Former NASA astronaut nominated to SCI Board of Directors

Service Corporation International (SCI), the largest provider of deathcare products and services in North America, announced Tuesday that it will nominate Ellen Ochoa to be elected to the SCI Board of Directors at the company's Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held in May.

Ochoa is the director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, a position she has held since 2013. She has served NASA as a manager, astronaut and engineer.  Earlier in her career, she researched optical systems for performing information processing at Sandia National Laboratories. Ochoa holds a Master of Science Degree and Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics from San Diego State University. She would serve on SCI's board in her personal capacity.

Ochoa has received numerous awards and honors, including the Harvard Foundation Science Award, Women in Aerospace Outstanding Award, the Hispanic Engineer Albert Baez Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution to Humanity, the Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award, and San Diego State University Alumna of the Year. She is a member of the Optical Society of America, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honor societies. Ochoa currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (Houston Branch).

SES and Global Eagle Entertainment sign services deal on three satellites

Satellite operator SES and Global Eagle Entertainment, a worldwide leading provider of content, connectivity and digital media solutions to airlines, announced Monday they have signed important capacity deals for services on three SES satellites. These agreements are part of a strategic partnership to deliver in-flight connectivity and services to airline passengers around the world.

Under the latest agreements, GEE will utilize Ku-band wide beam and High Throughput Satellite (HTS) spot beam capacity aboard the SES-12, SES-14 and SES-15 satellites. The three spacecraft, currently under construction, are scheduled for launch in 2017.

SES-14 and SES-15 offer a complementary coverage over busy air travel routes across the Americas and North Atlantic regions, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, while SES-12 will serve the burgeoning aeronautical market across Asia and the Middle East. As GEE expands its services to new airlines and regions, it can quickly and seamlessly leverage capacity across the global SES fleet of more than 50 satellites.

“Our collaborative work with GEE is aimed at enabling this in-flight connectivity solutions leader to go anywhere it wants to grow and innovate to meet the needs of airlines and the connectivity demands for passengers on the move,” said Ferdinand Kayser, chief commercial officer of SES.

About SES-12, SES-14, and SES-15

SES-14 is a high-powered hybrid satellite with C- and Ku-band wide beam coverage and both Ku- and Ka-band HTS coverage across the Americas and North Atlantic region. SES-15 will provide complementary coverage over North America, enabling SES to serve its leading aeronautical customers and serve other traffic intensive data applications such as government, VSAT networks and maritime. SES-12 will expand SES’s capabilities to provide Mobility and HTS data connectivity services in the Asia-Pacific region, along with direct-to-home broadcasting and VSAT.

Century Downs Racetrack and Casino opens next month

Construction remains on budget and on schedule for Century Downs Racetrack and Casino, which is located four-and-a-half miles from Calgary International Airport and next to CrossIrons Mills, a regional shopping center that attracts approximately 12 million visitors annually.

The facility is expected to open on April 1, with a 0.7 mile racetrack, 550 gaming machines, a restaurant, bars and an off-track betting lounge.

XCOR Aerospace aims for more efficient and effective company with new CEO

XCOR Aerospace, Inc. announced Monday that executive John (Jay) Gibson II has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer and President of the company. Gibson succeeds Jeff Greason, who is transitioning to Chief Technology Officer. Greason will dedicate his time to development of the company's two-seat fully reusable liquid rocket-powered Lynx vehicle that takes-off and lands horizontally.

"After a thorough search for the ideal candidate, we decided on Jay Gibson," said Greason.

As CEO, Gibson leads XCOR Aerospace with locations in Mojave, Calif., and Midland, Texas, as well as subsidiary XCOR Space Expeditions in Amsterdam. XCOR will also be establishing its manufacturing facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Most recently, Gibson served as Senior Vice President, Global Mission Support for Beechcraft Corp. in Wichita, Kan. Additionally at Beechcraft he served as Vice President of the Special Missions Group and Vice President/CFO of the Defense unit. Prior to joining Beechcraft, he served as the Assistant Secretary of the United States Air Force, and as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

"With the commencement of the Lynx flight test program on the horizon, Jay's arrival allows this team to focus on getting Lynx in the air, moving forward on plans for our orbital vehicle, and transitioning XCOR to a more efficient and effective company,” Greason said.

