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Beyond Space
Command and Control Technology President Pete Simons believes his company's space-age software has commercial potential

By Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal

It's not every company that needs software for launching a rocket. But that's not stopping Command and Control Technology from plans to market its product to a broader business sector.

Rodney Davis, Vice President of Technical Operations, left, and Peter Simons, President/CEO of Command & Control Technologies Corporation work on INACTS, Integrated National Aerospace Control Toolset. Photo by Craig Rubadoux, © 2002.

The Titusville company's software is used at Kennedy Space Center and other launch sites for launch control, range safety and modeling and simulation applications. Take out the space component, and you still have a product that will acquire data, check that it's within specified limits, convert it to a readable form and display it in a certain format. Those are functions that a variety of businesses would need.

"The only thing that's really different is the context," said Pete Simons, CCT president.

Simons, along with partners Kevin Brown and Rodney Davis, founded the company in 1997 after being part of the team that helped develop command and control software technology for NASA The project was shelved because of budget issues, but three saw commercial potential. So they formed a company to license the technology from NASA to develop and market it further.

The result is the Command and Control Toolkit, which uses space mission techniques to reduce large amounts of data to critical decision support information to be used real-time. The technology base lets the company use off-the-shelf hardware and software to build custom control centers faster and cheaper.

The company's software is used in range safety, for example, to track a rocket and display telemetry data so ground control can determine whether the rocket is on a safe path. But the potential for the control monitor unit, NASA's name for the licensed technology, goes beyond space applications.

"The control monitor unit is an excellent example of a technology developed for space needs that has applications in the commercial sector, applications such as safety and security, energy generation and air traffic control," said Pam Bookman, KSC Space Act Awards liaison officer. NASA encourages private companies to license NASA-developed technology, for a fee, in the hopes that they'll be able to commercialize the technology.

"When you think about it, NASA is funded by public funds, so we have a responsibility to make these technologies available," Bookman said. CCT got its start in a NASA-Florida business incubator in Titusville, designed to help small businesses get on their feet.

Some CCT projects:

• The company used the toolkit to develop a prototype system for investigating new space transportation that would not need to be launched near water. Launching the reusable vehicles inland would impact many traffic paths within the national airspace system, so CCT developed a planning tool set that can plot launch paths and landing trajectories to determine what aircraft would be affected, how the airplanes could reroute their paths and what the cost to airlines would be.
• The company recently delivered a radar and weather data processing system to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to handle real-time data from four radar units and two wind towers for launches at Poker Flats, Alaska, beginning early next year.
• CCT is working with Boeing and NASA to develop a portable payload test and verification system, which would check a payload for technical integration before it's placed on the shuttle or an expendable launch vehicle. The tester could be taken to the launch pad, then into a conference room. The project is one of several that CCT has worked on for Dynacs at KSC since 1997, said Dynacs subcontract administrator Mary Lou Sinkule. CCT's consistently timely and cost-effective work for the company led Dynacs to nominate the company for NASA-KSC small business subcontractor of the year in 1998, an honor that CCT won. "
• Simons is marketing the company's expertise to the Defense Department for use with uninhabited aerial vehicles. The vehicles now are flown by someone on the ground, but are expected to get more autonomous. "You'll need a ground-control system that can control and monitor the vehicles," Simons said.

The company did $2 million in business last year, and Simons forecasts that figure could double in the next 12 to 18 months because of contract announcement expected in the next few months.

For now, business remains government-oriented, a trend that CCT plans to change.

"We want to build a strong commercial side to the business," Simons said. The company expects to devote resources next year to looking for capital investment to help make that happen.

Simons recently joined the board of the Founders Forum, a networking organization that helps link small businesses with investors and lenders, as well as provides educational resources. "He's a very deliberate and prudent businessman," said Wallace Weeks, who nominated Simons for the board. As president of his own strategy consulting firm in Melbourne, he also counts Simons among his clients.

"With his partners, he has been successful in leading the start-up of a company that has been able to graduate from the business incubator in Titusville, led the development of software and led the team to become a profitable company, which is the first step to real long-term success," said Weeks, who hopes Simons' involvement will strengthen the Founders Forum's presence in North Brevard County.

Outside work, Simons' time is devoted to his wife, Linda, and two young children, Alexandra and Maxwell. Having their first child during the startup year of the new business didn't stop Simons from branching out on his own.

"I had a personal need not to work in a really big company anymore," said Simons, who left McDonnell Douglas to help start the business. "It's hard to initiate change or pursue new markets."

Continuing in the space industry was a natural for Simons, who grew up in Maryland nurturing a fascination for the space program. "I've always been a space buff," said Simons, who came to Florida to pursue a computer sciences degree at Florida Tech. He graduated in 1983, and later returned for a master's in systems management.

The one void in his life could be considered the Space Coast's loss of the Florida Marlins spring training camp. An avid baseball fan, Simons put his woodworking skills to bat to make a display case for his small collection of autographed baseballs. His prize: a ball autographed by Baltimore Orioles third-baseman Brooks Robinson.

One of the best parts of spring training in Brevard was catching all the Orioles games at Space Coast Stadium. "I don't know what I'm going to do now," Simons said.

On the web: www.cctcorp.com.