NASA may be about reaching big for the stars, but the agency is also big on helping small businesses stay competitive.

  • Mentor-Protege Program partners big, small NASA contractors
  • Bastion, Boeing have teamed up to work on the Starliner spacecraft
  • Starliner will eventually carry astronauts to the ISS

Jorge Hernandez founded Houston-based Bastion Technologies in 1998, and it's been growing ever since.

"We kind of grew up with NASA. I literally grew up with NASA," Hernandez said.

He also knows a lot about growing up in the space program. Hernandez was born in Titusville, and his father worked in the Gemini program, then later, Apollo.

Now, NASA's Mentor-Protege Program is helping his business make its own mark on space history.

"It really gives us an opportunity to grow our capabilities," he said, which is happening in a former shuttle processing facility.

Boeing transformed the high-tech area where shuttle Discovery was readied for flight into a state-of-the-art facility where the company's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is being built. It's one of the capsules that eventually will take NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

Even large companies such as Boeing need help, and they're getting it in the form of 425 smaller suppliers such as Bastion. It employs about 350 people but plays a key role in the Starliner spacecraft construction and eventual launch to orbit.

Through the Mentor Program, larger companies such as Boeing help smaller ones like Bastion compete for larger, more complex prime contract awards.

"It's a partnership to help them grow as a business," said John Mulholland, Boeing's vice president of commercial programs. "We will help them in areas of manufacturing and some design and development."

On Tuesday, Bastion signed an 18-month contract in the program. It's a thrill for its founder.

"NASA has been a fantastic advocate for small businesses," Hernandez said.

Boeing said it's on track for a NASA astronaut launch on board the Starliner to the ISS next year.


Jorge Hernandez, founder of Bastion Technologies (News 13)