PARIS — NASA’s plan to extend its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts with Orbital Sciences Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will give the companies more time to deliver 20,000 kg (44,000 lb.) each to the International Space Station (ISS) under a pair of fixed-price contracts valued at a combined $3.5 billion.
MOSCOW — Russian jet maker Sukhoi will continue to increase the combat capabilities of the Su-35 fighter while the aircraft starts its operational testing with the Russian air force. The manufacturer expects these new-generation upgraded fighters to serve with the air force alongside another Sukhoi product, the T-50. The latter is expected to be ready for operational testing in 2016.
Russia’s Progress 55 resupply craft reached the International Space Station (ISS) late April 9, delivering nearly 3 tons of propellant, crew supplies and research gear, following an expedited, four-orbit, 6-hr. launch-to-docking transit. The unpiloted space freighter linked to the ISS Russian segment Pirs docking compartment at 5:14 p.m. EDT, without suffering the issues that disrupted a similar “fast-track” launch of the Soyuz TMA-12M with three new Russian and American space station crew members on March 25.
Insitu is working on providing wideband satellite communications for its 135-lb. Integrator UAV, company officials say. Most interest is coming from potential users of the commercially available Integrator, or from customers looking to acquire the U.S. Marine Corps RQ-21A Blackjack variant under foreign military sales contracts.
NEW DELHI — Pakistan’s homemade Mushshak military aircraft crashed while on a routine training flight, killing both its pilots. Pakistan exports Mushshak aircraft to several Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The two-seat trainer crashed in Rahwali Cantt Gujranwala, 151 km (93 mi.) southeast of Islamabad, a statement from the Pakistan army says. The Pakistan army is investigating the exact reasons for the crash.
Satellite fleet operator SES of Luxembourg says its 5,300-kg (11,700-lb.) SES-9 commercial communications satellite will take three months to reach geosynchronous orbit after launching atop a Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket in the first half of 2015, but given the relatively low cost of the rocket, the company is willing to wait.
Less than 48 hr. after its April 3 launch, the European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-1A radar satellite was maneuvered to avoid colliding with a defunct NASA Earth observation spacecraft. Late in the day April 4, ESA’s space debris office alerted ground controllers at the European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, to a potential collision risk between the Thales Alenia Space-built Sentinel-1A and NASA’s Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite (Acrimsat), an aging Earth observation mission that has run out of fuel.
FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — The U.S. Navy is rethinking whether to put the dual-band radar (DBR) suite on subsequent next-generation aircraft carriers after the first-of-class CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford, says Ken Mahler, vice president at Newport News Shipbuilding, the Huntington Ingalls Industries unit that builds the nation’s carriers.
PHOENIX—The global military MRO marketplace is plateauing this year at its 2013 level of around $61 billion, according to one forecast offered at Aviation Week’s MRO Military conference. But major changes could be in store for the sector by way of falling war budgets in Washington, several analysts, executives and conference participants suggested in a daylong forum here April 9.
TOKYO — Japanese space managers are beginning to sort through the technologies developed here for human exploration in low Earth orbit and robotic work deeper into the Solar System, looking for ways Japan can help send astronauts beyond the International Space Station (ISS).
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
NEW DELHI — A rocket carrying India’s second navigation satellite, IRNSS-1B, has lifted off successfully, taking the country closer to developing its own indigenous air navigation system.
As the U.S. Navy starts to ramp up its Arctic operations to accommodate climatic and environmental changes in the region, the service is going to need better wideband communications, says Rear Adm. Jon White, navy oceanographer and navigator and Task Force Climate Change director.
LONDON — Airtanker, the consortium charged with providing the U.K. Royal Air Force’s (RAF) aerial refueling capabilities, has been cleared to refuel the C-130J Hercules from its Airbus A330 Voyager tankers.
The Arctic lived up to its reputation this spring, as rapidly shifting and dangerous conditions forced the U.S. Navy to cut short is Ice Exercise (ICEX) for submarine forces and close down the Camp Nautilus temporary base there. Still, Navy officials say, they were able to complete the tests they wanted to perform during the exercise.
NEW DELHI — The U.S. is reviewing a request from Pakistan to provide a variety of excess defense articles (EDA) from its worldwide military hardware pool.
With Moscow consolidating its hold on Crimea, the U.S. State Department is suspending approval of defense exports to Russia, a move that could prevent the launch of U.S. commercial communications satellites on Russian rockets. “State will continue this practice until further notice,” the department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) said in a March 27 announcement on its website.
Europe’s new Sentinel-1A Earth observation satellite has successfully deployed its 12-meter (40-ft.) radar antenna after launching to low Earth orbit April 3 atop a European variant of the Russian Soyuz rocket. Built for the European Space Agency (ESA) by prime contractor Thales Alenia Space, Sentinel-1A is the first in a series of Earth observation satellites specially developed and built for the European Commission’s flagship Copernicus environmental monitoring and security program.
SHADOW DOWN: An RQ-7 Shadow UAV crashed near a Pennsylvania elementary school and was run over by a car on April 3, according to news reports. The UAV, produced by AAI Corp., was part of a training exercise at the Pennsylvania National Guard base at Fort Indiantown Gap. The National Guard there also trains with RQ-11 Raven UAVs.
