Minerva Engineering Announces the Receipt of an "Intention to Award" for a Sole Source Contract to Provide Software Development Oversight on the MUOS System

Phoenix, Arizona - March 10, 2005

Minerva Engineering announced today that it has received a letter of intention to award a sole source contract (N00039-05-C-0024) for Software Development Oversight (SDO) for the Multi-User Objective System (MUOS). This program will provide SDO support to MUOS to the Program Executive Office for Space Systems (PEO Space Systems) in support of the Communications Satellite Program Office, PMW-146.

Minerva Engineering's primary role on this program will be to provide the PEO Space Systems and PMW-146 an integrated contractor team with the competency, capacity and capability to provide system engineering and system engineering support services. The work activities will be performed in the following areas: On-site Software Development Oversight (SDO) support for the Network Management, Ground Transport, Satellite Control and User Entry segments of the MOUS system. Minerva Engineering will provide system engineering support to PEO Space System and PMW-146 in areas where our extensive experience in software design, development, test, and engineering will be required. In addition, our significant experience in software development oversight and/or Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) on site-specific Satellite Communication-related functionality will be utilized to support the PMW-146 SDO team.

For this effort, Minerva Engineering has put together an exceptional collection of scientists, engineers and software developers from within Minerva Engineering as well as from our teammate, LinQuest Corporation. "LinQuest has a long history of providing high quality SETA support to the government in the area of space communications systems and we are extremely happy to have them as key team members", commented Don Holmes, CEO and Manager of Minerva Engineering's Space and Communications System Group.

"This effort is being awarded to us because of our ability to demonstrate that we have the right experience, facilities and staff all of which add up to providing 'best value' to the government" said Mr. Holmes. "The fact that the intention to award this contract to Minerva Engineering through the use of Public Law 108-183, The Veterans Benefits Act of 2003, clearly demonstrates that President Bush's intention to find a way to support the growth of Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses is having a positive effect. We are hiring personnel, purchasing equipment and expanding our benefits programs to our employees as a result of recent growth through awards using PL 108-183. Minerva Engineering is an example of how small businesses contribute to the growth of the American economy."

Minerva Engineering became a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) in September of 2003 with the inclusion of several key members of the technical staff that also happen to be Service-Disabled Veterans as owners of the company. PL 108-183 establishes SDVOSB set-aside authority for agency and prime contractor contract managers to award sole-source contracts or to restrict competition for these contracts to SDVOSBs.

Mr. Holmes also added that "this contract further builds upon recent multi-year, multi-million dollar awards and is exactly the type of work we've been working to obtain over the past several years. This kind of stability is critical for a small business to be successful in working with the government."

Minerva Engineering provides systems engineering, software engineering and electro-mechanical integration and prototyping services for government space systems and C4ISR tactical systems and components. Minerva Engineering is a private company founded in 1997 and maintains its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, with offices in Washington DC and Huntsville, AL.