BEIJING — China is firming up figures on the performance of two members of its forthcoming modular rocket family, with suggestions that at least one of the launchers might be a little better than expected. The figures remain patchy, however. The Long March 6, a light rocket designed for prompt launches, will be able to deliver “not less than 1 metric ton” to a Sun-synchronous orbit of 700 km (435 mi.) altitude, says Yu Menglun, a member of the general-design section at CALT, China’s main rocket builder.
HOUSTON — Applications for a small number of openings in NASA’s astronaut corps soared to 6,372 during the last solicitation period, the second highest total ever. This is despite the fact that the U.S. is an estimated five years away from having a commercial follow-on to the retired space shuttle and nearly a decade from piloted test flights of the agency’s deep space-capable Space Launch System/Multi-Purpose Crew Launch Vehicle.
Analysts at Forecast International (FI) say the six Gulf Cooperation Council members will combine to spend $385 billion toward defense and security through 2016, while Iraq is expected to invest $65 billion in its security forces.
The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee are taking Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to task for undercutting their work on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — not once, but twice. On Jan. 20, Panetta lifted probation on the F-35B, the Marine Corps short-takeoff-vertical-landing variant of the jet, just about one year after the time-out, originally anticipated to be in place for two years, was imposed.
Acting Pentagon procurement chief Frank Kendall says it was “acquisition malpractice” to approve production of the Lockheed Martin F-35 years before the first flight of the single-engine stealthy fighter occurred. “It should not have been done,” Kendall told an audience Feb. 6 hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But we did it.”
David Van Buren, who has served as a top procurement official in the U.S. Air Force for four years, is planning to seek employment in private industry and will leave his post March 31, according to service officials. Service officials say it is “premature to speculate who and when a replacement will be named.” Van Buren held various procurement titles but has performed the role of the Air Force’s top acquisition executive since the departure of Sue Payton, the service’s last Senate-approved procurement chief, in April 2009.
AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $1,781,413,723 firm-fixed-price contract for a modification as a Foreign Military Sales requirement for the Indian air force. Ten C-17 aircraft will be procured for the IAF. The location of the performance is Long Beach, Calif. Work is expected to be completed by July 28, 2014. ASC/WLMK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8614-06-D-2006, DO 0009).
PARIS — Pushing the limits of a six-day launch window, the European Space Agency (ESA) has shifted the debut of its new Vega rocket to Feb. 13 from Feb. 9, allowing ample time to prepare the flight-qualification campaign. ESA says Vega’s flight-readiness review board met Feb. 2 to evaluate mission-preparation status and plans for the final days of the campaign. The Vega will lift off from Europe’s Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
With this month’s Bold Alligator event—the East Coast’s largest joint and multinational amphibious assault exercise in the past 10 years—the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps brass hopes to tax their commanders to the limit and develop long-lasting tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for using equipment and units.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) is studying present and future requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles in its fleet. “We are ready to induct more drones in view of their capability to perform specific tasks on the borders,” says IAF training command chief Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja. “We can have more of them if the government sanctions additional funds, as there is a cost factor to it.” Acquisition of the latest combat aircraft and warfare systems, including drones and missiles, is a continuous process.
Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) has a full list of work to be completed before its first attempt to send a Dragon capsule to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station, and probably will not meet the March 20 target date set for the mission. Michael Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager, says it will be “challenging” to meet the March 20 date.
Washington, D.C. March 7, 2012 The Aviation Week Laureate Awards recognize individuals and teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation and vision that inspire others to strive for significant broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace. Join us at this black tie dinner and celebrate the best of the industry’s best!
NASA’s new technology-development organization is seeking proposals for low-cost, short-development, flight-test projects that will demonstrate communications and proxiimty operations with satellites weighing less than 400 lb., and for propulsion systems for cubesats.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) feb. 14 - 16 — Singapore Airshow, Changi Exhibition Centre, Singapore. For more information go to www.singaporeairshow.com/default.aspx feb. 14 - 16 — Aviation Week Events, Defense Technology & Affordability Requirements Conference, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report highlights the high-wire act the U.S. Navy will need to perform to balance its shipbuilding needs with the fleet reductions slated for the upcoming fiscal 2013 budget request that supports a new national security strategy. Congress will have a lot to mull over with the budget request, according to the report, “Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress,” which was released in January before the Pentagon budget pre-briefings.
CLARION CALL: The entire, sprawling U.S. intelligence community’s leadership agrees that the U.S. “is in a type of cyber Cold War, losing some $300 billion annually to cyber-based corporate espionage, and sustaining daily intrusions against public systems controlling everything from major defense weapons systems and public air traffic to electricity and banking,” said a group of high-ranking defense officials last week that included Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr., CIA Director David Petraeus and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
LONDON — NATO defense ministers have given the go-ahead to the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program to acquire five Global Hawk unmanned aircraft. A contract is still being prepared with the U.S. and European industrial team in charge of supplying the unmanned aircraft and ground support infrastructure. NATO “found a practical funding solution” to go ahead with AGS, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at the conclusion of a meeting of NATO ministers Feb. 3. Libya “showed how important such a capability is,” he adds.
Medical researchers at the NASA-funded National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have identified a promising possible alternative to surgery in the treatment of kidney stones developed by astronauts on deep-space missions, or terrestrial humans plagued by the painful ailment. The new technology combines a ultrasound technique that detects obstructive stones called “twinkling artifact” with a treatment that uses a focused ultrasound wave energy to push the obstructions to the kidney’s exit.
Lawmakers are getting behind an emerging market in civilian UAVs, setting in motion rules that would speed up the process of allowing law enforcement agencies and first responders to use pint-sized unmanned aircraft.
