On November 13, 2019, MFRA was selected as Ames Research Center’s FY2019 NASA Small Business Industry Awards Winner in the category for Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year. MFRA is a joint venture of three small businesses joined to support NASA Ames Research Center’s Aerospace Systems Modeling and Simulation (SimLabs III) contract and related programs. Metis Technology Solutions, Inc., Flight Research Associates, Inc. and SYMVIONICS, Inc. are all small businesses with capabilities in aerospace, systems and software engineering related to aerospace modeling and simulation, and well as development, maintenance and operations of simulation facilities for both NASA and DoD.

MFRA operates and performs sustaining engineering for all NASA Ames SimLabs simulation facilities, works with researchers to integrate and validate simulation architectures and optimize distributed real-time simulations. Services provided include systems engineering, software development and systems administration, aerospace engineering, hardware and mechanical systems engineering and operations, safety and mission assurance, configuration management, outreach, subject matter expert recruitment, and contract management functions.

MFRA initiatives have significantly streamlined and improved SimLabs’ software production and verification/validation processes by standardizing them across all facilities and introducing advanced solutions, such as continuous integration/continuous delivery capabilities. In addition, MFRA focused its hiring and training efforts on refreshing the existing workforce, seamlessly integrating new engineers into a complex software and simulation environment to ensure continuity of operations. MFRA engineers work closely with the customer to modernize and continuously improve simulation capabilities, ensuring simulators remain relevant to the next generation of aerospace vehicles and missions. As a result example, the Vertical Motion Simulator is in demand by NASA, FAA, and industry researchers performing handling quality studies for vehicles ranging from Urban Air Mobility vehicles to Lunar Landers.