PARIS — Eutelsat has selected EADS Astrium to supply a new satellite to replace W5. The new spacecraft, known as W5A, will be launched to 70.5 deg. E. Long. to renew and expand capacity for government services, broadband, cellphone backhauling and video in Europe, Africa and central and southeast Asia. To be orbited in the last quarter of 2012 by a yet-to-be-named launch provider, the 48-tranponder Ku-band satellite will supply more than double the capacity of W5, which was launched in 2002.
BENGALURU, India — India’s coastal security apparatus has once again been put on high alert. This follows a high-level meeting last week chaired by Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony, who stressed the need for increased vigilance to counter any threats from the sea. Coastal surveillance measures have come under scrutiny following the terrorist attack in Mumbai on Nov. 26, 2008.
HOUSTON — A Russian Progress cargo capsule began a two-day journey to the International Space Station on June 30, following a liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft with its 4,900 lb. of supplies is scheduled to reach the orbiting science laboratory on July 2 at 12:58 p.m. EDT. The cargo includes propellant, water, oxygen, research gear, spare parts and other equipment.
HEAVY LIFTING: NASA is seeking proposals and industry input on heavy-lift rocket concepts and propulsion technology. Total funding for the study effort will be $8 million, with individual awards up to $625,000. The proposal deadline is July 29. The information gathered “may help lay the groundwork for humans to safely reach multiple potential destinations, including asteroids, Lagrange points, the Moon and Mars,” NASA says. The agency suggests that “in-space architectural elements” like propellant depots and space transfer stages can be included.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian navy has commissioned two more water jet-propelled fast attack craft (WJFAC) in Visakhapatnam. Built by Kolkotta-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, the INS Cankarso and INS Kondul are the fifth and sixth in a series of WJFACS to join the Indian navy. The remaining four fast-attack craft (FAC) from the Car Nicobar class are due to join the services by December.
The House Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA withheld spending on human space exploration in Fiscal 2011 until the congressional authorizing panels devise a clear program for it. At a markup for the 2011 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies appropriations bill, Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), the subcommittee chairman, said planning for U.S. human space exploration “has been effectively on hold for well over a year,” and remains to be settled.
BRUSSELS — NATO is consolidating working groups involved with managing unmanned vehicle activities as part of a broader effort to streamline the alliance’s bureaucracy. NATO reform efforts have long called for a reduction in the number of working groups to reduce the costs of maintaining the alliance and ensure more money is available for actual missions.
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The machinists at Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita ratified a 10-year contract by default when a strike vote by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers did not garner enough votes. The union voted on the contract June 25, the day the previous contract expired, and members and company officials were learning of the details of the contract June 28.
BRUSSELS — The Australian government has finished work on the structural upgrade of older F/A-18s. Ten of the strike fighters received a center barrel replacement to stretch their service life to 2020. Although the government says the program has formally concluded, there are indications that delays in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could lead eventually to an expansion of the F/A-18 effort to bridge any capability gap.
BRUSSELS — The U.S. Army plans to expand the level of integration of unmanned vehicles with helicopters and ground personnel. One of the next steps to more closely link unmanned aircraft with combat operations will involve upgrading the Textron AAI Shadow 200 to allow payload control by ground personnel using the One System Remote Video Terminal (OSRVT), says Lt. Col. Jennifer Jensen, product manager for common systems integration at the Army’s UAV program office. The Shadow operator maintains control of the air vehicle.
PARIS — Europe’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) has begun yielding critical data on the Earth’s geoid and gravity field, even though the spacecraft, launched in March 2009, has only been in full operation since November and barely two months worth of data have been collated to date.
Pentagon ground-vehicle purchasing contracts and contract modifications accounted for about 10% of 2009 acquisition costs for which the Defense Department did not provide the name of the contractor, according to an Aerospace DAILY analysis of contracting data provided by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. In 2008-09, the Pentagon withheld contr actor names for nearly $3 billion worth of contracts, according to the analysis.
The Lockheed Martin Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system successfully intercepted and destroyed a short-range ballistic missile during a flight test in Hawaii on the evening of June 28.
LONDON — The Spanish air force is reducing its P-3 upgrade program to four aircraft, having previously planned to install the EADS CASA Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS) on five of the maritime patrol aircraft.
To reduce the risk of gaps in polar weather satellite coverage, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would seek an exception for its Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) in the event the agency is funded under a continuing resolution for Fiscal 2011.
NEW DELHI — Lockheed Martin India is offering its software expertise to help Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) of India design the country’s coastal surveillance system.
BLUEPRINTING SPACE: Officials from several national space agencies, including NASA, say they are trying to craft a road map for globally coordinated human and robotic space exploration. NASA said senior international managers met last week outside Washington to discuss the importance of early coordination, especially in robotic precursor missions, and using the space station as a testbed.
LONDON — A series of Aster 30 firings from French, Italian and British vessels apparently confirmed a fix that MBDA had to make to the air defense and ballistic missile interceptor to resolve a performance problem. The U.K. Royal Navy last year suffered two failures with the Sea Viper configuration, which forced MBDA to make design changes and also to delay further Aster 30 deliveries.
