United Launch Alliance recently honored three suppliers with a 2020 Small Business Excellence award for their support of the Vulcan Centaur program.
The Vulcan Centaur is ULA’s next-generation rocket that will provide higher performance and greater affordability while continuing to deliver reliability and precision. This rocket will transform the future of space launch and will meet the important demands of the United States Space Force and U.S. national security satellite launches.
S-Bond Technologies is a materials technology company based in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, that provides bonding solutions for a broad range of materials. S-Bond played an integral role in maintaining the very demanding schedule of the Vulcan Soldered Transition Ring qualification. ULA required a lot of supplier involvement to address constantly evolving requirements, which S-Bond was able to provide. As this effort transitions from a qualification state to a recurring state, S-Bond has maintained a very close level of communication with ULA engineering and supply chain to ensure our requirements are met and our schedule is maintained.
M&J is a custom fabricator located in Decatur, Alabama, and continues to be very responsive and flexible to ULA’s Vulcan development schedule and prioritizes their work based on ULA’s assigned priorities. Even with their recent move to a larger facility to help avoid any capacity restraints that would negatively impact ULA, they were still able to meet ULA’s schedule. The Program Management that M&J provides to ULA is second to none, even taking last minute calls to talk strategy and any feedback that is needed.
Cablenet is a manufacturer that is located close to ULA’s Headquarter in Centennial, Colorado. ULA has been working with Cablenet since 2008 and through those years built a great relationship. Cablenet has played an important role in supporting ULA for a variety of projects. The company has been a reliable supplier in meeting ULA’s demanding needs which has been of critical importance, even allowing ULA engineers to visit the facility and complete an inspection on test cables or ask questions that come up unexpectedly. Cablenet has provided ULA exceptional customer support.
“ULA places a strong emphasis on the value and contribution of small business,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO. “Small businesses are the engine of our nation’s economy and ULA is proud to recognize these suppliers who have demonstrated outstanding effort this year.”