DigitalGlobe, the only producer of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery in the U.S., is now able to sell higher-quality products thanks to regulatory relief provided by the U.S. Commerce Department.
HOUSTON — NASA is training astronauts in aircraft maintenance and repair to give them an analogue for the kind of intricate repairs they may have to perform aboard the now-aging International Space Station (ISS) or a future mission aboard a spacecraft far from Earth.
SCRUBBED: NASA has scrubbed the planned June 11 launch of its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator due to unfavorable weather at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. A helium balloon will be used to lift the flying-saucer-shaped vehicle to 120,000 ft., at which point a Star 48B solid-fuel rocket engine will send the vehicle to the edge of the stratosphere to simulate a planetary entry and test atmospheric braking systems, with an eye toward future Mars landings. The next potential launch opportunity is June 14.
Raytheon, the losing bidder of a $915 million contract for the U.S. Air Force’s new Space Fence, is still assessing whether to protest the contract win by Lockheed Martin. The Pentagon announced the award June 2. Raytheon has 10 days after being debriefed by the Air Force on the loss to protest the decision with the Government Accountability Office. Raytheon and the Air Force are being unusually secretive and have declined to say when the debriefing was. The company is still weighing its options.
Google plans to purchase startup commercial remote-sensing services provider Skybox Imaging in a proposed transaction valued at $500 million, pending regulatory approval. If OK’d, the cash transaction would mark the third example in recent months of Google’s increasing interest in employing satellites and high-altitude platforms for Internet connectivity and Earth observation.
HOUSTON — Cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station have removed the heater from a water reclamation system in the Russian segment Zvezda service module from which smoke issued briefly on June 10, according to NASA’s Mission Control.
FORT WORTH — As preparations continue for the first overseas deployment of the F-35B to the U.K., Lockheed Martin has marked the delivery of the 101st aircraft and is working on more than 80 additional Joint Strike Fighters in various states of completion between long-lead assembly and final power-up.
SEVILLE, Spain — Airbus Defense and Space says it is responding to its first requests for information or proposals for the A400M airlifter as it pushes to achieve its second export customer. “We are responding to eight or nine RFPs or RFIs about the A400M,” said Antonio Rodriguez Barberan, head of commercial for military aircraft at Airbus Defense and Space, speaking in Seville June 9. “Our target is to get an award before the year’s end.”
