First A350 XWB delivered

Rolls-Royce joined Airbus and Qatar Airways today in celebrating delivery of the first Airbus A350 XWB to enter service. The jetliner is powered by Trent XWB engines, the sole power plant available for the A350 XWB. More than 1,500 engines have already been sold to 40 customers. Sales of the Trent XWB account for over half of the Rolls-Royce civil aerospace order book. (Source: Rolls-Royce, 12/22/14) Note: Trent engines, including the XWB, are tested at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Cray awarded computer contract

The Defense Department High Performance Computer Modernization Program has awarded Cray of Seattle a $30 million contract for two Cray XC40 supercomputers and two Cray Sonexion storage systems for the U.S. Navy DoD Supercomputing Resource Center at Stennis Space Center, Miss. The Navy DSRC provides high performance computing services and support to DoD scientists and engineers. The Navy's center at SSC is one of five supercomputing centers established by the HPCMP. The computers, which will be used to produce high-resolution coastal-ocean circulation and wave-model oceanography products, are expected to be installed in 2015. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, Ala. (Sources: GeekWire.com and Clarion Ledger, CNN Money, 12/15/14)

Trent engines chosen

Rolls-Royce has been selected by AirAsia X to power 10 Airbus A330ceo and 55 Airbus A330neo aircraft with engines and support worth $6.2 billion. The A330ceos will be powered by the Trent 700 and the A330neos will be powered by the Trent 7000 engine. In July this year, Rolls-Royce welcomed an initial AirAsia X decision to select 50 A330neo aircraft. The airline had previously ordered 25 A330ceos, powered by another provider, and this has now been altered to 10 aircraft, powered by the Trent 700. It's the largest order for the Trent 7000 engine since it was launched earlier this year. (Source: Rolls-Royce, 12/15/14) Note: Trent engines are tested at the Rolls-Royce outdoor test facility at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Contract: Lockheed, $12.5M

Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been awarded a $12,463,696 modification (P00649) to previously awarded contract F04701-02-C-0002 for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency system. Contractor will provide protected key management architecture (KMA) for installation, integration and factory test of the replacement KMA system with the existing AEHF control and space segments. Work will be performed at Sunnyvale; Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.; and Valley Forge, Pa., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2017. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 12/10/14) Note: Lockheed Martin does a core propulsion work on the AEHF at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Something new for Lunch and Learn

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- The Mississippi Enterprise for Technology's monthly Lunch and Learn will take a new approach in January. Once every quarter the Lunch and Learn will be used by the Marine Industries Science and Technology cluster to help small businesses looking for opportunities with government agencies and large companies that have a maritime mission. The MIST Small Business Summit will replace the MSET Lunch and Learn on a quarterly basis and focus on different federal agency or group of agencies. The January even will focus on the Navy. (Source: MSET, 12/09/14)

NASA's Orion aces test

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Orion space capsule, designed to eventually carry astronauts into deep space, had a picture-perfect spashdown today in the Pacific Ocean, ending a successful first unmanned test flight. After two laps of Earth, Orion plunged through the atmosphere at 20,000 mph, enveloped in a fireball that scorched its heat shield. The capsule emerged intact from its 3,600-mile fall and deployed three orange-and-white parachutes to brake its speed to 20 mph as it hit the water at 11:29 a.m. EST, 270 miles west of Baja California. (Sources: multiple, including USA Today, NBC News, 12/05/14) Note: Lockheed Martin built the capsule at Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans; the Delta IV, built in Decatur, Ala., is powered by RS-68 engines tested at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

ONR awarded for F-35 innovation

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Office of Naval Research received one of the nation's top manufacturing awards for an innovative, cost-saving method for making advanced cockpit canopies, for the F-35 program. Officials from ONR's Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program accepted the Department of Defense's Joint Defense Manufacturing Technology Achievement Award at the Defense Manufacturing Conference in San Antonio. The automated process will be used to make canopies for more than 2,000 aircraft, saving nearly $125 million over the life of the F-35 program.(Source: NNS, 12/03/14) Note: ONR's Naval Research Laboratory has a detachment at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Finnair getting more XWBs

Finnair has firmed up an order for eight further Airbus A350 XWB aircraft, a decision that means additional Trent XWB engine business worth $450 million at list prices. The aircraft are in addition to 11 Airbus A350 XWBs that the airline already has on order, powered by the same engine. Finnair was the first airline to select the A350 XWB and will be the first European airline to receive the aircraft. The Trent XWB is the fastest-selling widebody engine ever with more than 1,500 engines already sold. It will power the first A350 XWB into service later this year. (Sources: Rolls-Royce, Airbus, 12/03/14) Note: XWB engines are tested by Rolls-Royce at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

SSC research helps MRIs, fuel-cells

Could NASA research at Stennis Space Center help hospital MRI machines and fuel-cell cars of the future? Perhaps. Engineers are testing an innovative technology that could yield new sources of both expensive helium gas required for cooling MRI machines and purified, high-pressure hydrogen gas, the fuel for fuel-cells. SSC, which tests rocket engines in South Mississippi, produces a large quantity of hydrogen and helium gas mixture in its rocket tests which right now is just burned or vented into the air. But using Sustainable Innovations' electrochemical Hydrogen Recovery System (HRS), NASA will be able to extract hydrogen from rocket fuel line purge gas, leaving behind high-value helium, a purified stream compressed to commercial storage pressure. And with helium's price only expected to rise as global supplies plateau, the helium extraction technology will become more and more valuable to NASA in the coming years and provide a possible revenue stream. Sustainable Innovations, of East Hartford, Conn., developed HRS for NASA under a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer program. The same technology on which HRS is based will also be useful for separating hydrogen from CO2 and CO in the life support technologies now being tested and developed for its manned spaceflight missions. (Source: PRNews, 12/02/14)

Orion set to launch Thursday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA will launch an unmanned Orion space capsule Thursday, weather permitting, on two orbits of Earth in the first space test of the deep-space vehicle. The vehicle will be launched by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket, which is substituting for the still-being-developed NASA Space Launch System. The flight, which will take the capsule 3,600 miles out into space, will splash down some four hours later in the Pacific off the California and Mexico's Baja coast. Orion will be recovered by Navy ships. (Sources: multiple, including al.com, Fox News, 12/02/14) Lockheed Martin built the capsule at Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans; the Delta IV, built in Decatur, Ala., is powered by RS-68 engines tested at Stennis Space Center, Miss.