Metis Flight Research Associates (MFRA), a Metis Technology Solutions (Metis) Joint Venture (JV), has been named the 2022 NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year. MFRA serves as prime contractor on the Technical Services for Aerospace Systems Modeling and Simulation (SimLabs) III contract, operating and maintaining world class aerospace and aviation simulation facilities. In the JV, Metis serves as the managing partner. 2022 is the second year MFRA has received this award, previously being named ARC Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year for 2019.
“It is a great honor to be named 2022 NASA ARC Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year,” said Neil Otto, Program Manager for SimLabs. “Winning an award of this magnitude requires exceptional work and effort from all members of the SimLabs team. It is rewarding to have our hard work over the previous year supporting groundbreaking aviation research recognized and celebrated by our ARC customer.”
“I want to echo Neil’s words and offer my congratulations to all Metis personnel working on SimLabs, as well as our MFRA partners,” said Joy Colucci, CEO and Owner of Metis. “This year, Metis SimLabs staff provided outstanding support to several high-profile simulation studies. We look forward to carrying this momentum into the new year and continuing to provide our ARC customer with exceptional services.”
MFRA work on SimLabs includes developing and running simulation studies with the Vertical Motion Simulator, Future Flight Central, and Crew-Vehicle Systems Research Facility. Projects at SimLabs range from Lunar Lander demonstrations for NASA Administrators to software that predicts airport traffic conditions to determine the best time for flights to depart. In addition to NASA, projects at SimLabs are also undertaken for the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Defense, and numerous industry partners.
This year’s honor for MFRA is part of the larger NASA Small Business Industry Award program, which recognizes companies that demonstrate outstanding performance while making significant contributions to the NASA mission. In all, Metis has received six total NASA Small Business Industry awards. In addition to the NASA ARC Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year awards in 2022 and 2019, Metis has won: NASA ARC Small Business Subcontractor of the Year in 2020; NASA Agency-Wide Small Business Subcontractor of the Year in 2017; NASA LaRC Small Business Subcontractor of the Year in 2017; and NASA ARC Small Business Subcontractor of the Year in 2016.