CTA Incorporated, a minority-owned Fortune 500 defense-company, was in the same boat with other defense contract firms seeking stability through diversification. CTA knew they must develop commercially viable products and services that used core capabilities they already possessed to stay afloat in a shrinking defense contract business. Help came in the form of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Technology Affiliates Program through the Far West Regional Technology Transfer Center (RTTC) in Los Angeles.

CTA, based in Rockville, Maryland designs and manufactures satellites, software and hardware for ground and space-based systems. The company founder, Tom Velez, was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Montgomery County High Technology Council and a competition sponsored by Inc. Magazine, Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch & Co. and the Washington Business Journal in 1993. That same year, CTA finalized a contract to design and build a satellite system for the Republic of Indonesia. INDOSTAR will be the world's first lightsat (lightweight satellite) for direct broadcast to a single country and will provide television receive-only and digital television receive-only services for Indonesia. CTA's core technologies added new and existing capabilities to compete in the newly targeted export arena - at a fairly low price. JPL was able to provide CTA with recommendations regarding design and implementation for INDOSTAR and identify potential risk areas and guidance in avoiding those risks.

The Far West RTTC's involvement with the JPL Technology Affiliate's Program allows businesses with small jobs to utilize a program that had previously only been available to resource-rich firms. Companies can submit a statement-of-work to the Far West RTTC for assistance in any of the broad capability areas from JPL and receive an estimate for a specific job. A quick turn-around allows the lab to respond at the speed of business, not at the speed of government.

INDOSTAR creates new jobs in the Space Systems Division and their export capabilities improve America's trade deficit by almost $50 million. As a member of NASA's commercialization team, the Far West RTTC is glad to give a hand.