Tower funding ends April 7

Funding to operate the control tower at Stennis International Airport near Stennis Space Center, Miss., will end April 7. Stennis is one of 149 airports nationwide whose tower operation is ending due to sequestration. Elsewhere in Mississippi, Greenville's airport tower will lose funding April 21, and the towers in Olive Branch, Tupelo and Hawkins in Jackson will be cut off May 5. The Federal Aviation Administration also released guidance for airports affected by the closures. It said the operators can operate as non-towered airports or keep towers working without federal funding. (Source: Sun Herald, 03/27/13) Previous

NASA poorly managed explosives

NASA's inspector general said in a report released Wednesday that explosives were improperly handled at several NASA centers, but commended the agency for taking quick corrective action. Stennis Space Center, Miss., was cited for storing explosives in an unsafe building during part of 2012, though the situation has since been resolved. Inspector General Paul Martin's report said NASA's overall Explosives Safety Program "was poorly managed and exposed personnel and facilities to unnecessary risk." Inspectors identified 155 violations of regulations, policies and procedures at four NASA centers that routinely procure, store, transport, and handle explosive materials, pyrotechnics, and propellants, or energetic materials. In addition to SSC, audits were done at Glenn Research Center, Ohio, Wallops Flight Facility, Va., and White Sands Test Facility, N.M. All had violations. "To NASA's credit, personnel at each site quickly addressed the issues we uncovered that presented an immediate threat to personnel and facilities." (Sources: al.com, IG report, 03/27/13)

Dragon spacecraft returns

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully completed the company's second cargo flight to the International Space Station with a 12:36 p.m. EDT splashdown Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico. The capsule will be returned to the SpaceX test facility in McGregor, Texas. Some cargo will be removed at the port in California and returned to NASA within 48 hours. This includes a freezer packed with research samples collected in the space station's unique microgravity environment. The remainder of the cargo will be returned to Texas with the capsule. The spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on March 1, carrying about 1,268 pounds of supplies and investigations. It returned about 2,668 pounds of science samples, equipment and education activities. (Source: NASA, 03/26/13) Note: NASA's Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi, in addition to testing rocket engines for NASA, tests rocket engines for some commercial space companies. Lockheed Martin will assemble the composite structures for Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Michoud is also involved in NASA's Space Launch System project.

NASA awards contract mod

NASA signed a one-year contract option with Jacobs Technology Inc. to continue manufacturing support and facilities operations at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The one-year contract option begins on May 1. With the exercise of Option 2, the mission services value increases by about $38 million, and the IDIQ potential maximum order value increases by $100 million for a new maximum potential contract value of approximately $477 million. The contract was awarded in May 2009. The contract will support critical operations under way at Michoud to advance the nation's human spaceflight endeavors, including work on the Orion spacecraft and modifications to manufacture the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System rocket. (Source: PRNewswire, 03/22/13) NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., tests rocket engines for the SLS.

3-D printed part on rocket engine

J-2X with 3-D printed part. NASA photo

The latest in cutting-edge manufacturing is already having an impact on space exploration. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., prime contractor for the J-2X engine, recently used an advanced 3-D printing process called Selective Laser Melting, or SLM, to create an exhaust port cover for the engine. SLM uses lasers to fuse metal dust into a specific pattern to build the cover, which is essentially a maintenance hatch for the engine's turbo pumps. On March 7, this part was exposed to the strenuous conditions of a rocket engine firing during a test at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., and will be a part of the rest of this test series. The J-2X is undergoing testing in support of the agency's Space Launch System Program. (Source: NASA, 03/19/13)

Contract: Lockheed, $105.9M

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $105,868,182 cost-plus incentive-fee and fixed-price incentive-firm contract for contractor logistics support, legacy sustainment and combined task force support for the Space Based Infrared Systems. The location of the performance is Colorado Springs, Colo. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2016. The contracting activity is SMC/ISK, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. (Source: DoD, 03/15/13) Note: Work on the core propulsion system of the SBIRS is done by Lockheed Martin at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

