Harris Corporation Celebrates National Aerospace Week With Educational Initiatives and Employee Events

MELBOURNE, Fla., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS), an international communications and information technology company, is paying tribute to the nation's aerospace industry this week with special educational activities at local schools and with activities to increase awareness among Harris employees and their families.  The events are part of National Aerospace Week -- September 12 -18 --, which recognizes the aerospace industry's contributions to the nation's history, economy, security and workforce.

U.S. aerospace sales are estimated – conservatively – to account for three to five percent of the country's gross domestic product, and the aerospace industry employed more than 644,000 workers in 2009.  Harris, with more than 16,000 employees, has developed communications and IT solutions for the aerospace industry for more than 50 years.

"It would be difficult to overstate the economic importance of the aerospace industry here in our community and across the nation," said Howard L. Lance, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Harris, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Aerospace Industries Association.  "This week's activities recognize the outstanding contributions of our aerospace workforce and show students just how exciting and rewarding an aerospace career can be."

During National Aerospace Week Harris is hosting activities at elementary and middle schools in Brevard County, Florida; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the metropolitan Washington, DC area – company locations that support Harris aerospace customers.  Activities will include aerospace career days, aerospace lesson plans, as well as a student essay competition for the children of Harris employees.  

In Colorado Springs, for example, eighth-grade students at the Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy will be introduced to the basic principles underlying space science, including Newton's laws of motion.  Harris IT Services employees will provide classroom instruction and students then will have hands-on use of the Space Mission Simulator computer lab at the Discovery Institute's Space Education Lab in Colorado Springs.

Harris IT Services employees at the Colorado Springs location support one of the company's largest aerospace programs, the $410 million U.S. Air Force Network and Space Operations and Maintenance (NSOM) program.  Harris provides operations and maintenance support to the 50th Space Wing's Air Force Satellite Control Network.  This global, continuously operational network of ground stations, operational control nodes, and communications links supports launch, and command and control of various space programs managed by the Department of Defense and other national security space organizations.

In the greater Washington, DC area, Harris employees are spending the week at the Benjamin Stoddert Middle School in Waldorf, Maryland, teaching lessons in aerodynamics.

On Florida's Space Coast, Harris will host "The World of Aerospace Day" at Diamond Community School in Palm Bay on Wednesday, September 15.  A Harris engineering manager will discuss the world of aerospace with students and then conduct an interactive project.

Harris has supported major National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) programs since the 1960s, including the Apollo, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station programs.  In June, the company was awarded a $140 million contract from General Dynamics to modernize the ground segment of the NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System -- which Harris was the primary developer of in the early 1980s.  Harris also is part of the Oceaneering team selected this summer to provide a wide range of tasks in support of all human spaceflight programs.

In addition, Harris is a world leader in the architecture, design and development of highly specialized satellite antennas, structures, phased arrays, and on-board processors for space applications.

For more on National Aerospace Week, visit www.NationalAerospaceWeek.org.

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries.  Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5 billion of annual revenue and more than 16,000 employees — including nearly 7,000 engineers and scientists.  Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications® products, systems, and services.  Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at www.harris.com.

SOURCE Harris Corporation