EXODUS: One of the U.S. aerospace and defense industry’s most powerful advocates on Capitol Hill, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), will leave Congress after this year when the next session of lawmakers take their seats. Moran is a senior member of the House defense appropriations panel. His retirement announcement follows other looming congressional departures affecting aerospace and defense. Neighboring Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), a key NASA appropriator, is also retiring. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) has just taken over the defense subcommittee for the late Rep.
LONDON — Certification of Airbus Helicopters’ new EC175 intermediate twin-engined helicopter is imminent, but the company does not plan to begin deliveries until the second half of 2014. The move, described as a “corporate decision” by Jean-Brice Dumont, head of engineering at Airbus Helicopters – formerly Eurocopter - will mean that launch customers will now receive their aircraft a year and a half later than originally envisaged.
HOUSTON — NASA’s Morpheus prototype planetary lander ascended to an estimated 305 ft. and traversed 358 ft. during a 64-sec. free flight at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Jan. 21, the vehicle’s highest and longest ascent yet in a test-flight campaign expected to last into March. The latest test flight eclipsed a Jan. 16th ascent, in which the methane and liquid oxygen-fueled Morpheus rose to 187 ft. and covered 154 ft. during 57 sec. of flight near the test site adjacent to the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway.
Researchers and entrepreneurs interested in using the International Space Station as a satellite bus for Earth remote-sensing sensors will have a chance at government subsidies for launch and operations under a renewed request for proposals from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis).
As the U.S. Navy invests heavily in Aegis combat system upgrades, especially for ballistic missile defense, international interest in the system is growing, according to prime contractor Lockheed Martin. “A number of countries have approached the U.S. and Navy,” says Doug Wilhelm, Lockheed’s director of international programs. There are now 14 international ships outfitted with Aegis, Wilhelm noted during a media briefing last week. With the recent deal to equip Australian ships, the total will be 22.
ASTEROID ASSISTANCE: More countries should participate in the activities of the International Space Station, and the Obama administration would welcome international support for NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission, a U.S. official told the International Space Exploration Forum recently. Moreover, governments should explore more ways to encourage entrepreneurial ventures in space, as well as do “much more” to defend Earth from near-earth objects and space debris, according to remarks by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.
ATK’s Solar Electric Propulsion MegaFlex solar array design is in line for thermal vacuum deployment testing at NASA’s Glenn Research Center Plum Brook Station this month, following a full deployment demonstration at the company’s Goleta, Calif., facilities in December.
PARIS — Europe’s comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft emerged from 31 months of deep-space slumber Jan. 20 to reestablish communications with Earth. The €1.3 billion ($1.76 billion) European Space Agency (ESA) mission made contact with NASA’s 70-meter-dia. ground station at Goldstone, Calif., 48 min. into a nail-chewing hour-long window that opened at 12:30 p.m. eastern.
While the U.S. Navy still plans heavy investments in its more traditional fleet of destroyers, cruisers and carriers, top service officers are touting new classes of surface ships meant to carry more assets — especially aircraft — to the fight. The Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB), Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) and Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) are all getting quite a bit of attention from Navy officials.
The National Space Society says it “strongly opposes” passage of a U.S. House of Representatives bill (HR 3625) pushed prominently by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.). The bill would exempt the International Space Station, heavy-lift Space Launch System and Orion crew vehicle from termination without proactive congressional approval, as well as free $507 million in funds held to cover termination liability costs under a contract interpretation by NASA’s Democratic management of the Anti-Deficiency Act.
LONDON — Airbus Helicopters is carrying out final tests on an upgrade to its real-time monitoring of the EC225’s bevel gear vertical shaft, which caused the type to be grounded for nine months during 2012 and 2013.
Analysis of temperature and other data from more than 1,000 meteorological stations worldwide has found 2013 was the seventh-warmest year since 1880, adding more evidence to the long-term rise in global warming, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Nine of the 10 warmest years in the 134 years covered by the analysis have occurred since 2000, and the 10th was 1998. The latest GISS analysis finds 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 in global temperature averages.
A parachute-deployment test of NASA’s Orion crew capsule Jan. 16 added another level of complexity to the preflight work that must be done before the vehicle’s Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), atop a Delta IV rocket in September.
Space-science units of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences are planning two meetings this year designed to bring young scientists from the two countries together for discussions on space astronomy and solar and space physics. The U.S. Space Studies Board and the Chinese academy’s National Space Science Center set up meetings in Beijing and Los Angeles for space scientists under 40 to “build informal bridges between the space-science communities in China and the United States,” according to a joint announcement.
NAVY Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc., Monroeville, Pa., is being awarded a $593,104,854 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for naval nuclear propulsion components. The work will be performed in Monroeville, Pa. (66%), and Schenectady, N.Y. (34%). No completion date or additional information is provided on naval nuclear propulsion program contracts. Fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-14-C-2101).
NASA is expanding its push for commercial partnerships in space projects, with a call for proposals from private companies that may be able to use the agency’s lunar-landing know-how in exchange for rides to the surface of the Moon.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy needs to explore more ways to use simulation technology to help qualify its officers and sailors, says U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Thomas Copeman, commander of the Naval Surface Force and U.S. Pacific Naval Surface Force. Current simulation technology is helping train the service’s personnel more efficiently and affordably for combat and other operations for ships, such as DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyers, Copeman said Jan. 15 at a media briefing during the 2014 annual Surface Navy Association Symposium.
PARIS — Europe’s nearly one-year delay in finalizing the design of a service module expected to fly on NASA’s Orion multipurpose crew exploration vehicle will not hold up a planned test flight of the capsule slated for 2017, says European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain. “I have promised NASA that the delay in the service module preliminary design review (PDR) will not lead to a delay in delivery,” Dordain told journalists at an annual meeting where he detailed the agency’s €4.1 billion ($5.6 billion) budget for 2014.
