NASA announced Dec. 21 that it selected Sierra Lobo Inc. of Fremont for a contract to perform engineering fabrication services at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The cost-plus-award-fee contract has a potential value of $98.15 million if NASA exercises an option that would extend the length of the contract by two years. The three-year base period of the contract begins Feb. 1, according to NASA’s announcement.
“This is the second largest contract in terms of revenue in our history,” said Donald Frank, executive director of business development for Sierra Lobo.
The firm’s fabrication services for NASA will range from providing rapid turnaround of simple parts and modifications to the development of new products, prototypes and actual hardware for spaceflight. The hardware produced could range in size and complexity from small hand tools for astronauts to entire crew systems, according to NASA.
Frank said some of their people were set to fly out to Houston on Jan. 1 to get started on the preliminary stage of the project. He said they expect the project to require 120 people. That number will include existing employees who will go to Houston and new employees hired there and possibly in Ohio.
“It’s likely we will hire some incumbent employees from other companies located there and fill other open positions with qualified people,” Frank said.
The company currently has 500 employees and Frank expects that number to grow to about 565 at the beginning of this project for NASA.
“It’s been a very good year for the company,” Frank said.
Sierra Lobo has performed previous work for NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky.
The company is a two-time winner of the George M. Low Award in the Small Business Service category. It was also named Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year by the Glenn Research Center in 2009 and 2011.
Frank said that the Low Award is the highest award given to contractors by NASA and very few contractors have won it twice. The award is named for a NASA leader who was dedicated to quality and excellence.
Sierra Lobo announced additional work contracts for NASA and the U.S. Navy in September.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center selected the company’s Cryo-Tracker Mass Gauging System for its Space Launch System (SLS) Advance Development Program. The Cryo-Tracker system supports the SLS vehicle and reduces costs by enhancing propellant monitoring capabilities.
The reliability of the Cryo-Tracker sensor significantly exceeds that of current Saturn and Shuttle-era hot-wire technology and has none of the shortcomings of capacitance-based probes that suffer high uncertainties due to pressure, temperature and stray electromagnetic interference, according to the company.
Sierra Lobo received a $3.9 million contract award from the U.S. Navy to develop, fabricate and test a fuel cell and cryogenic reactants energy system for the Office of Naval Research’s Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Innovative Naval Prototype (LDUUV INP) energy and power.
The development contract for the Navy, currently being executed at the company’s Technology and Engineering Center in Milan, Ohio, is in its initial 18-month Phase I base period. With its successful completion, the company will proceed with a six-month Phase I option program and a 24-month Phase II program to provide a fully integrated power system in a prototype LDUUV for testing.
Sierra Lobo is a Hispanic-American owned small business that was founded in 1993 with only nine employees.
Today, Sierra Lobo employs engineers, technicians and administrative personnel in multiple locations.
For more information about the company and open positions, go to www.sierralobo.com.
