STAYING ON STATION: The International Space Station partner agencies met Sept. 21 by videoconference to discuss the continuation of station operations and science activities into the next decade. Japan has committed to continue supporting station operations beyond 2016. Current plans call for station operations to extend at least until 2020. “Coupled with the approval of the government of the Russian Federation for continuation to 2020, this progress is indicative of the strength of the station partnership,” NASA said.
Evaluators from the U.S. Government Accountability Office say the U.S. Global Positioning System remains at risk of losing full operability, despite upgrades implemented by the U.S. Air Force.
The global helicopter market is playing out like a Dickens novel these days, with civil business going through the worst of times and military sales seeing their best days, according to the recent Teal Group World Rotorcraft Overview. Teal Group expects civil deliveries to fall 20.8% in 2010, on top of a 13.3% decline in 2009, after experiencing “unprecedented growth rates in 2003-2008 … that transformed the industry,” the consultancy’s report says.
The U.S. Army has set Oct. 1 as the day it will brief industry on requirement changes in the Ground Combat Vehicle competition, which the service announced in August it was temporarily canceling until it issues a new request for proposals (RFP) for a retooled program.
HOUSTON — Lockheed Martin is pursuing an aggressive lean manufacturing strategy in the refurbished Operations & Checkout (O&C) building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where engineers and technicians plan to prepare the Orion crew capsule for a critical 2013 test flight intended to verify a deep-space re-entry capability. Major components for the Orion test capsule are expected to begin arriving at the O&C facility in 2012.
Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon have completed unusually protracted negotiations on the next lot buy of F-35 Join Strike Fighters, called low-rate, initial production 4. This will be the first fixed-price F-35 contract, and will include the purchase of 30 F-35s for the U.S., as well as one for the U.K., according to Pentagon officials. An option also is included for one of the single-engine stealthy strike fighters for the Netherlands. The lot was expected to include all 32 aircraft.
PARIS — Russian Satellite Communications Co. has contracted with ISS Reshetnev and Thales Alenia Space for three additional spacecraft to modernize and expand its telecommunications satellite network. The spacecraft, AM8, AT1 and AT2, will carry payloads supplied by Thales Alenia and will be the first Russian-based satellites to use ISS Reshetnev’s new Express 1000 small satellite bus.
The external fuel tank assigned to the last scheduled shuttle mission set sail for Kennedy Space Center from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans by barge late Sept. 21, leaving behind a rapidly dwindling Lockheed Martin workforce. Sporting a battle-scarred jacket of orange insulating foam, External Tank 122 is expected to reach the Florida shuttle port on Sept. 26.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Space Shuttle Discovery was rolled out to the launch pad Sept. 20 for its 39th and final flight, with nine days of contingency time to meet a targeted Nov. 1 liftoff and no commitment by the U.S. government for a successor vehicle to carry people into orbit.
NEW DELHI — The Indian army is taking concrete steps toward achieving network-centric operations at the strategic, operational and tactical levels with its Battlefield Management System (BMS). BMS will be the precursor to a similar system for India’s paramilitary forces that will address counterterrorism and counterinfiltration requirements.
TEL AVIV — Israel’s new Panther vertical takeoff and landing unmanned tiltrotor aircraft is one of the latest products emerging from the classified projects section of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The UAV was developed by IAI’s Malat division, which has been looking at new designs to fill some of the operational gaps between the company’s largest, longest-range Heron TP UAV — now in operation with the Israeli Air Force — and its smallest 0.5-kg. (1.1-lb.) Mosquito UAV with a 30-40 min. flight time.
DON’T ASK: The U.S. Senate opted not to quicken passage of its version of the 2011 defense authorization bill Sept. 21, with senators tripped up by a Democratic push to repeal so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, among other provisions. Senators voted 56-43, along party lines, over whether to proceed to consideration of the bill, but the tally fell short of the 60 necessary under Senate rules. Charges of election-year obstinance flowed freely from both sides of the political aisle during floor debate on the procedural question.
NASA’s Inspector General (IG) has found no legal wrongdoing in Administrator Charles Bolden’s interactions with an oil company during a period when he was weighing NASA’s involvement in an alternative fuel agreement, although investigators concluded his actions did constitute an ethical lapse.
FAIR & BALANCED: Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) introduced an amendment to the 2011 Senate defense authorization bill Sept. 21 that looks to make it harder for EADS or others to bid for the USAF KC-X aerial refueling tanker program.
COMPATIBILITY: The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a $10 million contract to develop software to standardize how MH-60R and MH-60S helicopter aircrews file their mission flight plans in accordance with the U.S. military’s Joint Mission Planning System. The software module will allow MH-60 pilots to select preconfigured mission plans, compile weather data, maps, navigational routes and targeting data, and choose the types of weapons and sensors their aircraft will use for a mission.
SAN FRANCISCO — NROL-41, a classified mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, was placed into a high-inclination orbit from Space Launch Complex-3 East (SLC-3E) at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., at 9:03 p.m. PDT on Sept. 20 by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 501.
PARIS — Arianespace says it will launch the second Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to the International Space Station (ISS) early next year, reserving the sixth and final 2010 Ariane 5 flight for a commercial mission. Arianespace officials say the decision, made by the board of directors on Sept. 20, was based on preparation of ATV-2 taking longer than expected; it will not be ready until too late in the year for it to be “reasonably accommodated,” given the Christmas/New Year holiday period and strict French labor laws.
TEL AVIV — Russia is planning to sell Syria the P-800 Yakhont anti-ship cruise missile, which Israeli officials believe will be transferred to Hezbollah armed forces and used to threaten Tel Aviv’s navy warships. Russia previously sold sophisticated, supersonic Kornet (9M133) AT-14 anti-tank missiles to Syria that were then supplied to Hezbollah. The weapons were used to destroy and damage a number of Merkava 3 main battle tanks and blunt the Israeli armored attack into Southern Lebanon in 2006.
PARIS — The Mexican ministry of defense has agreed to buy six additional Eurocopter EC725 medium-lift helicopters. The order for the new aircraft, which Eurocopter will begin delivering in the second quarter of 2011, follows a previous six-unit buy in 2009. Mexico was the second export customer, after Brazil, to order the EC725. Malaysia also placed a 12-unit order for the 11-metric-ton-class Cougar upgrade earlier this year.
Two Swedish-built spacecraft are conducting experiments in autonomous formation flying that should lead to an autonomous rendezvous before the mission ends. The Prisma technology-experiment mission, launched June 15 on a Dnepr-1 rocket from Yasni, Russia, consists of two small spacecraft that will evaluate techniques for the sort of formation flying that will be useful in large-scale interferometric missions, and ultra-precise rendezvous processes that could be used in autonomous spacecraft servicing and refueling.
A Defense Department decision this year to shift CVN-78 Ford-class aircraft carriers to five-year procurement intervals — extending production of each ship by a year or more — could nonetheless increase the cost of the carriers, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
