Dwayne C.

Brown
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

May 7, 1991
(Phone: 202/453-8956)

RELEASE: 91-70

EIGHT FIRMS NAMED GEORGE M. LOW TROPHY FINALISTS

Eight finalists have been chosen for the 1991 George M. Low
Trophy -- NASA's Quality and Excellence Award. The finalists are:

* EG&G Florida, Inc., Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

* Grumman Technical Services Division, Titusville, Fla.

* Honeywell Inc., Space and Strategic Systems Operations,

Clearwater, Fla.

* Computer Sciences Corp., Applied Technology Division,

Houston

* Cray Research, Inc., Manufacturing Division, Chippewa

Falls, Wisc.

* Thiokol Corp., Space Operations, Brigham City, Utah.

* TRW Space and Technology Group, Redondo Beach, Calif.

* Unisys Space Systems Division, Houston

The award recognizes both NASA's prime contractors,

subcontractors and suppliers for outstanding achievements in
quality and productivity improvement and total quality management
(TQM). Key goals of the award are to internalize quality and
productivity practices and TQM processes throughout NASA and the
agency's contractors and to transfer performance improvement
methods of the award recipients to others.

George A. Rodney, NASA Associate Administrator for the Office

of Safety and Mission Quality, announced the finalists after a
6-month application and review process. The award process now
advances to the third phase in which validation teams visit
finalists' facilities to verify performance achievements and
process attainments.
- more -
- 2 -
 Following the review and recommendations of the Low Trophy
Evaluation Committee, NASA's TQM Steering Committee, composed of
Center Directors and Headquarters Associate Administrators, will
make the final selection of the the award recipient(s).

NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly will announce the award

recipient(s) at the eighth annual NASA/contractor conference on
Nov. 6, 1991. There is no limit to the number of awards which can
be given among the finalists.

"The award applications are more numerous and getting better

each year, making the job of the committee very difficult. Awards
are made in two categories, large and small business. There are
no small business finalists this year," said Rodney.

Truly announced last October that the NASA Excellence Award be

renamed the George M. Low Trophy to honor one of America's
outstanding space pioneers. "George M. Low represented quality
and excellence like few others and if NASA is synonymous with
excellence, George Low is synonymous with NASA", said Truly.

The award is administered for NASA by the American Society for

Quality Control, Milwaukee, Wisc., a professional association and
a worldwide leader in development, promotion and application of
quality and quality-related technologies.

The recipients of the 1990 George M. Low Trophy, NASA's Quality

and Excellence Award, were Rockwell Space Systems Division,
Downey, Calif., and Marotta Scientific Controls, Inc., Montville,
N.J. Marotta was the first recipient of the trophy in the newly
established small business category.

Previous recipients of the award have been Lockheed Engineering

and Sciences Co., Houston; Rocketdyne Division, Rockwell
International Corp., Canoga Park, Calif.; Martin Marietta Manned
Space Systems Co., New Orleans; and IBM's Systems Integration
Division, Houston.

- end -