Space shuttle's end is loss for Danvers business

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The award given to Kernco Inc. by representatives of the United Space Alliance is displayed on a table. Kernco manufactures high-tech gear such as atomic clocks and makes hardware for the space shuttle. Cole Margen
From left, Bonnie Beale, Richard May and Vasel Myers from the United Space Alliance pose with an award given to Bob Kern, right, of Kernco Inc. in Danvers last week. Beale, May and Myers flew up from Houston to present the award, which was given to Kern for his company's support of the shuttle program. Cole Margen

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July 21, 2010

By Matthew K. Roy Staff writer The Salem News Wed Jul 21, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

DANVERS — A piece of Danvers has been on every space shuttle flight since 1995.

Kernco Inc., located in a nondescript brick building on Harbor Street, makes the Orbital Aft Flight Gas Sampling System, an instrument designed to detect any leaks around the shuttle's propulsion module.

It makes the part for the United Space Alliance (USA), the NASA Shuttle Program support contractor. Last week, representatives from USA traveled from Houston to Kernco's headquarters to recognize the company as the 2009 Veteran Owned Small Business Supplier of the Year.

"They've been a great vendor," Rich May, project engineer for USA, said last Tuesday after presenting the award. "Not only do they deliver on time, but the product is high-grade. We've never had a problem with anything they've delivered."

May's visit was bittersweet, however, because looming over it was the awareness that the shuttle program is scheduled to end sometime next year. USA announced earlier this month that it expects to lay off 15 percent of its 8,100 shuttle program workers in Florida, Texas and Alabama on Oct. 1.

Kernco will deliver the last of its hardware for the shuttle program by the end of this year.

"I think it's nothing short of criminal to do away with the shuttle program," said Kernco president Robert Kern, who founded the company in 1978. It's part of what makes the United States a "first-world country," he said.

Kernco has 10 employees. Much of its business involves the design and development of laser-based atomic clocks. The loss of the shuttle business — six gas-sampling units fly on each mission — hurts, but it is not devastating, general manager Michael Delaney said.

"It was a little bit of income that was always there," he said. "It's not make or break, but it's a nice thing to have."

Kernco, May said, produced a product that was "very critical to the shuttle."

"Their effort goes above and beyond the call of duty," he said. "In my 33 years, I have never had a vendor of this quality and support and dedication to task."

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