Boeing, Southern University Win NASA Award For Partnership

Boeing and Southern University and A&M College have been awarded NASA’s 2022 Mentor-Protégé Agreement of the Year for their work on the agency’s space launch system (SLS) rocket. Boeing was nominated by the Marshall Space Flight Center for its mentorship of Southern University “while providing tactical business and technical support to the institution.” Louisiana-based Southern University provided alumni engineering skills to Boeing’s SLS program in New Orleans.

“The NASA Mentor Protégé Program was successfully implemented between Boeing and Southern University,” said Southern University Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies Samuel Washington. “It provided a means to enhance the partnering effort by Boeing, in assessment and training, focused on efficient processing of business and contracting using the university's needs to increase contracting opportunities.”

The Mentor-Protégé Program aims to pair “large companies with eligible small businesses and minority-serving institutions to enhance the protégés' capabilities enabling them to successfully compete for larger, more complex contracts.” The associated award is granted based on criteria including protégé growth, protégé development, the value of technical and business development supporting NASA’s mission, program management and ability to stay on track with meeting tasks and goals. The Mentor-Protégé Agreement of the Year award is granted annually as part of NASA’s Small Business Industry Awards (SBIA).