Originally published January 2007

3-2-1 Blast Off!

            The Hubble Space Telescope will continue to fly, saving 1,000 local jobs for at least another two years. In October, NASA announced plans to extend the life of Hubble by giving the okay to a fourth and final servicing mission to repair the telescope.

            The mission will probably not take place until September 2008 when, most likely, the space shuttle Atlantis will be launched on its final flight, carrying a crew to repair the telescope, said Preston Burch, an associate director at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the program manager for the Hubble Space Telescope program.

            That means the approximately 900 contractors and 100 civil servants in the area who work on servicing the telescope through Goddard and the Space Telescope Science Institute, will continue to work on the program until early 2009, said Burch.

            Hubble captures thousands of images and sends information to NASA for analysis. The fourth servicing mission will seek to repair and replace current instruments and hardware on the telescope, as well as install new equipment. The last servicing mission was in 2002.

            Following the completion of the mission, it will be the first time since Hubble was launched in 1990 that there are five fully functioning science instruments on the telescope, Burch said.

            There is no set date for bringing the telescope down from space. The best projection is it will remain in orbit through at least 2020, but most likely until 2025, he added.

Small Fish, Big Pond 

            For Columbia’s Essex Corp., things heated up this summer with multiple companies vying for a piece of the signal, image and cyber-security solution company.

            Between July and September, Essex was in discussion with three companies, all of which were interested in merging with the growing firm. In the end, the winner was Northrop Grumman Corp.

            In November, Essex announced a $580 million merger agreement with the California-based defense giant. According to a statement, the transaction expects to close during the first quarter of this year.

            Essex will become a business unit within Northrop Grumman’s Missions Systems sector, which is headquartered in Reston, Va. However, all Essex employees will remain in the company’s current Columbia office, said Ed Jaehne, chief strategy officer for Essex.

            “At this point, there are no plans to consolidate offices, but we’re certainly looking for efficiencies,” he said.

            There are no anticipated layoffs, Jaehne added.

            Northrop Grumman began pursuing Essex in August, according to proxy documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It indicated interest in September with a bid of approximately $21 to $23 per share for Essex’s shareholders. The final offer was $24 per share, the SEC documents said.

            Essex grew from  50 employees in 2000 to nearly 1,000 in 2006, with earnings jumping from “a few million dollars” to “a currently forecasted 2007 revenue range of $330 million to $350 million,” according to a

company statement.

Curtain call 

            In late November, former Anne Arundel and Howard County Executives Janet S. Owens and James Robey got together one last time. The duo joined Laurel Mayor Craig A. Moe to sign an agreement to form a new Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) task force focused on garnering federal dollars.

            “This lays the groundwork for future initiatives we hope will lead to funding to implement BRAC initiatives,” said Owens of the memorandum of understanding the three leaders signed.

            The new grant advisory task force allows Anne Arundel County to take the lead in seeking funding from the federal government’s Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA), which assists communities that are affected by U.S. Department of Defense activities.

            The grant application process is still in the works, but Owens said the request is in the ballpark of $1 million. OEA will continue to provide the county with feedback prior to a final submission.

            The funds may be used for staffing and planning studies around housing, transportation and other infrastructure issues, Owens said.

            Anne Arundel County must take the lead because Fort Meade is located in the county; however, the OEA strongly encourages a coordinated approach, said Mike Hayes, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development’s director of military and federal affairs.

            He added that the state also plans to submit its own grant application for funds. It’s one of the few states that has been encouraged to apply for such funds, according to Hayes.

Maryland’s Economy:

Manufacturing vs. Knowledge

            Recently, discussions on Maryland’s economy have focused on the shift from manufacturing to knowledge-based jobs. But, when it comes to certain industrialized jobs, Maryland is still showing growth.

            According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005 Annual Survey of Manufactures, the state’s pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing industry increased by more than 1,700 employees between 2004 and 2005.

            By comparison, Virginia and Pennsylvania both lost pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing jobs. Virginia lost 705 employees and Pennsylvania lost 168 employees in the same period. Delaware was the only neighboring state to gain jobs in this industry, recording 33 additional employees.

            Jobs are considered manufacturing if they involve the physical transformation of materials, said Tom Flood III, a Census spokesman.

            The number of pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing jobs in the United States grew by just over 1,600. The difference between national and state numbers could be explained by large plants or factories elsewhere in the U.S. closing or moving out of the country, Flood said.

            The rise in pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs in Maryland may be attributed to small companies that experienced significant growth between 2004 and 2005, he said.

            But overall Maryland did register a shortfall, losing 798 total manufacturing jobs, according to the report.

How to be a Quitter

            The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business might be able to help with New Year’s resolutions this year.

            A recent study for the school’s Center for Health Information and Decision Systems, an academia-led effort to research and recommend solutions to integrate information technologies into the health care system, showed a little support from online strangers can help smokers quit the habit.

            The study found that 62 percent of respondents reported they successfully gave up cigarettes after joining an online smoking cessation support group.

            The report interviewed 411 members of quitnet.com and found the more time members spent on the web community, the less likely they were to continue smoking. Also, those who interacted for 18 months had a better quitting success rate than those who had only been members for 5 months.