NASA will allow its international partners into the “critical path” for human exploration, and try to fly a heavy-lift launch vehicle in the 2020-2030 time frame that can enable exploration beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), according to Administrator Charles Bolden.
LONDON — Daher-Socata has secured an agreement from the French government to provide an avionics upgrade for TBM 700 turboprops already in service with the military. Under the contract awarded by French defense armaments agency DGA, Daher-Socata, the aircraft builder, will modify 14 aircraft TBM 700As and seven TBM 700Bs in French air force service, as well as three TBM 700Bs operated by the French army. The effort is to bring the TBM 700s roughly up to the TBM 850 avionics standard.
Since its inception in 2006, the Pentagon has funneled about $20 billion to its anti-improvised explosives device organization — now known as the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) — a figure that includes the $3.4 billion the Obama administration is asking Congress to approve in Fiscal 2011 The administration’s request is a boost from the $2.2 billion approved in FY ’10. And the organization expects to receive more money this year to support the surge in U.S. forces to Afghanistan.
News late last week that Alabama GOP Sen. Richard Shelby had placed a so-called blanket hold on Obama administration nominees awaiting Senate confirmation in part to try to force the Pentagon to alter the final USAF KC-X tanker request for proposals has drawn expected Democratic barbs, but also a surge of attention to the final RFP.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER — President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel the Constellation Program and instead develop a commercial space transportation capability and invest in the technologies for future human deep space exploration will affect the employment of 40 percent of the workers here, including the high-profile astronaut corps, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said Feb. 8.
Cyberwarfare — now an element of electronic attack (EA) even at the tactical level — is still being sorted out as the Pentagon puts forth its Fiscal 2011 budget request. “We’ll use a lot of existing resources that are already being devoted to cyberwarfare,” Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale says. “We’ll add some lease funding, and there’ll be some additional people, although I think they’ll be reallocated from other areas.”
NEW DELHI — India’s long-range Agni-3 missile was successfully flight tested by the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) at 10:50 a.m. Feb. 7 from Wheeler Island, in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Odisha in East India. Agni-3 was tested for its full 3,500-kilometer (2,200-mile) range, hit its target and met all the mission objectives, according to a DRDO statement. Two downrange ships located near the target tracked and witnessed the missile impact.
AIR FORCE Rolls-Royce Corp. of Indianapolis, Ind., was awarded a $145,950,000 firm fixed price contract which will exercise Option III (year 4) for sustaining services including logistics support, program management support, engineering services, spares and technical data in support of the C-130J propulsions systems, which includes the AE2100D3 engine and R-391 propeller system. At this time, $42,747, 403 has been obligated. 330ACSG/GFKA, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8504-07-D-0001, Delivery # FA8504-07-D-0001-0400).
ARMY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Ariz., was awarded on Jan. 28, 2010, a $99,270,307 firm-fixed-price contract to exercise the option for 13 aircraft in Lot 14. The work is to be performed in Mesa, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2013. One bid was solicited with one bid received. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aviation and Missile Command Contracting Center, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-06-C-0093).
AIR FORCE Spaceport Systems International, Lompoc, Calif., has been awarded a $48,000,000 contract which will provide for future launch spaceport services for the Launch Test Squadron within the Space and Missile Systems Center/Space Development and Test Wing. At this time, $300,000 has been obligated. SMC/PKN, Kirtland, N.M., is the contracting activity (FA8818-10-D-0022).
Endeavour, NASA’s youngest space shuttle, became the final orbiter to lift off at night with its launch to the International Space Station (ISS) early Feb. 8. Built as a replacement after the shuttle Challenger was lost on launch in 1986, Endeavour arched into space through breaks in the predawn cloud cover over Kennedy Space Center that forced a 24-hour delay Feb. 6. In its payload bay is the last European pressurized module for the ISS.
