Test stand work awarded

NASA selected Healtheon Inc. of New Orleans to provide a high pressure industrial water line at Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi. The firm-fixed price task order has a total value of $29.8 million and a performance period of 530 days. Work is scheduled to begin in July. The water line provides cooling water and acoustic suppression to Stennis' B Test Complex, which will be used to test the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System in 2016. The work under this task order includes the demolition of all piping systems, including its valves and valve vaults. The contractor also will build a 96-inch diameter high pressure industrial water line from Stennis' High Pressure Industrial Water Plant to the test complex, which spans over a mile. (Source: PRNewswire, 06/28/13)

NASA to show off weld center

NEW ORLEANS -- A new machine for manufacturing the core stage of NASA's Space Launch System will be shown to the media Friday at Michoud Assembly Facility. NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier and other agency officials will be on hand for the ribbon-cutting for the vertical weld center, where friction-stir weld tooling will be used to assemble the core stage. Officials from Boeing of Huntsville, Ala., prime contractor for the SLS core stage and its avionics, will take part in the ribbon-cutting. The 200 foot-tall core stage will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to feed the rocket's RS-25 engines. The vertical weld center will stand about three stories tall and weigh 165 tons. The event also will include a tour of the SLS area where work is done on the Orion crew capsule. (Source: NASA, 06/17/13) Engines for the SLS are tested at NASA's Stennis Space Center, some 35 miles from Michoud in Mississippi.

Rocketdyne deal to save $1B

PARIS -- Aerojet Rocketdyne, the company formed with GenCorp's purchase of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, on Sunday said it has promised the U.S. government $1 billion in savings over the next decade as a result of the deal. Aerojet Rocketdyne President Warren Boley told Reuters that the new company, a wholly owned unit of GenCorp, expected to double its revenues over the next five years from a current combined estimate of $1.7 billion. (Source: Reuters, 06/16/13) Aerojet Rocketdyne has an operation at Stennis Space Center, Miss. Previous

J-2X engine tested

J-2X test at SSC. NASA/SSC photo

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- J-2X engine No. 10002 was tested Thursday on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA's South Mississippi rocket engine test complex. The 60-second test signals the start of a series of firings to collect data on performance of the engine that will power a stage of the launch vehicle in NASA's Space Launch System. By the time the J-2X tests conclude later this summer, the engine will have been fired at full power and for the total time it would operate during an actual flight, while being gimbaled in the same way it must move during flight. (Source: NASA/SSC, 06/14/13)

FTC OKs Rocketdyne sale

 The Federal Trade Commission said Monday it's going to allow GenCorp, owner of rocket-engine maker Aerojet, to purchase Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne despite potential monopoly concerns. FTC voted to close its 10-month probe over national security concerns and allow the $550 million sale after the Defense Department requested approval. Both firms make rocket engines for spacecraft and components for military missile defense systems. They are also the only main suppliers of a high-performance liquid rocket propulsion system that the military uses for missile defense. (Source: The Hill, Reuters, 06/10/13) Rocketdyne has an operation at Stennis Space Center, Miss., where Aerojet tests its AJ-26 engines. Previous: Rocketdyne being sold to GenCorp; Antares has successful launch

Orion passes static load tests

NASA's Orion crew module has successfully passed its static loads tests. Orion will sit atop the launch vehicle in NASA's Space Launch System program, designed to take astronauts further in space than ever before. Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., built a 20-foot-tall static loads test fixture for the crew module with hydraulic cylinders that slowly push or pull on the vehicle. The fixture produced 110 percent of the load caused by eight different types of stress Orion will experience during Exploration Flight Test-1 in September 2014. More than 1,600 strain gauges recorded how the vehicle responded. The loads ranged from as little as 14,000 pounds to as much as 240,000 pounds. Orion also was pressurized to simulate the effect of the vacuum in space, allowing engineers verify repairs made to superficial cracks in the vehicle's rear bulkhead caused by previous pressure testing in November. (Sources: SpaceTravel, 06/11/13, NASA, 06/06/13) Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, builds Orion and the core stage of the Space Launch System; Stennis Space Center, Miss., is testing engines for the SLS that will carry Orion into space.

SSC building RS-25 test component

Thrust frame adapter. NASA/SSC photo

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- Fabrication recently began at Stennis Space Center on a new 7,755-pound thrust frame adapter for the A-1 Test Stand to enable testing of the RS-25 engines that will power the core stage of the Space Launch System. NASA will begin testing the engines, used to power the Space Shuttle, in the fall of 2014. Gary Benton, RS-25 test project manager at SSC, said the initial thought was that they would have to go offsite to have the stand component equipment built. But the design team came up with a way to build it at SSC. Each rocket engine type requires a thrust frame adapter unique to its

Location for adapter. NASA/SSC illustration

specifications. On the test stand, the adapter is attached to the thrust measurement system. A rocket engine then is attached to the adapter, which must hold the engine in place and absorb the thrust produced during a test, while allowing accurate measurement of the engine performance. NASA and the Lockheed Martin Test Operations Contract Group team worked together in designing the new adapter, and communicated closely with Jacobs Technology welding and machine shop teams to make sure what was being designed actually could be built. The adapter is slated to be finished and installed on the stand in November 2013.(Source: NASA, 06/06/13)

Printing office expands product line

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- The U.S. Government Printing Office has expanded operations at its production facility at Stennis Space Center to include smart card production. The facility was opened in 2008 as a second location to produce passports for the Department of State and since that time has produced 19 million. Smart card production will include Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) cards for the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection. GPO will produce about 20,000 TTP cards per month at the SSC facility. (Source: Mississippi Business Journal, 06/04/13)