CHAPEL HILL, NC -- October 1, 1995 -- NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) has selected the XESS spreadsheet from Applied Information Systems (AIS) for use on its command and control systems. Under the multi-year contract, AIS will provide the XESS spreadsheet and its real-time API for use on high-performance systems, primarily Digital ALPHA workstations.
At Johnson Space Center, NASA is planning on using XESS for real-time space shuttle ground support displays in areas such as shuttle mass properties and electrical systems. Facility managers for the Mission Control Center predict that the use of XESS will grow exponentially due to the widespread use of spreadsheets on PC's at JSC. XESS provides shuttle flight controllers the ability to integrate their existing spreadsheets with real-time data which results in real-time displays with little to no additional development labor.
"The ability of XESS to incorporate real-time data through its protocol independent data exchange separated it from the rest of the X Windows-based spreadsheet applications and along with XESS's affordability was a major reason NASA/Johnson Space Center selected XESS after an open competition procurement," said Theodore U. Ro, Consolidated Development Environment Manager, Control Center Systems Division.
XESS is a powerful spreadsheet system for X Windows that can be used either as a standalone application or as a widget for integration with other applications. As a spreadsheet, XESS includes the fullest range of computational and graphical tools for both financial and scientific/engineering applications. XESS is available for most Unix and OpenVMS systems.
"AIS is proud that NASA has selected the XESS spreadsheet as an important component of future space shuttle and space station operations," said Arthur Coston, president of AIS. "We are confident that XESS will serve these projects well."