NASA is set to launch its long-awaited Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter June 17, carrying synthetic aperture radar (SAR) similar to one that already is returning tantalizing data from its perch on India’s Chandrayaan 1 lunar orbiter. The LRO and its piggyback Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) impactor are ready to blast off on an Atlas V as early as 3:51 p.m. EDT, with subsequent windows at 4:01 p.m. and 4:11 p.m. EDT on June 17 and more opportunities on June 18.
Norway’s defense ministry is to begin negotiations on the purchase of up to 56 Lockheed Martin F-35As after parliament voted to accept its recommendation of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) over the Saab Gripen NG. Negotiations are expected to take two years, and the government is required to return to parliament in the spring for authorization to begin negotiating the final contract. Norway is already a partner in the JSF program.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program office is appealing to small businesses for new ideas. The program office has introduced an open architecture structure, which allows a wider range of companies to compete for projects, according to Howard Pace, deputy program executive officer for JTRS. “Even the smallest software shops can now compete to produce the best applications. Competition is our best friend in government,” he said at the Navy Opportunity Forum here.
LONDON — The British aerospace sector — both defense and commercial — faces at least a lean couple of years, with its strategic future dependent on government and industry measures to sustain its long-term health. The 2009 annual survey from the lobby group the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) shows that business peaked in 2007-08, and that the wider recession is now significantly affecting the sector.
A new pilot plant in Barcelona will demonstrate and test regenerative life support system technologies that could one day be used to recycle waste products and provide food, water and oxygen for long-term exploration missions on the moon or Mars.
Scaled Composites is increasing the tempo of test flights of the WhiteKnight Two (WK2) mothership for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two (SS2) space tourism vehicle as it prepares to fly the carrier aircraft for its first long-distance flight to Las Cruces, N.M., next week.
PARIS — The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Planck cosmic background surveyor is on its final trajectory, following a critical corrective maneuver on June 5. The maneuver, involving a series of repeated 6-second pulse burns every minute for up to 30 hours, began at 1:28 p.m. EDT. The pulsed burn technique was required because of Planck’s 1 rpm rotation rate, which permits the nonsteerable thrusters to fire for only six seconds during every 60-second rotation.
DONKEY WORK: The U.S. Army plans to award Kaman a follow-on contract to increase the reliability and reduce the susceptibility and vulnerability of the Burro+ unmanned cargo variant of its K-Max external-lift helicopter. Funded through congressional add-ons, the Burro program is examining use of a medium-lift unmanned helicopter for autonomous resupply. Increased performance to reduce exposure time as well as armor and threat-avoidance maneuvers will be studied. Kaman has teamed with Lockheed Martin to offer K-Max for a Marine Corps unmanned cargo aircraft requirement.
EADS is proposing to the German government that it meet its near-term, medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft surveillance needs by creating a partnership with France on the Harfang (formerly the interim SIDM) system.
Planetary scientists are awaiting the first transmission of science data from NASA’s Kepler planet-finding mission to arrive on June 18, after the spacecraft has spent more than a month staring at a stretch of sky in the Cygnus and Lyra constellations.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) hopes to kick off a “roadable aircraft” program in fiscal 2010 called the Transformer (TX) Vehicle. DARPA is looking for a vehicle that lifts off from a road to fly over obstacles, terrain, ambushes and roadside bombs.
PARIS — France has decided to deploy its new Tiger attack helicopter to Afghanistan in a bid to reinforce its close combat attack capability and prove the new system in combat. Speaking to reporters last week, Defense Minister Herve Morin said French President Nicolas Sarkozy had accepted his recommendation to field the aircraft, which army brass have been pushing for months. He indicated that three helicopters will be dispatched to replace older Gazelle rotorcraft currently deployed in the Afghan theater, and that they will arrive on station this summer.
Boeing’s second P-8A Poseidon test aircraft, T2, made its first flight from Renton, Wash., on June 5 and landed at Boeing Field, where it will be outfitted with a full missions systems interior. The aircraft took off at 10:32 a.m. Pacific time and landed two hours and 56 minutes later at Boeing Field, Seattle. Boeing says the T2, painted in U.S. Navy livery, conducted a flyby of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., to give Navy personnel a close-up look. The Navy plans to acquire 117 P-8As to replace its fleet of P-3Cs.
North Korea is readying more missiles for launch as part of its long-term program to antagonize countries trying to rein in its nuclear and missile testing and its contraband exports of those technologies. On the other side of the Pacific, U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) officials are preparing for the worst. They have conducted three tests of their nascent, layered missile shield against targets that simulate an engagement of a North Korean missile launch, says U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Chris Anzalone, director of testing for MDA.
FLIR FLURRY: FLIR Systems announced June 8 several orders of its SAFIRE and BRITE Star class systems aboard U.S. and international Black Hawk helicopters. FLIR’s Talon-class compact multisensor systems have been ordered for U.S. Army HH-60M Black Hawks. An international customer will deploy the BRITE Star II on a Black Hawk, and an unnamed U.S. customer has selected the Star STAFIRE HD for its Black Hawks. And according to FLIR, both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have made decisions “in favor of” Star SAFIRE III aboard their Black Hawk fleets.
U.S. national laboratories are developing technology to more quickly gather and analyze data following a nuclear or radiological attack, but congressional auditors say the government faces a shortage in personnel who can do the work.
RADIO SHOWS: Northrop Grumman has delivered the initial integrated communication, navigation and identification (CNI) system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter after completion of safety-of-flight tests. Involving almost 500,000 lines of software and providing VHF/UHF transmit and receive, IFF transponder, radar altimeter, TACAN radionavigation and diagnostics, the CNI suite will fly on the first mission-system test F-35, aircraft BF-4, later this year. The initial CNI system has completed flight-tests on Lockheed Martin’s CATBird avionics test bed, a modified 737.
