TRAX Honor Awards 2009
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center at Greenbelt Maryland announced the results of the 2009 Robert H. Goddard Honor Awards. Thirty TRAX employees and subcontractor partners supporting the Goddard Logistics Services Contract were selected to receive Exceptional Achievement awards in the areas of Engineering, Customer Service and Technician and Wage Grade operations.
Neil Patel is the TRAX Mechanical Engineer and winner of the Exceptional Achievement Award for Engineering. He is a newcomer to TRAX and the NASA community, who has quickly gained wide recognition for his meticulous professionalism in support of numerous space flight projects including the Express Logistics Carrier, Solar Dynamics Observatory, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Hubble Space Telescope. He brings a profound understanding of engineering solutions to shock and vibration challenges encountered during worldwide movement of space flight hardware; design of specialized containers and vibration isolation systems, hands-on supervision of container construction, coordination of in-transit engineering support for equipment movement and post mission analysis of shock and vibration data. Neil has consistently proposed container instrumentation design and build innovations that save our customers both time and thousands of dollars. By recognizing and guiding the expertise of TRAX in-house Packing and Crating technicians, Neil has developed creative alternatives to traditional procurement practices with cost-saving alternatives that build and sustain the TRAX reputation for technical mission support of NASA’s space flight project community.
Not everything TRAX does involves rocket science. TRAX and Office Movers, Inc, a regional commercial moving company, have enjoyed a productive partnership at the Goddard Space Flight Center since 1998. The TRAX Move Coordinator and the Office Movers team sustain an annual average of 450 to 500 office moves – 1,500 people and over 600 workstations requiring relocation and reassembly. Thirty-five percent of the moves are typically characterized as “emergency” moves arranged in 5 days or fewer. This significant level of work has been sustained while achieving a measured customer service satisfaction rating of 4.9 on a 5-point scale and less than one damage claim per year. This superior level of customer service, measured for over a decade has culminated in Office Movers’ selection for the Exceptional Achievement Award for Customer Service.
The multi-disciplinary TRAX Project Logistics Support Team received the Exceptional Achievement Award for Technicians and Wage Grade organizations. The team is comprised of experienced technical space flight project support professionals with skills ranging from rigging and material handling to traffic management to international import/export control to shock and vibration instrumentation to mechanical support of environmental control systems. For example over a recent 6-month period, the team arranged for more than 76 high visibility air and truck shipments to various locations both domestic and international, including numerous flight hardware shipments. Members of the TRAX team instrumented and accompanied shipments for the Hubble Space Telescope, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Solar Dynamics Observatory, James Webb Space Telescope and the Express Logistics Carrier over the road and on Military Airlift Command-5s and C-17s.