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.

RR wins $5B order

Rolls-Royce won a $5 billion order for Trent engines to power 50 new Airbus planes ordered by Delta Air Lines. Trent XWB engines will power 25 Airbus A350s and Trent 7000 engines will power 25 Airbus A330neo aircraft. Rolls Royce is the only supplier of engines for both aircraft. The Trent XWB will power the first A350 XWB into service later this year. (Sources: Rolls-Royce, 11/20/14, Reuters, 11/21/14) Note: Rolls-Royce tests Trent engines at its outdoor test facility at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Airbus to supply Orion module

Airbus Group will develop and build a service module for the U.S. space capsule, Orion, the first marking the first time a European firm will provide system-critical elements for a U.S. space project. Airbus Defense and Space, Europe's largest aerospace group, said the contract signed with the European Space Agency is worth around $488 million. The service module will provide propulsion, power supply, thermal control and the central elements of the life support system of the capsule designed for deep space missions. The module is based on the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) developed and constructed by Airbus on behalf of ESA as a supply craft for the International Space Station. (Source: multiple, including Reuters, 11/17/14, Space Daily, 11/18/14) Note: The first space-bound Orion, slated to launch next month atop a Delta IV, was built at Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans. The Delta IV's RS-68 engines were tested at Stennis Space Center, Miss.; Future Orion launches will be aboard NASA's massive Space Launch System, being built in part at Michoud Assembly Facility. The SLS's RS-25 engines will be tested at Stennis Space Center; Airbus is building an A320 final assembly line in Mobile, Ala., where it also has an engineering center and an Airbus Military operation.

Consortium meeting set

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- The next general meeting of the Stennis Business Consortium is scheduled for Nov. 18 at 1:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the StenniSphere, Building 1200, at Stennis Space Center. There is no cost for the event, but registration is required. The meeting will focus on resource business providers -- those nonprofit organizations that can help businesses take the next step. Contact Laurie Jugan 228-688-1192 or ssc-mset@mail.nasa.gov for more information. (Source: MSET, November 2014)

MSET leadership changes

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. – Long-time CEO and president of Mississippi Enterprise for Technology, Charlie Beasley, is leaving the post to join the economic development team at Mississippi Power. Returning to MSET to take over as interim chief will be Greg Hinkebein, who headed the agency from February 1999 until his retirement in September 2008. Beasley began working at MSET in April 1999 and became CEO when Hinkebein retired. The change is effective next week. MSET is the business connection at NASA's Stennis Space Center and the SSC connection for the business community. It provides business and facilities services including a technology incubator, marine technology industry cluster program and technology transfer and contracting programs with federal agencies. (Source: MSET, 11/07/14)

Orbital: Antares ditching AJ26?

Orbital Sciences Corp. has decided it likely will discontinue using the Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 engine to power future Antares space launch vehicles. The company said today that preliminary review of the date from last week's explosion of an Antares rocket after liftoff from Wallops Island, Va., indicates a probable turbopump-related failure in one of the two AJ26 engine. Orbital said it still plans to fulfill its contract commitments to NASA to resupply the International Space Station through one or two non-Antares launches of the company's Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the ISS in 2015-2016. Orbital Sciences said it plans an early introduction of a previously selected Antares engine upgrade in 2016. (Source: Orbital Sciences via Business Wire, 11/05/14) Note: Aerojet tests the AJ26 engine at Stennis Space Center, Miss. Previous

RR shedding jobs, most in UK

Rolls-Royce will shed 2,600 jobs over the next 18 months, part of an intensified program to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. The company said in a news release Tuesday that the cuts will come principally in the aerospace division and the majority of the reductions will be achieved in 2015, the company said. (Source: Rolls-Royce, 11/04/14) A company spokesman said through an email inquiry that he could not specify where cuts would occur, but said a union said it expects two-thirds of the cuts to be in the U.K. The company has 55,200 workers globally and 8,500 in the United States. Rolls-Royce has an engine test facility at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Antares blows up on liftoff

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. – An Orbital Science Antares rocket exploded just after liftoff Tuesday night, destroying the rocket, cargo and causing damage on the launch pad. The rocket, on a mission to bring supplies to the International Space Station, was unmanned and blew up about six seconds after leaving the launch pad at NASA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The Cygnus spacecraft had some 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments aboard. (Sources: multiple, including WKMG-TV, CBS News, CNN, 10/28/14) The Antares first stage is powered by twin AJ26 engines tested at Stennis Space Center, Miss. In May 2014, an AJ26 engine being tested at the E-complex reportedly exploded halfway through a test. Previous

NASA partners with innovators

NASA selected four teams of agency technologists for participation in the Early Career Initiative (ECI) pilot program. The program encourages creativity and innovation among early career NASA technologists by engaging them in hands-on technology development opportunities needed for future missions. NASA created the ECI to enable a highly collaborative, joint-partnering work environment between the best and brightest NASA early career innovators and leading innovators in industry, academia and other government organizations. Among the teams selected was NASA’s Stennis Space Center, Miss., with partner Innovative Imaging and Research (I2R) of Mississippi. The team will develop and demonstrate a system for high-speed, 3-D, High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging. Video imaging will be performed at the chip level using computational photography, providing NASA with advanced visualization technologies to meet future needs. (Source: NASA via PRNewswire, 10/17/14)

NASA awards contract

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- NASA awarded Affigent LLC of Herndon, Va., a firm-fixed price delivery order for NASA's Oracle Database Management Software license maintenance. The order has a period of performance consisting of a one-year base period with two, one-year option periods through Oct. 14, 2017. The total not-to-exceed value of the order is about $15 million. The contract is administered by the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) Enterprise License Management Team (ELMT) at Stennis Space Center. The NSSC performs selected business activities for all NASA centers. (Source: NSSC, 10/16/14)

CTi-equipped engine has test flight

Rolls-Royce has completed the first flight test of aircraft featuring its composite carbon/titanium (CTi) fan blade with advance and ultrafan engine design. The CTi fan blades were integrated into a Trent 1000 engine of the Rolls-Royce 747, which recently completed its successful flying test at Tucson, Ariz. The engine design provides a 20 percent fuel consumption savings. In September Rolls-Royce completed crosswind testing on this fan system at the company's outdoor jet engine test facility at Stennis Space Center, Miss. Established in 2007, the SSC test facility is one of three company testing sites worldwide. It conducts noise, crosswind, thrust reverse, cyclic and endurance testing on all current Rolls-Royce large engine types. (Source: Aerospace Technology, 10/16/14) Previous