New Aleris facility in China qualified to supply aluminum to Boeing

Aleris announced Monday that its rolling mill in Zhenjiang,China, has attained qualification to supply aluminum aerospace plate to Boeing for various aircraft.

Aleris' facility in Koblenz, Germany, has supplied aluminum aerospace plate to Boeing for decades. Aleris Zhenjiang, which opened in early 2013, was modeled after the Koblenz facility to meet the needs of both global and regional aircraft manufacturers by establishing a local supply of aluminum aircraft plate in Asia Pacific.

“We look forward to serving Boeing from another strategically important location in a region that is projected to see significant growth in demand for new aircraft over the next several years,” Steve Demetriou, Aleris chairman and CEO said.

In June 2014, Aleris announced the Zhenjiang plant's achievement of Nadcap accreditation, which allowed the company to move into the final stages of qualification with Boeing and other major aircraft manufacturers. Airbus, Bombardier and COMAC have also qualified the Zhenjiang facility and shipments of aircraft plate began at the end of 2014.

Do your part in protecting Earth from asteroids

During a panel discussion Sunday at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, NASA representatives discussed how citizen scientists have made a difference in hunting down potentially hazardous asteroids in space. They also announced the release of a desktop software application developed by NASA in partnership with Planetary Resources, Inc., of Redmond, Wash. The application is based on an Asteroid Data Hunter-derived algorithm that analyzes images for potential asteroids. It’s a tool that can be used by amateur astronomers and citizen scientists.

The software has the potential to increase the number of new asteroid discoveries by amateur astronomers.

Analysis of images taken of our solar system’s belt asteroids between Mars and Jupiter using the algorithm showed a 15 percent increase in positive identification of new asteroids.

“We are extremely encouraged by the algorithm created and it’s already making a difference. This increase in knowledge will help assess more quickly which asteroids are potential threats, human destinations or resource rich,” said Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer at Planetary Resources.

Astronomers find asteroids by taking images of the same place in the sky and looking for star-like objects that move between frames, an approach that has been used since before Pluto was discovered in 1930. This new algorithm gives astronomers the ability to use computers to autonomously and rapidly check the images and determine which objects are suitable for follow up, which leads to finding more asteroids than previously possible.

“Moreover, this software can now be used to analyze new images and is available to any observer who wants to use it,” said Jose Luis Galache of the Minor Planet Center.

The desktop software application is free and can be used on any basic desktop or laptop computer. Amateur astronomers may take images from their telescopes and analyze them with the application. The application will tell the user whether a matching asteroid record exists and offer a way to report new findings to the Minor Planet Center, which then confirms and archives new discoveries.

The new asteroid hunting application can be downloaded at: http://topcoder.com/asteroids

Insitu picks up $82 million support contract for Blackjack drone

The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., intends to award a sole source Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) to Insitu Inc. of Bingen Wash., for supplies and services necessary to procure spare and sustainment parts and sustaining engineering services.

The type of supplies and services to be procured under the BOA will include, but not be limited to, the procurement of spare and sustainment parts, sustaining engineering services, equipment maintenance, and support equipment maintenance that is required to maintain the RQ-21A Blackjack UAS and provide acquisition lifecycle support.

“These efforts are in direct support of United States Marine Corps (USMC) fleet operations,” the Navy said in contract documents released Friday. It is anticipated that the BOA will cover a five year ordering period. The estimated total value of the contractual actions is $82.4 million and will be funded by USMC.

“This is an estimate of future funding; future years are estimates based on number of deployments and calculated from the fiscal year 2015 requirement per deployment,” the Navy said.

Insitu, Inc. is the sole designer, developer, and manufacturer of the RQ-21A Blackjack, and as such, is the only known source available with the requisite technical knowledge, experience and tooling to perform the efforts described herein, in order to satisfy the government's requirement.

Small businesses interested in subcontracting possibilities should contact Insitu.