HOUSTON — U.S. astronauts could be returning to Earth very close to home after lengthy stays aboard the International Space Station — if Sierra Nevada Corp. becomes a NASA commercial crew services contract provider and the city of Houston earns an FAA spaceport designation for Ellington Airport, which lies within 10 mi. of their NASA Johnson Space Center training base.
Saab AB and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding covering Saab’s purchase of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems’ Swedish shipbuilding operations, formerly known as Kockums. Detailed and final terms are being negotiated. The move follows last month’s announcement by the Swedish government that Saab would carry out a study of undersea warfare options. It is the latest step in Sweden’s plan to revitalize its submarine industry under Saab’s leadership, effectively reversing the 2005 sale of Kockums to TKMS.
It will cost the U.S. about $95.1 billion to build and develop a dozen ballistic-missile submarines to replace the Ohio-class boats now completing the strategic mission, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. That amount includes about $83.4 billion for procurement and about $11.7 billion for research and development, according to GAO.
NASA’s Lockheed Martin-built EFT-1 Orion test capsule is scheduled to begin vibration testing at Kennedy Space Center this week, followed by heat shield installation in May after successful verifications of power and command path routing throughout the spacecraft’s avionics.
TEL AVIV — The Israeli Ofeq 1 reconnaissance satellite is undergoing checkout following its April 9 launch from the Palmachim air base on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.
TEL AVIV — The new Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules military airlifters landed in Israel this week in a ceremony held at the Nevatim air base. Five more of the aircraft, designated “Samson” by the Israel Air and Space Force (IAF), are scheduled to arrive in the coming years. The three currently being completed or under production will be delivered in July 2014 and during 2015 and 2016. The goal is to provide the IAF with nine such aircraft, augmenting and later replacing the fleet of C-130Hs currently in service.
A program to develop “flying cell towers” able to provide high-capacity connections between soldiers and operations centers or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms has entered the ground demonstration phase. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Mobile Hotspots program is miniaturizing the millimeter-wave (MMW) wireless technology used by telecommunications companies to connect networks to that it can be carried by AAI RQ-7 Shadow tactical unmanned aircraft.
The Pentagon should plan to build 170-plus Long Range Strike – Bomber aircraft rather than the 80-100 in current plans, and should reconsider its $550 million unit cost ceiling for the aircraft, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The report’s authors are veteran U.S. Air Force strategist Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who retired as the service’s chief of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs in 2010, and the CSBA’s Mark Gunzinger.
LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry may waive its strengthened aviation safety standards in order to allow its newly purchased RC-135W Rivet Joint intelligence gathering aircraft to enter service.
SPACEX DELAYED: The launch of SpaceX’s third Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station has been rescheduled for April 18 at 3:25 p.m. because of a Helium leak on the Falcon 9’s first stage, according to SpaceX and NASA. The Falcon 9 and its Dragon cargo spacecraft is supposed to carry 2,089 kg (4,605 lb.) of cargo to the station. According to SpaceX, a fix will be implemented by the next launch date, but the forecasted weather is not ideal for a launch.
TSUKUBA, Japan — As demand grows for using the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo’s exposed facility on the International Space Station (ISS), robotic engineers at the Kibo control center here are preparing to begin operating the airlock as well as the robotic arm and other equipment needed to get hardware outside.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 11 — Society of Experimental Test Pilots' 30th East Coast Section Symposium, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. For more information go to www.setp.org/table/east-coast/ apr. 8 - 10 — Aviation Week MRO Americas, Phoenix, Convention Center, Phoenix, Ariz. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
The U.S. Navy remains on track for fiscal 2016 onboard, at-sea testing of its electromagnetic railgun — the weapon it eventually hopes to put on destroyers and other ships against a host of threats up to 110 nm away. The Navy expects to use the railgun against enemy warships, small boats, aircraft, missiles and land-based targets.
The U.S. Navy’s Air and Missile Defense (AMDR) program and the U.S. Air Force’s latter Lockheed Martin F-22 increment efforts bypassed some best-practice procedures in ways that could prove troublesome, a recent U.S. Government Accountability (GAO) report says.
The U.S. Navy is using a blast from the past to provide fuel for the future. Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Materials Science and Technology Division, have demonstrated proof-of-concept of novel NRL technologies developed for the recovery of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater and conversion to a liquid hydrocarbon fuel that they tested in a radio-controlled (RC) P-51 replica.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will debut an upgrade to its H-IIA rocket next year on the company’s first fully commercial launch, a mission that will deliver the Telstar 12V commercial communications satellite to geosynchronous orbit for Canadian fleet operator Telesat. H-IIA’s high launch cost, coupled with a strong yen, have largely thwarted MHI’s efforts to lure commercial customers, despite the rocket’s 96% success rate to date, which includes 22 flawless launches out of 23 attempts since its 2001 inaugural flight.
FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — The advanced ability of MH-60R (Romeo) Seahawk helicopters to conducts anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions is generating sales and interest in the Asia-Pacific region for the aircraft. Submarine proliferation in the Asia-Pacific is a major concern for many nations there, and the countries are focusing on bolstering their ASW capabilities. “That’s what is driving Australia’s recapitalization,” says Capt. Jim Glass, U.S. Navy H-60 helicopter program manager.
U.S. Navy engineers are making final adjustments to the first laser weapon prototype to deploy aboard a ship, for tests scheduled this summer. The prototype, an improved version of the Laser Weapon System (LaWS), will be installed on Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB-I) USS Ponce for at-sea testing in the Persian Gulf.
A solar array boom is not fully capable of controlling the array of the most recently launched U.S. Air Force weather satellite, though officials say the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft is “generating ample power to execute operations.”
An experimental fly/drive vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) roadable aircraft had made its first Pentagon-supported hover flights. Advanced Tactics’ (AT) Black Knight Transformer is a demonstrator for a cargo-resupply or casualty-evacuation aircraft that can also drive on and off road. The 4,400-lb. gross-weight prototype had its first brief hover flights in March in Southern California. For safety, the vehicle was remotely piloted and tethered for the initial flights, and equipped with outrigger gear to prevent a rollover.
TOKYO — Planetary scientists and spacecraft engineers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) hope to launch their second probe to an asteroid — Hayabusa-2 — by the end of the year, on an ambitious sample-return mission that will put the operational skills they learned on Hayabusa-1 to the test.
