BEIJING — China’s primary space programs are going smoothly, says national space contractor China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp. (CASC), listing the Tiangong 1 docking target, Shenzhou 8 satellite, Chang’e 3 lunar mission and Long March 5 launcher. Last year’s Chang’e 2 mission to the Moon provided a firm foundation for the next phase of the country’s lunar exploration program, CASC says in a report carried by the official Xinhua news agency. It gave no details about progress with the other programs.
AIR FORCE The Boeing Co. of Seattle was awarded a fixed price incentive firm contract valued at more than $3.5 billion for the KC-X Engineering and Manufacturing Development, which will deliver 18 aircraft by 2017. Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC/WKK), Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8625-11-C600).
The U.S. Navy brass loves to perpetuate the cliché that the first question any U.S. president asks during a time of overseas crisis is: Where are the carriers? But what the service is less likely to trumpet is that this has been the very same question among federal budget cutters through the years, especially since the end of the Cold War.
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HOUSTON — Internal NASA thinking on the timing of the agency’s hoped-for STS-135 space shuttle mission using the Atlantis orbiter has taken a U-turn, with most now favoring the manifested June 28 launch date.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The U.S. Army is rolling out a bold new procurement and force structure strategy that focuses on the small unit as the decisive land force of the future.
DATA RIGHTS: The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is looking for companies or other sources to help determine the most effective and efficient way to digitize large volumes of high-resolution photographic imagery. A request for information says the service provider might be able to “retain rights to distribute declassified imagery and recoup investment, for a specified period of time (negotiable).” The FedBizOpps.gov notice says the NGA anticipates declassification of “significant amounts” of film-based imagery.
Southwest Research Institute, a Texas-based non-profit research and development organization, has signed contracts with two aspiring commercial suborbital spacecraft companies to fly researchers and experiments.
MELBOURNE, Australia — The Malaysian air force’s plan to purchase airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft and a squadron of fighters faces a major government setback. It is unlikely that a decision will be made this year on AEW&C aircraft and fighters, says operations commander Lt. Gen. Ackbal Abdul Samad, adding that the economic situation in Malaysia is difficult. Ackbal was speaking to Aviation Week on the sidelines of an air chief’s conference here.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Pakistan is in negotiations with the U.S. to get more Lockheed Martin F-16s over and above what it already has on order, while at the same time it develops its defense manufacturing capability to reduce its reliance on the U.S. “We have plans to have more F-16s and are negotiating with the U.S. government for more,” says Air Chief Marshall Rao Qamar Suleman, the Pakistani air force chief of air staff. Rao spoke to Aviation Week here, where he was attending an air chiefs’ conference.
HOUSTON — During a Feb. 28 spacewalk, Discovery astronauts Al Drew and Steve Bowen lugged a failed International Space Station (ISS) thermal control system pump to a stowage platform on the station’s U.S. Quest airlock, where it will await a return to Earth aboard NASA’s hoped-for STS-135 mission.
NORTHROP SPINOFF: Northrop Grumman announced Feb. 25 that its wholly owned subsidiary, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), intends to offer up to $1.175 billion in senior unsecured notes due 2018, and senior unsecured notes due 2021, as part of financing for an anticipated spinoff of the company. Northrop Grumman has said it needs to sell or spin off its shipbuilding units. Any final decision remains subject to board approval.
BUYING SPREE: Following threats to put advanced S-400 air defense missiles in the Kuril Islands close to Japan (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 17), Moscow has started detailing its plan to modernize 80% of its military arsenal. The $640 billion update is to be completed by 2020 and include about 600 aircraft and 1,000 helicopters. Among the purchases are to be 56 batteries of S-400 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), which can serve as a ballistic missile defense, and 10 batteries of the even more sophisticated and longer-range S-500 SAM.
XCOR SELLS: Southwest Research Institute will use the planned Lynx spaceplane under development by XCOR Aerospace to send its scientific payloads and payload specialists on suborbital missions. Spearheaded by Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator for science, SwRI has purchased six Lynx flights for dates to be determined. Stern and two colleagues at SwRI will use the horizontal-takeoff-and-landing flights to conduct biomedical, microgravity and astronomy imaging experiments.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian navy has deployed a Dornier aircraft in Seychelles for surveillance and anti-piracy operations. A navy spokesperson says that the Dornier will be positioned at Victoria, the island country’s capital. The deployment is part of a government-to-government memorandum of understanding between India and Seychelles.
DELAYED GLORY: NASA continues looking for a new launch date for its Glory climate-monitoring spacecraft after its last-minute postponement Feb. 23. The vehicle interface control console in a van near the pad at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., gave an incorrect reading that a “hold-fire” command had been sent about 15 min. before the Taurus XL launch vehicle was set to lift off (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 24).
PROPELLER PRECISION: U.S. Air Force researchers will begin flight tests in late March to qualify the Lockheed Martin-Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 light attack aircraft to carry precision-guided ordnance. The trials are part of an Air National Guard-led demonstration of the AT-6’s potential combat capabilities. Test officials are to judge the aircraft’s suitability for launching laser- and GPS-guided munitions. The mission system is a derivative of that developed for the A-10C ground-attack aircraft.
Pentagon researchers are studying how people adapt to changing situations, in an effort to shape a more flexible future force capable of sustaining effective operations during a degraded military environment—which includes the breakdown of networks, loss of communications and physical stress. Adaptability is also important in adjusting to a period of shrinking defense budgets and uncertainty about the mix of missions that will meet the needs of both irregular and conventional warfare.
DEADLINE: Although the U.S. government may suffer a “shutdown” as early as March 5, national security, air traffic control and other services considered vital by the president will continue even without congressionally appropriated funds. On Feb. 25, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) unveiled a new short-term continuing resolution (CR) that would cut $4 billion from fiscal 2010 levels and zero out earlier earmarks — presumably including the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.
BOSCOMBE DOWN, England — The U.K. Defense Ministry eventually will review all its defense contracts and potentially seek to renegotiate to ensure that the terms of the deals are appropriate. Defense Secretary Liam Fox announced on Feb. 22 that 130 contracts are already under review and that the list eventually will be expanded to 500. But Peter Luff, minister of state for defense equipment, support and technology, says eventually all contracts will be re-examined.