AFRICAN OPS: Israel’s Spacecom says it has begun operating Amos-5i, an interim spacecraft acquired last year from Asia Satellite Telecommunications, where it had been known as AsiaSat-2. Launched in 1995 and built by Lockheed Martin, Amos-5i was transferred to a slot at 17 deg. E. Long. that Spacecom is developing to interconnect Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The spacecraft carries 20 36MHz and four 72MHz C-band transponders along with nine Ku-band units.
COLLEGIAL CLIMATE: Roughly $325.5 million in the U.S. Air Force’s Fiscal 2011 spending plan that was included for the soon-to-be-defunct National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), will remain intact while the Obama administration crafts a recovery plan for its termination, according to Gary Payton, deputy Air Force undersecretary for space (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 2). A stop-work order has not yet been issued to prime integrator Northrop Grumman, and none is expected soon.
The Defense Dept.’s industrial policy chief says he is puzzled about why senior Pentagon leadership and top industry CEOs have gone for so long without a consistent dialogue, and he intends to reverse this trend, while also pushing for better visibility lower into the supply chain.
PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed to jointly build a carbon monitoring spacecraft and to work together to define a new launcher to replace the Ariane 5 heavy-lift booster. The measures were among a list of 80 common projects, dubbed Agenda 2020, unveiled by the chiefs of state at a summit in Paris Feb. 4 called to reaffirm the Franco-German partnership.
GENOA, Italy — Piaggio Aero industries is set to start delivering the first of six converted P-180s aircraft to the Italian air force starting in late July. The aircraft are former standard P-180s in service with the 71st Squadron of the 14th Wing, based in Rome, which have been reassigned to RF measurement duties thanks to a measurement avionics package being installed by the air force at its Pratica di mare base. The whole conversion is being completed by Piaggio.
Weather looked good, and crews were working no serious technical issues as they prepared the space shuttle Endeavour Feb. 5 for the final night launch of the shuttle program. Liftoff was set for 4:39 a.m. EST Sunday, Feb. 7, sending Endeavour and its crew of six to deliver a final pressurized node and the long-awaited seven-window cupola to the International Space Station (ISS). Forecasters predicted only a 20 percent chance that weather would force a launch delay, and launch managers declared Endeavour on track for an on-time launch.
NO PRESSURE: Eutelsat is denying allegations by Georgian Public Broadcasting (GPB) that it was pressured by Russia to supply TV capacity to the broadcasting company from its W2A satellite, rather than the newer W7, launched last year. The Paris-based operator says it never contracted with GPB for W7, because no capacity was available. Furthermore, it says both W7 and W2A require users with Russian terminals to acquire new TV set-top units, while Georgian users can continue to use existing equipment.
ENGINE TROUBLE: Capitol Hill lawmakers are drawing the battle lines in anticipation of the Obama administration’s expected veto if Congress chooses to once again restore funding for the contentious F136 alternative engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. When Defense Secretary Robert Gates testified in front of the House and Senate Armed Services committees right after the Fiscal 2011 budget requests were delivered last week, warning that this year’s veto threat would be more resolute than last year’s, Republicans and Democrats were all over the map in response.
AFRICAN AIRLIFT: South Africa could buy up to a dozen tactical airlifters to replace capabilities presently met by the obsolete C-47 and a handful of C-130s. The C-295 and the C-27J are the two main candidate platforms to meet what is sometime referred to as Project Saucepan. The South African Air Force’s C-130s are expected to be withdrawn from service in 2013, and one option Pretoria has been exploring is a possible foreign military sale (FMS) purchase from the U.S. for nine C-27Js.
COMMS BRIDGE: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) plans to award Inmarsat a contract to develop a space-based terminal to provide persistent broadband data communications between satellites in low Earth orbit and the ground. Inmarsat will modify the airborne terminal for its Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service and integrate the resulting space-based terminal with Darpa’s System F6 fractionated-satellite demonstration cluster, which is scheduled for launch in 2012.
The Pentagon is participating in an interagency integrated team convened to explore how best to sustain the rocket motor industrial base — a mandate made all the more urgent given NASA’s planned cancellation of the Constellation program, according to Brett Lambert, the Defense Dept.’s industrial policy director.