MAF to build LNG tanks

NEW ORLEANS -- Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin said Tuesday it will build two liquefied natural gas tanks at the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans, adding 400 jobs. Each 88-foot-long tank, designed to carry 295,000 cubic meters of liquid gas, will serve as fuel tanks for propulsion engines built by the Finnish company Wartsila, Lockheed President Gerry Fasano said. Those engines are built to power commercial transport ships. Fasano added that the two companies are discussing contracts to build another six tanks of various sizes at Michoud that could serve as storage tanks to transport gas overseas. MAF is also used by the British company Blade Dynamics to build wind turbine blades, and more recently, Sierra Nevada Corp. said it had partnered with Lockheed Martin to build structures for the Dream Chaser commercial space vehicle. MAF is also where Orion and the core stage of the Space Launch System are being built. (Source: Times-Picayune, NASA, 03/12/13)

Hydroid UUV in full production

Hydroid Inc. of Pocasset, Mass., has begun full-rate production the Navy Littoral Battlespace Sensing (LBS) Unmanned Underwater Vehicle. The Navy conducted more than a year of test and evaluation before ordering the LBS UUV. The end user of the UUVs will be the Naval Oceanographic Office at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., which acquires and analyzes open oceans, coastal waters, and harbors data. The U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in San Diego ordered the immediate production of three LBS UUVs, based on the Hydroid REMUS 600 UUV, and one Shipset consisting of a launch and recovery system (LARS), a LARS flat rack, a mission van, a maintenance van, and vehicle support equipment. The REMUS (Remote Environmental Measuring Units) UUV projects funders include the U.S. Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Va.; the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence in London. Hydroid is a subsidiary of Kongsberg Maritime AS in Kongsberg, Norway. (Source: Military and Aerospace Electronics, 03/08/13)

Geocent awarded map display contract

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- The Naval Oceanographic Office selected Geocent to provide the ability to display forecasted ocean weather data and observations of current ocean weather data on a geospatial map so it can be viewed on tools such as Google Earth and other map viewers. The company is headquartered at Metairie, La., and has an office at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. The award is a Phase III Small Business Innovation Research competitive contract. "Geocent is excited to be able to leverage technology we developed under the SBIR program to support our CNMOC customer. This is a great example of how the SBIR program can spawn innovations that can be put into real use to save the government money," said Geocent Chief Technology Officer Keith Alphonso. Geocent is a member of the EIGS geospatial technology cluster of the Magnolia Business Alliance (MBA). (Source: Geocent/Magnolia Business Alliance, 03/06/13)

Stennis tower listed to close

The air traffic control tower at Stennis International Airport in Kiln is among seven in Mississippi set to close in April as the Federal Aviation Administration moves to reduce spending by $600 million under automatic federal budget cuts. The FAA said it will consider keeping some towers open on a case-by-case basis. Other Mississippi airports on the list -- there are 173 nationwide -- are Tupelo Regional, Golden Triangle in Columbus, Mid-Delta in Greenville, Hawkins Field at Jackson, Key Field in Meridian and Olive Branch Regional. (Source: AP via Hattiesburg American, 03/07/13) Stennis International serves the nearby NASA Stennis Space Center. Among other things the airport is used by Rolls-Royce to receive and ship out engines that it tests at SSC.

NVision building warfare simulator

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – It's cutting edge and designed to replace multiple other simulator systems in military aircraft. A while back the Naval Air Systems Command awarded NVision Solutions Inc. of Bay St. Louis a $35 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to design, build, test, and manufacture the Handheld Radar Simulator (HRS). The company has been working the project for seven months now. HRS will replace multiple systems used to test electronic counter measures in military aircraft. NVision is designing, prototyping and later will manufacture this next-generation system through an agreement with partners Loglinear LLC and Applied Geo Technologies, also of Mississippi. NVision is headquartered near NASA’s Stennis Space Center and is a member of the EIGS geospatial technology cluster of the Magnolia Business Alliance (MBA). (Source: NVision/Magnolia Business Alliance, 03/04/13)