KEEP THE FAITH: Japan’s Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter remains in touch with its controllers, who are working hard to find out why its propulsion system failed to put it in orbit around the planet last month (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 9, 2010). At the same time, they are looking for a way to continue the mission. The probe is in an orbit that takes it around the Sun faster than Venus, raising hopes for another attempt to slow down enough to enter Venus orbit when the planet catches up. Originally, that would have taken about six years.
The U.S. Navy has reversed itself on the threat of China’s newly operational DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile and now considers it a real danger to allied aircraft carriers. The change in assessment is the result of new tactics — firing the missiles in salvos — and improved guidance for the high-speed, medium-range missile, says Vice Adm. David Dorsett, deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance and director of naval intelligence.
SENTINEL 5: Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. will provide a short-wave infrared spectrometer, designed to measure carbon monoxide and methane, for the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (Tropomi) on the Sentinel 5 Precursor. The Precursor, set for launch in 2014, will help define a sensor on Eumetsat’s EPS-SG polar-orbiting weather satellites that will provide operational atmospheric chemistry data necessary to monitor air quality and climate change. The first spacecraft is to be orbited in 2020 (AW&ST Dec. 20/27, 2010, p. 71).
CANTOR’S CANDOR: The Republican majority in the House is going to be focused on national security, new Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) asserts, but that does not mean the Pentagon is spared the budget-cutting knife. “I think most of us have said everything is going to be on the table,” Cantor tells Capitol Hill reporters. The congressional pressure comes as Defense Secretary Robert Gates proffers another slew of dramatic programmatic changes (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 7).
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jan. 11 — Aviation Week Webinar: Improving Affordability and Productivity in Weapon Systems Development and Procurement, Time: 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. EST. For more information call +1-212-904-3195 or go to www.aviationweek.com/events
A promising biofuel that mixes Jet A petroleum with camelina has encountered a stumbling block in European tests, possibly because of contamination. A Safran Group test of the mixture showed “strange effects,” according to one member of the fuels subcommittee of ASTM International, an international standards-setting agency. Researchers are pursuing the possibility that the six barrels of test fuel were contaminated.
Star Navigation Group of Toronto has developed a satellite-based cockpit data recorder (CDR) with built-in GPS tracking software. The CDR enables essential flight variables such as altitude, speed and heading, along with avionics and diagnostic information, to be transmitted automatically in real time at regular intervals during a flight, providing foolproof access to the data in the event of an inflight event.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has put the U.S. Marine Corps’ troubled F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical landing (Stovl) Joint Strike Fighter on “probation,” while endorsing the U.S. Air Force’s long-coveted new bomber program. The F-35A and F-35C models emerged unscathed from Gates’ review. However, the F-35B “is experiencing significant testing problems,” Gates said at the Pentagon Jan. 6.
NEW DELHI — India’s ministry of defense has expanded the list of projects that foreign vendors can use to fulfill their defense offset obligations, to include domestic security and civil aerospace work. The policy change is part of the ministry’s long-awaited Defense Procurement Procedures (DPP) for 2011, which took effect Jan. 1.
A top U.S. Navy official acknowledges that the service’s Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) — designed for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler and F-35 — will feature a network invasion capability.
PARIS — A reorganization plan that would give control of mobile satellite service operator TerreStar to EchoStar looks set to move forward, following a ruling by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York allowing the plan to be sent to creditors for approval. The court ruled late last month against a final objection by Sprint Nextel, one of the claim holders, to disclosure of the plan, after the other creditors had withdrawn their complaints.
CAPITAL ORBIT: NASA said Jan. 6 it is tapping four companies to perform a variety of construction services at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. They are Meltech Corp. of Landover, Md.; Grimberg/Amatea Joint Venture of Leesburg, Va.; Northeast NICC Joint Venture of Falls Church; and Biscayne Contractors of Alexandria. Altogether the five-year, firm-fixed-price indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts are worth $75 million.
Now that the U.S. Navy has anchored its acquisition strategy for its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the service is closing in on a way to make up for the loss of one of the ship’s key mission package sets — the Non-Line-Of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS). The Navy, according to those familiar with the program, could release details of its replacement plan as early as next week during the Surface Navy Association (SNA) symposium in Arlington, Va.
The December rollout and high-speed taxi tests of China’s newest J-20 fighter, a stealth prototype, caught Pentagon intelligence officials by surprise. The J-20 program’s existence was known, but “one of the things that is … true is that we have been pretty consistent in underestimating the delivery and initial operational capability of Chinese technology weapons systems,” says Vice Adm. David Dorsett, deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance and director of naval intelligence.
GO WITH FLOW: A new German experiment inside the International Space Station (ISS) may help engineers develop the fluid-management systems that will be needed for handling fuel and other fluids in microgravity. Developed by the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen, the Capillary Channel Flow (CCF) experiment is located in the station’s Microgravity Science Glovebox.
FCS LEFTOVERS: On Jan. 12 the Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meets with the U.S. Army’s Early Infantry Brigade Combat Team (E-IBCT) shop to hash out what happens next with the communications and sensor gear formerly known as the Future Combat Systems program. Army officials say that they expect to make changes to the program after the meeting, but will have to wait for the final word from the DAB to say what they might be.
The Pentagon’s cancellation of the General Dynamics Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) represents a rare programmatic fatality for the company and the U.S. Marine Corps. In a dramatic press briefing at the Pentagon, Gates confirmed what had long been urged by critics and feared by Marine supporters: despite $3 billion sunk into the program and the recent potential that it might have fixed major problems, the Corps is to forego the major acquisition effort and try again. Legacy amphibious assault vehicles also will be further maintained in the interim.
HOUSTON — United Space Alliance, NASA’s shuttle prime contractor, will lay off 248 workers on Jan. 7 in response to the looming retirement of NASA’s three-decade-long space shuttle program. The reduction will leave the Houston-based joint venture with about 6,250 workers to fly out two and possibly three more missions this year. The remaining workforce is sufficient to support shuttle processing, the training of astronauts and flight control teams, program integration and software development, USA spokeswoman Kari Fluegel says.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Defense Research and Development Organization has ordered an investigation into a small explosion at its Bengaluru-based Center for Airborne Systems (CABS). Ten people, including four Indian air force (IAF) officials, were injured in the Dec. 30 blast. Around 20 people had gathered at CABS’s Lightning Test Facility (LTF) to evaluate the Tejas fighter’s fuel tank ahead of the certification process. In addition to IAF officials, scientists and engineers from various defense and aerospace agencies were present.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has kicked off the first industry phase of its Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) project, aimed at demonstrating a fast, long-endurance unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to stalk modern, ultra-quiet non-nuclear submarines.
PARIS — Eurocopter’s Brazilian subsidiary, Helicopteros do Brasil S. A. (Helibras), has been awarded a contract to upgrade the Brazilian army’s fleet of 36 Ecureuil multirole helicopters.
ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA has set Dec. 14 as the target launch date for Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) cargo demonstration mission. Meanwhile, the company says it continues to make progress with NASA toward attaining safety clearance for the mission, in which its Cygnus spacecraft will dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
ORLANDO, Fla. — Future NASA space programs must be affordable, sustainable and realistic to survive political and funding dangers that have killed previous initiatives, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says. Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ aerospace sciences meeting here, Bolden says that trying to attain affordability, sustainability and realism has become his “mantra” while negotiating with officials in the White House and the Office of Management and Budget, as well as Congress.
