Conrad receives NASA award

Conrad Shipyard was recognized Thursday for the role it is playing in the future of America’s space exploration program.
Conrad Deepwater is refurbishing NASA’s Pegasus barge, which throughout the space shuttle era ferried shuttle external tanks and other hardware from NASA’s manufacturing site in New Orleans to its Florida launch facilities.
NASA brought Capt. Stephen G. Bowen, the first submarine officer selected as a mission specialist, to the Conrad Deepwater yard in Amelia Thursday to present the Space Flight Awareness Supplier Award.
“It’s taken so many people coming together to work (on this). ... The details matter. Every little bit you guys put together will matter. Your work will stand up for decades to come,” Bowen said to the assembled Conrad employees.
The next generation of astronauts will be exploring beyond Earth’s orbit into deep space. To do so, NASA created its Space Launch System, an advanced launch vehicle that is larger than the previous generation of space shuttles, requiring larger transportation vehicles.
“SLS, the world’s most powerful rocket, will launch astronauts in the agency’s Orion spacecraft on missions to an asteroid and eventually to Mars, while opening new possibilities for other payloads including robotic scientific missions to places like Mars, Saturn and Jupiter,” the NASA website states.
This is where Conrad Deepwater comes in.
Robert Sampey, Conrad business development manager, explained, “We took (Pegasus) from 260 feet to 310 feet. We retrofitted everything and put it back in working order, so it’s going to be like the exact barge leaving but 50 feet longer.”
The $8.5 million contract barge will allow it to transport rocket components for the SLS between manufacturing, testing and launch locations.
Steve Doering, center operations director at Marshall Space Flight Center, said his office is responsible for transportation of all the large pieces of hardware that are major components for the new SLS rocket.
“The Pegasus barge is going to play a crucial role in our ability to get that hardware from the Marshall Space Center or Stennis or Michoud out to Kennedy for the launch, so it’s an absolutely critical role,” Doering said.
According to NASA’s website, the Space Flight Awareness Supplier Award recognizes significant, outstanding individual or team contributions related to the prevention of anything that could lead to a catastrophic mishap to the vehicle, crew or mission.
Daniel Conrad, senior vice president of Conrad Industries, thanked NASA on behalf of his employees.
“From our humble beginnings in 1948 building wooden shrimp trawlers to being a part of space exploration is humbling,” Conrad said, tearfully.
Sampey expanded on Conrad’s sentiments.
“This award means that all of our efforts to, first of all, go out and secure a contract like this for the area are paying off,” he said.
“We want the community to understand the extent of what Conrad does. It’s not just local tugs and barges. We’re providing local companies’ tugs and barges as well as companies from international transportation companies all the way through NASA, so it means a lot to showcase the diversity of Conrad,” Sampey said.