Russia’s new Skolkovo Foundation has joined forced with RSC Energia to do engineering research on advanced space technology at a site near Moscow dubbed the “Russian Silicon Valley.” Backed by the Russian government, the Skolkovo research center was established last fall to advance work in energy, information technology, telecommunications, biomedical and nuclear technology. Now, according to Russian press reports, it will add space technology to the portfolio, with Energia’s long-standing expertise in spaceflight as its basis.
A small Earth-imaging satellite built by Nigerian engineers returned its first image only three days after launch, according to Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL), which worked with Nigeria’s National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) to build the spacecraft. NigeriaSat-X, launched Aug. 17 on a Russian Dnepr rocket from Yasny, in southern Russia, delivered an image of Auckland, New Zealand, with its 22-meter wide-area multispectral imager that demonstrated its utility for mapping, crop monitoring and disaster mitigation.
NEW DELHI — Few programs underscore the strategic industrial relationship between Russia and India as strongly as the BrahMos missile. Now, the two countries are ready to take the next big step and develop the hypersonic version under the BrahMos-II program.
BEIJING — Chinese missile and space group Casic is claiming significant but unspecified advances in titanium-aluminum intermetallics, a form of metallurgy used in gas turbines, such as aircraft engines. The No. 159 factory attached to the state company’s Third Institute began researching the smelting and casting of titanium-aluminum intermetallic compounds at the beginning of the year, Casic says in a statement.
With pirates bearing down on tankers and terrorists targeting offshore energy platforms, the onus is on the U.S. Coast Guard to better protect the ships and other energy-related resources. While the Coast Guard is doing a better job with these missions, the service still needs to improve, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). “Pirate attacks against tankers have tripled in the last five years, and the incidence of piracy against tankers continues to rise,” notes GAO in its recent report.
GLONASS POSTPONED: Russia has postponed the planned launch of a Glonass-M position, navigation and timing satellite, following the Aug. 24 failure of a Soyuz U rocket that claimed an unmanned Progress resupply vehicle bound for the International Space Station. The launch was to take place Aug. 26 from the Plesetsk launch facility on a Soyuz 2.1b using the Fregat upper stage. Russian officials are removing the launcher from the pad for closer inspection. A new launch date may be set for early September.
International interest has picked up steam for an export version of Lockheed Martin’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) in the wake of the successful deployment of LCS-1 USS Freedom, according to Joe North, vice president of littoral ship systems at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems & Sensors business. “Over 21 countries are interested,” North says. “From deployment on, it easily has doubled.”
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Aug. 30 - 31 — Technology Training Corp. Military Vision Systems Conference, Holiday Inn, Alexandria, Va. For more information call 310-563-1210, fax 310-563-1220, or go to www.ttcus.com Aug. 30 - Sept. 1 — Unmanned Aircraft Systems Conference, Paris Las Vegas Hotel, Paris. For more information call 310-563-1210, fax 310-563-1220, or go to www.ttcus.com
While most sensible people take steps to eliminate, or at least limit, spam in their e-mail inbox, one Internet security company has actually created 2.5 million separate e-mail accounts in the hopes of attracting as much malicious spam as possible.
In Washington, it is now widely accepted that cuts to U.S. security spending will go well beyond the $330 billion, 10-year haircut approved by Congress early this month. If bitterly divided lawmakers cannot agree this year on a way to cut another $1.5 trillion from the U.S. budget deficit, the Pentagon’s baseline budget will automatically be returned in 2013 to its fiscal 2007 level — and remain there for another eight years.
The U.S. Air Force has completed an interim baseline review (IBR) for the KC-46A aerial refueler, clearing the first major schedule milestone for the program.
Presenting a snapshot of China’s current maritime military might is one thing. But figuring out what the country has in mind for that growing power is quite another. As noted in the Pentagon’s recently released “Annual Report to Congress Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” there is little doubt that the powerful Asian nation and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plan to flex their maritime muscle in the regional arena. But just how far the country expects to project that force is still unclear.
John Elbon, Boeing’s Space Exploration division vice president and program manager of Commercial Crew Programs, will succeed Brewster Shaw as vice president and general manager for the division, Boeing announced Aug. 25. Shaw, who has led all of Boeing’s civil space programs since 2006, is retiring, effective Aug. 26.
PARACHUTING IN: The Dutch defense ministry plans to buy 15 parachute cargo delivery systems through an open competition. The ministry says the payload weight should range from 70-1,000 kg (150-2,200 lb.) and the system has to accommodate A7 and A22 containers. The defense forces are looking for an off-the-shelf system that is certified as being airworthy. Moreover, the military says, “the system with the cargo payload has to be delivered to a predetermined location with a high accuracy, under several weather conditions and during day and night.” Bidders have until Oct.
SINGAPORE — Bombardier earlier this year delivered the eighth and final Q300 aircraft that the Japan Coast Guard had on order, but it is already working to sell the JCG one more. A Japan industry executive familiar with the situation says Bombardier is working to sell a ninth Q300 to the JCG and there is a good chance it will purchase the aircraft. This is because the JCG lost several Beechcraft King Air aircraft in the March 11 tsunami, the executive says.
The Pentagon’s Report to Congress on China’s military and security developments has been constructed this year not as a criticism but rather as a series of questions in an effort to limit political backlash from Beijing.
MAST UP: Norfolk Naval Shipyard completed the installation of the main mast aboard aircraft carrier CVN 75 USS Harry S. Truman on Aug. 20, marking the latest milestone in the ship’s 13-month dry docking planned incremental availability. The 112,000-lb. mast — which is 10 ft. taller and 23,000 lb. heavier than the mast removed on June 18 — supports the modernization of the carrier’s combat systems suite and radars for its new weapons systems.
The HTV-2 hypersonic glider achieved stable, controlled flight at Mach 20 for more than 3 min. before an unknown anomaly ended its Aug. 11 second flight prematurely, says the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). Although the first and second flights of the dart-shaped, rocket-boosted HTV-2 each lasted only around 9 min., preliminary data indicate the second vehicle was in stable hypersonic flight for longer than the first HTV-2, launched on April 22, 2010.
The Aug. 24 failure of a Russian Soyuz rocket loaded with supplies for the International Space Station has underscored agreement on Capitol Hill that the U.S. should not rely on a single international partner for access to space. But while members of Congress who watch such things were quick to weigh in on the failure, the exact lesson to be drawn depends on the position of the politician in the continuing debate over how the U.S. should get its astronauts to orbit.
LONDON — As Britain’s defense industry adjusts to a new era of fiscal austerity, it has been looking for government guidance on what capabilities to preserve and where it can afford to retrench. But there is now growing concern that one of the key documents to allow that to happen will not deliver what has been expected.
HOUSTON — NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and others within the space agency acted without regard to political influence and in accordance with federal law in their choice of locations for the public display of the retired space shuttle orbiters Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis, agency Inspector General Paul Martin concludes in an Aug. 25 special report.
HOUSTON — Russia’s Progress 44 supply capsule, filled with 5,900 lb. of supplies for the International Space Station, crashed back to Earth shortly after launching onboard a Soyuz rocket early Aug. 24, injecting uncertainty over future cargo and crew transport plans early in NASA’s post-shuttle era.
