NASA and French space agency CNES have formalized a cooperative agreement on the primary instrument that will fly aboard the U.S.-led InSight mission to Mars. As NASA’s 12th Discovery mission, the $425 million InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) aims to land a sophisticated geophysical observatory on the surface of Mars to study its structure and composition.
SINGAPORE — With foreign interest in the V-22 Osprey rapidly gathering pace, the U.S. has decided to show off the type’s capabilities here at the Singapore air show. Two of the Bell-Boeing tiltrotors have deployed from their home base in Japan to feature in the show’s flying and static display.
AgustaWestland’s AW189 and the Airbus EC175 super-medium have been certified within days of each other. The 7.5-metric ton EC175 was the first to get EASA’s nod, receiving its certification two days after the company announced at its annual press conference on Jan. 28 that the aircraft had completed the certification process. EASA awarded the documentation to the EC175 on Jan. 30.
U.S. commercial remote sensing services provider Skybox Imaging has awarded Space Systems/Loral (SSL) of Palo Alto, Calif., a contract to build an advanced constellation of small Earth observation satellites for operation in low Earth orbit.
PARIS — A combination of new competition from U.S.-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and an unfavorable euro-dollar exchange rate means European governments may need to increase subsidies for operations of the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle at Europe’s Guiana Space Center (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana.
NASA I.T.: NASA’s Inspector General (IG) is faulting a $2.5 billion, four-year agency effort with HP Enterprise Services to transition computer support from a field center-based framework to organization-wide oversight. Now at its mid-point, the effort has led to difficulties with IT security and timely software patches, according to a recent audit. NASA IG Paul Martin urges careful consideration by NASA before exercising a three-year extension of the November 2011 HP contract.
SINGAPORE — “Four or five nations” are showing strong interest in the Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft, according to Chris Raymond, Boeing Defense, Space & Security vice president for business development and strategy. “These are down to a technical level, not a cursory what-is-it level,” Raymond said on the eve of the Singapore air show. “They are doing analysis of range and coverage, how it would fit in their fleets, life-cycle costs.”
NEW DELHI — Sweden’s Saab is partnering with India’s Kalyani Group to address the Indian military’s requirements for short-range missiles, an official at Kalyani Group says. The pact will initially focus on the very-short-range air defense (Vshorad) and short-range surface to air missile (SRSAM) programs for India. For Vshorad, Saab will provide a system based on the RBS 70 NG missile system, which will deliver a highly accurate, man-portable system with 24/7 all-target capability.
Astronomers and engineers are looking to September for a flight demonstration of NASA hardware that could deliver “arc second” precision pointing and stability suitable for planetary observations using instrumentation suspended from high-altitude balloons.
Beyond its futuristic appearance, what distinguishes the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer from its predecessors is the network of sensors watching over the many automated systems used to operate the ship with the smallest crew imagined for the largest modern destroyer in the fleet, program officials say. About 35,000 distinct sensor signals will pulse throughout the ship, says Capt. James Downey, Navy program manager, about seven times more than there are in a DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
Boeing may propose an upgrade package for Singapore’s Lockheed Martin F-16 fleet if the nation opens a competition, a senior company executive said in Singapore Feb. 10, on the eve of the nation’s air show. “Should they go that route, we’d be interested”, said Chris Raymond, Boeing Defense, Space & Security vice president for business development and strategy.
SINGAPORE — Russia ensures a strong presence at the Singapore air show this year as United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) brings the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional aircraft and the Yak-130 advanced jet trainer. UAC represnets the merger of Soviet-era legacy Russian aerospace giants into a single, vertically integrated corporation.
Sikorsky has begun ground runs of the U.S. Marine Corps’ CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter and is aiming for a first flight by the end of the year. The ground test vehicle (GTV), which will never fly, achieved “bare head light off” — engines running and rotor hubs turning, but no blades attached — on Jan. 24 in West Palm Beach, Fla. The 88,000-lb. gross-weight CH-53K is an all-new aircraft, designed to triple the external load-carrying capacity of the CH-53E to more than 27,000 lb. over a radius of 110 nm in high/hot conditions.
Sixteen CubeSats carrying a range of engineering, science and educational projects developed by U.S. universities, nonprofits and NASA field centers are eligible for secondary payload flight assignments in 2015 through 2017, under the latest round of NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative selections.
GIL SPEED REMEMBERED: A memorial service for Gilbert W. Speed will be held March 13 at 2 p.m. Pacific at the Westwood United Methodist Church (not to be confused with the Wilshire Methodist Church), at 10497 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, Calif. A reception, at a location to be announced, will immediately follow the service. Speed, the founder of Aviation Week affiliate SpeedNews, passed away on Jan. 22 at age 81.
U.S. Army Sauer Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., was awarded a $56,038,640 contract to build an operational readiness training complex at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif. Fiscal 2014 military construction funds in the amount of $56,038,640 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is April 30, 2016. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 22 received. Work will be performed at Fort Hunter Liggett. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville, Ky., is the contracting activity (W912QR-14-C-0006).
NEW DELHI — One of India’s biggest challenges in importing military goods is making sure that its systems are secure, says the leader of the country’s top defense research lab. “If we are looking at true cybersecurity we have to address the basic policy of acquisition,” says Avinash Chander, who leads the Defense Research and Development Organization, “[and] ensure that the cybersecurity features are indeed part of our process.”
WORK NOMINATION: The Obama administration’s fiscal 2015 budget request is not expected for another three weeks, but already the White House is showing signals of where it wants to go after the beginning of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1 — and at the Pentagon that means new and advanced weaponry. That is the conclusion Washington analysts are drawing from the official nomination of Robert Work to be the deputy defense secretary, the No. 2 official at the Defense Department.
As the U.S. Navy readies CVN-74 John Stennis to be the first aircraft carrier to receive the new Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise Services (Canes) system providing a common computing environment infrastructure for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I), the Pentagon’s chief tester notes more testing is planned and needed to validate the technology.
DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson says the department has become “very focused” on foreign fighters heading to Syria, where outside Islamist groups have radicalized the three-year civil war between rebels and the Bashar al-Assad regime. DHS is concerned about what those foreign fighters, indoctrinated with radical, violent beliefs, will do when they return to their home countries.
SINGAPORE — BAE Systems at the Singapore air show is debuting a new lightweight digital head-up display (HUD) for operators looking to upgrade their fleets of F-16 Fighting Falcon combat aircraft. The F-16 Digital Light Engine Head-Up Display (DLE HUD) is designed to address obsolescence issues with previous generations of HUDs, which use cathode ray tube technology.
