EELV Team Receives Top
Department of Defense Acquisition Award

ARLINGTON, Va. (7/18/99) -- Members of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) team from the Air Force and The Aerospace Corporation received the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award, the Defense Department's highest award for acquisition, at the Pentagon May 5.

Dr. Jacques Gansler, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology, made the presentation to the team during kickoff activities for Acquisition Reform Week III.

Among those attending the ceremony were Secretary of Defense William Cohen and Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

On hand from The Aerospace Corporation to receive the award were EELV principal director Linda Drake, Dr. Mark Brosmer, Randy Kendall, Dr. Valerie Lang, John Martillo, Dr. Peter Portanova and Joe Tomei.

Others from The Aerospace Corporation named in the award but unable to attend the ceremony were Sam Chu, Don Huang, Bill Hunter, Lee Laxdal, Kathy Morris and Hal Smith.

Innovation Recognized

The Packard award recognizes DOD civilian and military organizations, groups and teams for exemplary innovations and practices in the defense acquisition process.

"This was really an honor for the company in general and for the EELV program office specifically," said Drake. "The award validates the many years of hard work and dedication by the core program office team and other members of the technical staff who have supported us."

Drake said the program's objective is to improve the affordability and operability of the nation's expendable space launch systems into the next century.

EELV will replace the current fleet of medium and heavy launch systems -- Delta, Atlas and Titan -- with two competitive modular families of launch vehicles. One is being developed and built by The Boeing Company, the other by Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Previous EELV Awards

The Packard Award is the latest in a series of major DOD and Air Force awards the EELV program has won in the past few months.

The others include the Secretary of the Air Force John J. Welch Award for Excellence in Acquisition Management, the DOD Value Engineering Achievement Award and the Secretary of the Air Force Strategic Acquisition Reform Award for Contracting.