is getting out about the program; 275 people signed up for NASA’s annual Mentor-Protégé Conference, which was held in Washington Dec. 2. In addition to NASA and DOD, several other agencies have mentor-protégé programs. The new Homeland Security Department issued regulations establishing its program this month. The programs are run out of agencies’ offices of small and disadvantaged business utilization.