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.
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   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.

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