Barrios Recognizes 2nd Quarter BEAR Award Recipients

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER (Houston, TX): Barrios Technology recently presented employees with Silver BEAR (Barrios Employee Award and Recognition) awards. Each recipient was commended for their high level of expertise and outstanding performance supporting Barrios’ contracts with NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) Program. Employees recognized included Frank Digiuseppe, Barbara Lewis, Tricia Lister, Dave Rechkemmer, and Jorge Salazar

Frank Digiuseppe was recognized with a Silver BEAR award for his outstanding work supporting Orion vehicle testing, critical for the Artemis I Flight planned for July of 2021. Digiuseppe is recognized a key member of the team and has the responsibility for integration support between NASA, Lockheed Martin (LM) and European Space Agency (ESA)/Airbus personnel to ensure ESA is effectively engaged in the testing and receiving required data. One of Digiuseppe’s more critical and visible responsibilities is ensuring compliance with export control guidelines for data and information shared with ESA console operators. He was also responsible for scheduling the shifts for all NASA Test Team Shift leads (NTL), training new console operators and worked to establish a new virtual support process due to COVID travel limitations..

Barbara Lewis was recognized with a Silver BEAR award for her efforts and determination as the ISS Science Outreach lead to continue MAPI outreach during the COVID-19 quarantine. When MAPI outreach was required to stand down on all travel as planned events across the country were cancelled Lewis stepped up to the challenge to see what virtual outreach MAPI could offer. Reaching out to her colleagues, Lewis set up weekly informational emails with educational organizations like the Space Foundation Teacher Liaisons, numerous school districts across the country, and museum contacts she had made over the last 5 years. Through her experience, ingenuity, and enthusiasm, Lewis was able to put together several opportunities for ISS Science Outreach reaching thousands across the country. Through her connections with the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, she arranged for ISS Researcher Gioia Massa to be a part of “Let’s Talk Space” focused on plant growth. Despite the cancellation of many opportunities, the MAPI Outreach program metrics are still strong for the fiscal year.

Tricia Lister was recognized with a Silver BEAR award for her dedication and team work as a member of the MAPI Configuration and Data Management (CDM) team. Lister played a key role in the Data Management (DM) activities on two Space Station program contracts, Common Communications on Visiting Vehicle (C2V2) and Commercial Destination-ISS Contract with Axiom. For C2V2, Lister participated in multiple meetings, coordinated with multiple organizations, received, analyzed and organized deliverables, located missing data contributing to the successful closeout of the C2V2 contract. On the Axiom contract, Lister used her experience and knowledge of the ‘big picture’ to guide teams to define the infrastructure needed to manage commercial proprietary data. Lister was instrumental in understanding customer needs and led multiple key efforts to accommodate approval for Commercial Segment data access and training teams in both the Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) and the NASA Account Management System (NAMS) processes.

Dave Rechkemmer was recognized with a Silver BEAR award for the critical role he played to ensure the successful integration and launching of Li-Ion Batteries and Deployable Adapter Plates to the Space Station. His outstanding and numerous contributions began almost seven years ago when JAXA first began their conceptual work on designing a new 3-sided Exposed Pallet. His efforts were recently consummated with the HTV9 launch. NASA and the ISS Program Office have manifested a total of 24 Li-Ion Batteries and 24 Deployable Adapter Plates on HTV6/7/8/9. Integrating and launching these batteries was a top priority and critical for Station. Rechkemmer was instrumental in finding ways to improve the work flow once the hardware reaches the Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC). In preparation for HTV7/8/9, Rechkemmer’s suggestion to charging Li-Ion batteries in parallel reduced the flow from 3-weeks to 2.

Jorge Salazar was recognized with a Silver BEAR award for his leadership on the Increment Engineering (IE) Team. Salazar was designated the IE Console Integrator in September 2019 providing stability, experience, and mentorship for new Increment Engineers. Salazar’s nomination cited his tireless efforts to ensure IE procedures and training plans were accurate and ready to support console operations. Salazar trained and certified several new Increment Engineers imparting his knowledge and experience for the betterment of MAPI’s customer support. Salazar also leads integration efforts such as SpX Demo 2 ISS Management Center coordination and COVID-19 ISS Management Center response efforts. The NASA customer has asked for him to be assigned to certain high profile tasks because they know his level of work.