Japan’s ATD-X fighter technology demonstrator is due to fly in January 2015, confirming that the program is holding to its latest schedule. The aircraft, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the defense ministry’s Technical Research and Development Institute, will be handed over to the ministry by the end of March, says the Mainichi newspaper, reporting the plan for the first flight.
LONDON – Bristow says plans for the company to take on the U.K.’s search-and-rescue helicopter capability are “on schedule and on budget.” In revealing the helicopter operator’s first-quarter results Aug. 4 in Houston, Jonathan Baliff, Bristow’s new president and CEO, told analysts that construction work on two new bases at Inverness and Humberside airports was already well underway and that both would be operational in the first quarter of 2015, with other bases at eight other locations around the U.K. following later.
HOUSTON — The European Space Agency’s final Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) carried out a trouble-free docking with the six-person International Space Station early Aug. 12, delivering 14,555 lb. of supplies, research gear and propellants. The 20-ton ATV locked into the aft docking port of the station’s Russian-segment Zvezda service module at 9:30 a.m. EDT. It is scheduled to remain parked there until late January, serving as a propulsion source when needed for attitude control, orbit raising and orbital debris avoidance maneuvers.
Avanti Communications Group has picked Orbital Sciences Corp. to build its Hylas-4 broadband communications satellite, marking the second order Orbital has received from the London-based telecommunications wholesaler. Based in Dulles, Virginia, Orbital built Hylas-2, a high-throughput Ka-band platform launched in 2012. The new spacecraft, built on Orbital’s GEOStar-3 bus, will serve Africa and Europe with 66 fixed beams carrying a maximum of 28 GHz of capacity. Arianespace is set to launch the spacecraft in early 2017.
LOGAN, Utah — NASA admits it will be like “using a shotgun to kill a gnat,” but it is moving ahead with plans to offer piggyback rides on the 70-metric-ton version of its heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) to launch 6U cubesats weighing 15 kg each.
The grounding and subsequent restricted flight regime of the F-35 fleet are not expected to affect its ability to get prepared for its first deployment on a U.S. aircraft carrier in November, according to program officials.
TEL AVIV—With growing international pressure on Moscow over its military support for Ukrainian separatists, Israel has curbed the export of advanced defense systems to Russia, including UAVs. While Russian officials claim no orders are pending, analysts have estimated the volumes of future deals add up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
SPACEX SUED: Former SpaceX employees have filed a class-action lawsuit in a California court against the company for failing to notify workers of a mass layoff that was announced in July. California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers to let employees know 60 days before an impending layoff. The lawsuit, filed Aug. 4 in the Superior Court of the State of California, seeks unpaid wages and interest, including back-pay, for the failure to provide timely notice.
The U.S. Navy is getting a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) engine repaired that was damaged about four years ago in early operations aboard the lead ship of the class. The Navy recently awarded Rolls Royce Marine North America a $9 million contract to repair the MT30 marine gas turbine engine that “suffered a failure in the starboard position aboard LCS 1” USS Freedom in 2010, Navy officials say. At the time the engine was damaged, Navy officials say, it was replaced with an existing MT30 already in the Navy supply system.
LOGAN, Utah—Work performed on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Phoenix program to recycle large antennas and other functional gear on inactive orbiting spacecraft is leading toward spacecraft that assemble themselves like growing embryos, one cell at a time.
NEW DELHI — India and the U.S. have decided to increase their military ties in the coming years, as they discuss ways to expedite pending defense deals between the two countries.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and AgustaWestland would jointly develop a derivative of the AW169 if the Italian-British manufacturer is chosen for South Korea’s LCH-LAH helicopter program. “AgustaWestland considers that KAI will have a major role to play in the global LCH-LAH program, with a significant influence on the development and production of the military variant,” AgustaWestland says.
The U.S. Navy has conducted limited airstrikes against militant fighters in Iraq, less than a day after President Barack Obama gave the green light for air operations over the country. Two Boeing F/A-18 Hornets from the USS George Bush dropped 500 lb. laser-guided bombs on mobile artillery pieces being used by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) insurgents near Erbil in the North of the country during the morning of August 8. According to the Pentagon, ISIL was using the artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending the city.
SAN DIEGO — NASA is preparing to repeat tests of a large, inflatable deceleration device designed to help land large payloads on Mars after incorporating lessons learned from a mostly successful initial test over the Pacific on June 28.
