RR marks decade at SSC

Rolls-Royce on Friday celebrated 10 years at Stennis Space Center, Miss., where it operates an outdoor jet engine test facility. The facility that tests jetliner engines was the first of its kind for Rolls-Royce outside the United Kingdom. Rolls-Royce General Manager Hamish Guthrie said the company employs 46 people locally, and expects that number to rise in the future due to the demand of the company’s aircraft engines. According to Guthrie, employees have logged more than 7,000 hours testing engines. (Sources: Picayune Item, 10/28/17, WLOX-TV, 10/27/17) Rolls-Royce, which opened its first stand in 2007, added a second test stand in 2013.

Next MIST cluster summit slated

The next Marine Industries Science & Technology (MIST) Cluster Small Business Summit will be held at the INFINITY Science & Discovery Center, Meeting Room D, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 30. It will focus on the Navy, as well as the large prime contractors that support the Navy. There will be speakers from the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Naval Research Laboratory, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, Leidos, General Dynamics Information Technology, Vencore Services and Solutions and others. The summit will include a MIST Cluster update. The event will feature presentations on the missions, programs, and projects within and supporting the Navy, as well as information on upcoming contracts and ways small companies can help support the small business goals on larger contracts. Lunch is included in the $25 registration fee. Contact Laurie Jugan by email or phone 228-688-1192. (Source: MSET, 10/28/17)

Contract: SpaceX, $40.8M

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), of Hawthorne, Calif., earlier this month was awarded a $40,766,512 modification (P00007) for the development of the Raptor rocket propulsion system prototype for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. Work will be performed at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss.; Hawthorne, Calif.; McGregor, Texas; and Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.; and is expected to be complete by April 30, 2018. Fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $40,766,512 are being obligated at the time of award. The Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA8811-16-9-0001). (Source: DoD, 10/19/17) SpaceX announced in December 2013 that it would use SSC for its Raptor program. A previous contract from DoD also gave the Raptor project a boost.

NASA awards construction contracts

NASA has awarded 24 Multiple Award Construction Contract Two (MACC-II) contracts to 20 small businesses and four large firms for general construction services at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., and several other agency locations. It has an anticipated value not to exceed $3 billion during an eight-year ordering period. MACC-II project work includes, but is not limited to, alteration, modification, maintenance and repair, demolition, design-build and new construction of buildings, facilities and real property at Stennis; NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, including White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, N.M.; NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Fla.; and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., including Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Businesses in the Gulf Coast region awarded contracts are Healtheon and Pontchartrain Partners, both of New Orleans; ESA South Inc., Cantonment, Fla.; Orocon Construction and WG Yates & Sons Construction Co., both of Biloxi, Miss.; Drace Construction Corp., Ocean Springs, Miss.; CCI Energy and Construction Services, Shalimar, Fla.; and MOWA Barlovento JV-2, Gautier, Miss. (Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire, 10/24/17)