LONDON — Finmeccanica has announced better than expected 2009 results, showing a marked improvement in all key parameters and giving managers confidence that 2010 will confirm substantially stable or slightly improved performance despite the slow economic recovery and market conditions.
Scaled Composites has begun preparatory flight testing of the White Knight Two launch aircraft equipped with the pylon that will be used to carry Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spacecraft to its launch point around 50,000 feet.
NASA is planning to launch its replacement for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) climate monitoring spacecraft in February 2013, while keeping the rebuilt spacecraft as close to the original as possible. The first OCO was lost during launch on Feb. 24, 2009, when the fairing on its Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to properly separate after liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. (Aerospace DAILY, July 20). Orbital Sciences built both the OCO spacecraft and the Taurus, and will build the OCO replacement as well.
Boeing’s so-called NewGen Tanker, a 767-based design for the U.S. Air Force KC-X competition, will feature a new refueling boom and a flight deck based on the 787 commercial transport. Company officials announced March 4 that the aircraft will be based on a 767, but they declined to identify the 767 variant. An artist’s concept of the design appears to point to a 767-200.
After SES and Eutelsat, it’s Telesat’s turn to post solid results for 2009, demonstrating that the fixed satellite service (FSS) sector is showing no signs of wavering from economic stress.
The U.S. Air Force has checked the third Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) spacecraft into service after completing its in-orbit testing. Its Dec. 5 launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV completes the first block of the broadband constellation that Boeing is building to replace the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS). Each WGS has about as many capabilities as the 10-satellite DSCS combined.
NEW YORK — The U.S. Defense Dept. is aggressively pursuing alternative energy programs that can provide stable and cost-effective power for numerous operations.
One of the U.K. Royal Air Force’s (RAF) newest command centers has no aircraft, boasts a staff of just 20 and operates from a windowless bunker in the heart of the U.K. Yet it is a key component in an increasingly vital international effort to survey, map and understand the largest and arguably most complex battle zone of all.
Lockheed Martin CEO Robert Stevens is taking personal responsibility for the company’s poor performance on the multinational Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, and he says he plans to keep his top program executive, Dan Crowley, in place.
ROME — An Iranian affiliated organization involved in smuggling dual-use equipment toward Iran has been dissolved following combined action by the counter-proliferation arm of the Italian external intelligence service AISE and the Guardia di Finanza (GdF) police and border control force.
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has successfully completed a set of rigorous actuator tests, which agency managers hope is a sign that the problem-plagued rover mission has finally turned a corner. “The great news last weekend is that the final actuator that we were having problems with has passed its two-times life test,” Associate Administrator for Science Ed Weiler said during a Space Foundation breakfast in Washington March 4. “So — knock wood — the actuator problem on MSL, which has been the biggest problem, seems to be behind us.”
YAOGAN LAUNCH: The ninth spacecraft in China’s Yaogan series of remote sensing satellites will be launched within days. The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu says a Long March 4C rocket will be used for the launch of Yaogan 9. The Yaogan group is growing rapidly. Two were launched in December.
A National Academies panel is recommending NASA beef up funding for its suborbital research program and assign a suborbital lead who would report to the agency’s associate administrator for science.
FIDAE ON: The massive earthquake that rocked Chile in late February will not prevent the country’s major air show from going on as scheduled, organizers announced March 3. The show will run March 23-28 at Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport. Unofficial reports from Chile indicated the show’s site escaped damage even though the airport’s passenger terminal and infrastructure were badly hit.
The next generation of combat helmet design, from webbing to lining to shape, will draw on an unprecedented well of sensor data mapping the physics and mechanics of blast and blunt trauma injuries.
Resistance from senior noteholders could scuttle a deal by EchoStar to acquire troubled Satellite Mexicanos. Echostar agreed on Feb. 26 to acquire Satmex in cooperation with MVS Comunicaciones, a large Mexican media group, for up to $374 million in cash. MVS is Echostar’s partner in Dish Mexico, a joint venture set up in 2008 to serve the local market.
With two flight tests under its belt — one against two targets roughly an hour apart — the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is eyeing another Airborne Laser (ABL) flight trial this spring. MDA spokesman Rick Lehner could not confirm more details on the goal of the test. However, one official close to the program said one aim is to increase the distance of the sole 747-400F-based laser from its target, meaning the next trial could be that opportunity.
LIGHT POWER: Aurora Flight Sciences has completed a test wing section built on company funds to support its bid for Phase 2 of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Vulture program to demonstrate technology for a five-year-endurance solar-powered stratospheric unmanned aircraft. With a span of 22 feet and chord of 15 feet, the test wing is made from advanced composites and lightweight plastics, and the upper surface is covered with solar cells.
Japan will keep building the world’s largest and most sophisticated diesel-electric submarines at a rate of about one per year until at least 2015. Studies for a follow-on design have been under way since 2005 for a notional fiscal year 2016 submarine to be completed in 2021. If the 40-year trend of increasing boat size continues, the Fiscal 2016 submarine could be as large as 3,150 tons standard and 4,550 tons submerged.
OTTAWA, Canada — The U.S. chief of naval operations is stressing the need for the Navy to work with regional allies to protect the global commons from both state and nonstate actors who seek to disrupt maritime trade and lines of communication, as well as sea-based mining and drilling. The comments reflect the growing attention worldwide being paid to maritime security and the Arctic, in particular, as climate change, globalism and constrained national budgets are combining to demand more international cooperation on the oceans.
LONDON — “At best confused and unhelpful and at worst deliberately obstructive” is the acerbic conclusion of the U.K.’s Defense Committee with regard to evidence provided by the U.K. Defense Ministry concerning a multibillion dollar funding gap. In unusually direct language, the Parliament’s Defense Committee assails the ministry over what its considers a failure to come clean about the extent of the funding mess in its long-term spending plans, and a future equipment program that it cannot deliver.
