MORGAN HILL, CA-United Space Alliance (USA, Houston) is the prime contractor for NASA's space shuttle program. The company must manage nonconformances and corrective actions for the shuttle to return to safer operations. To meet that need, United Space Alliance has selected AssurX's CATSWeb quality tracking software.

The contract between AssurX and United Space Alliance is a multiyear deal for more than $2 million and will allow United Space Alliance to have a common quality tracking system for more than 8,000 users in all operating groups, NASA customer companies and selected strategic partners.

"The integration of USA's systems into a single system will standardize processes along multiple space shuttle elements, improve data trending and corrective action monitoring, and provide a better platform for data mining to strengthen our safety processes," says Dick Beagley, vice president of quality and mission assurance for United Space Alliance.

Shawn Pifer, director of program integration technical information systems for United Space Alliance, says he was looking for a system that would integrate existing in-house solutions, information systems and processes. "In addition to providing electronic signature controls and audit trail functionality, we can add automation specific to our workflows, without making changes to the core program," says Pifer. He says United Space Alliance evaluated a number of systems, including some in-house developed programs, before making their decision.