HOUSTON — The already delayed departure of the European Space Agency’s ATV-3 cargo capsule from the International Space Station has been reset for Sept. 28 at the earliest to accommodate a potential station maneuver to steer clear of Russian satellite and Indian rocket debris. The avoidance maneuver of the station and its three-person crew was scheduled for Sept. 27 at 8:12 a.m. EDT, or about 2 1⁄2 hr. ahead of the projected closest approach of the satellite debris.
An industry team says that a protected satellite communications family of terminals has been developed at no cost to the U.S. Defense Department and is ready for production once a government agency certifies its cryptological system.
MOSCOW — Irkut Corporation has begun flight tests of the twin-seat Sukhoi Su-30SM multirole fighter. The first aircraft made its 2-hr. first flight on Sept. 21; the second fighter joined the flight tests on Sept. 25, says Irkut, a subsidiary of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation.
TOULOUSE, France — With the proposed merger of EADS and BAE Systems facing serious opposition by the German government, which has indicated it may block the deal if its conditions are not met, EADS CEO Tom Enders is offering to negotiate further details of the transaction.
QUANTICO, Va. — The U.S. Navy is still interested in the platform concept and technology behind the Sea Base Connector Transformational Craft (T-Craft), but the service apparently has decided for now to skip buying the prototype. The T-Craft, proponents say, can serve as an inter-theater logistics connector, traveling at high speeds with significant payloads and capable of operating in austere ports and areas where there are no facilities available.
TOURS, France — The European Space Agency remains on the hunt for an alternate method of launching the Experimental Re-Entry Testbed (Expert) followin...
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) can focus more on taking care of business and less on the possible effects of sequestration thanks to the company’s shipbuilding portfolio, Citi financial group says. “Thanks to its long-cycle business, HII is focused on executing what we’re calling its 5x5 plan as opposed to being too distracted by sequestration,” Citi says in a recent note to investors.
NASA’s Langley Research Center, Mitre and several partners have completed the first in a series of inflight evaluations of cooperative automatic sense and avoid (SAA) algorithms for unmanned air systems (UAS), in large part to validate a new testbed that will be used for more advanced trials next year.
The U.S. has confirmed that Indonesia is seeking to buy eight Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopters and has also disclosed the weapons the Indonesians want. In a statement to Congress, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) says Indonesia has put in a request to buy eight Boeing AH-64D Apache Block III Longbow attack helicopters, a deal worth $1.42 billion.
Aerospace & Defense Programs November 6-7, 2012 Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, Phoenix, Ariz. Join top defense leaders for discussions on complexity, lessons learned, and affordability aimed at improving program performance! Themes for 2012 include: -- Complexity -- Driving improvement and the roles that innovation and technology play -- Value chain optimization
KAZAKH SATS: EADS space subsidiary Astrium has established Ghalam, a joint venture with Kazcosmos’ subsidiary Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary, to assemble, integrate and test satellites at a purpose-built facility in Astana, Kazakhstan, according to Kazcosmos chairman Talgat Musabayev. The venture will help fulfill Kazcosmos’ requirement for technology transfer and know-how as Astrium develops a pair of Earth observation satellites for the agency (Aerospace DAILY, May 6, 2011).
ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Eurocopter Kazakhstan, a joint venture between Eurocopter and state-owned Kazakhstan Engineering, has received its first EC145 light utility helicopter kits, and expects to have eight kits to assemble by mid-November, says EADS Kazakhstan General Director Silvere Delaunay.
NEW DELHI — India inducted its frontline Sukhoi combat aircraft at its air force’s Halwara base in the northern state of Punjab, bordering Pakistan, on Sept. 25. The Su-30MKI, the Indian-built version of the Russian combat aircraft, will replace the now phased-out, Soviet-origin MiG-23 fighters in the 220 Squadron also known as “Desert Tigers,” a defense ministry official says. The first batch of Su-30MKIs was inducted into the Indian air force (IAF) in September 2002.
NASA may be able to return samples from Mars without significant international cooperation, in part by eliminating stovepipes in the way it organizes for scientific and human space missions.
There is little political, deterrent or military value in either the U.S. or Israel bombing Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, say participants at this week’s Air Force Association air warfare symposium here. “If the Iranians really wanted a store of enriched uranium, they could buy it,” says a U.S. official with links to the U.S. military’s cyber and operations communities. “And they don’t have to process it themselves except for the national prestige it would give the country and to keep the international spotlight on Tehran.”
HOUSTON — The B612 Foundation says it has made financial and technical strides in the first three months of the Silicon Valley non-profit’s bid to mount the world’s first private deep-space mission, a space telescope to greatly increase the identification of near Earth asteroids (NEAs) that could pose a collision threat.
The U.S. Navy’s first Afloat Forward Staging Base (Interim) (AFSB(I)) USS Ponce is making its debut at the International Mine Countermeasures Exercise 2012 (IMCMEX 12) through the end of this month. Designated as an amphibious transport dock (LPD) more than 41 years ago, Ponce was converted and reclassified as an AFSB(I) in April and arrived in Bahrain for duty on July 6, to fulfill a longstanding U.S. Central Command (Centcom) request.
NEW DELHI — India’s 101st space mission, the GSAT-10 communication satellite, will be launched Sept. 29 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana. “The 3.4-ton heavy satellite, GSAT-10, has been integrated with the Ariane 5 rocket along with Astra-2F spacecraft of SES as co-passenger for the launch Sept. 29 at 2:48 a.m. Indian time,” an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) official says. Astra-2F belongs to the Luxembourg-based leading satellite operator SES.
Belarus plans to add more Russian-made military aircraft to boost its border patrol capabilities. “We discussed many issues related to the air force. I asked for assistance and I got it,” the president of the former Soviet Republic, Alexander Lukashenko, told reporters following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
