SPACE SHOT: A coalition of space industry businesses and advocacy groups are calling on Congress not to cut back a proposed $1.5 billion NASA provision under the stimulus package working through Capitol Hill. The Coalition for Space Exploration warns that an effort in the Senate to slice half of the provision is a step in the wrong direction. “This could be the first step to adequately fund our nation’s space program, which has gone from four percent of the federal budget during the Apollo era to less than one percent of the budget at present,” the group asserts.
Continuing problems with the environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) on the International Space Station (ISS) mean the orbiting facility must rely on water from visiting space shuttles to support the planned crew of six arriving in May.
The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye program appears to be set to take a hit to its budgeted procurement in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 — a move that comes as the U.S. Navy’s is recommitting to F-35C initial production. The two moves have not been directly linked by officials, but the Joint Strike Fighter’s (JSF) program executive officer said last month that the Navy’s reinstated F-35C spending came at the expense of other naval air accounts (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 20).
SPECIAL K: With critical design review for the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter planned for later this year, Sikorsky has awarded additional subcontracts. Aurora Flight Sciences will supply the composite and titanium engine nacelles, in addition to its existing contract for the main rotor pylon. BAE Systems will supply armored crashworthy cockpit seats and cabin armor. The CH-53K will fly in 2011.
MYSTERY ORDER: Lockheed Martin has won a $29 million contract to purchase spares for Global War on Terror (GWOT) aircraft, but no other details have been provided. So what kind of GWOT aircraft is the company building at Marietta? Not the F-22, and probably not the ubiquitous C-130J. But there are the modernized P-3s, which have been flying reconnaissance in Afghanistan since 2002. So what needs replacing? The U.S. Navy crashed and totaled a special-mission P-3 at Bagram last year that was being used to locate the bad guys in Afghanistan.
BUDDING BONDS: The U.S. Air Force is strengthening its relationship with Brazil’s air force as the South American nation moves forward with plans to buy up to 120 new fighters. USAF’s Southern Command hosted Brazil’s air force leadership last month for “high-level discussions” about cooperation on planning and operations, service officials say. This increased cooperation also comes as Venezuela, one of Brazil’s northern neighbors, is being closely watched for anti-U.S. rhetoric from President Hugo Chavez and its budding ties with potential adversaries to Washington.
The NOAA-N Prime polar-orbiting weather satellite was delivered to space early Feb. 6 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Launch of the 3,130-pound Lockheed Martin spacecraft on a Boeing Delta II 7320-10C from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-2W came at 2:22 a.m. PDT.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s Sentinel-class patrol boat program will suffer a 110-day delay due to a protest, and anticipates releasing a more detailed revised schedule within the next couple of months. On Jan. 28, the U.S. Government Accountability Office denied Marinette Marine Corporation’s protest of the award of a contract to Bollinger Shipyards for the design, construction and delivery of Fast Response Cutters, B-Class (FRC-B), named the Sentinel class by the Coast Guard.
Building a cheaper, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for the F-16 is the next big program in the airborne radar world. Raytheon emerged early with development of an array that the company contends can transmit huge imagery files, as well as fire bursts of microwaves into enemy sensors to jam and otherwise confuse them.
Virgin Galactic’s Scaled Composites WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft resumed flight-tests at Mojave, Calif., on Feb 5. following a six-week hiatus for what is believed to be slight modifications to the flight controls.
Controllers are driving NASA’s Spirit Mars Exploration Rover once more, after a diagnostic test suggested the accelerometers that help the rover determine its orientation on the surface of Mars may be off by about 3 degrees. Mission managers ordered the tests when the rover missed the sun with its camera on Martian sol 1802, one day after it failed to respond to its daily driving commands (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 29).
GENOA, Italy Finmeccanica is changing several top management positions within its companies, the most relevant change lately being the replacement of Maurizio Tucci at the helm of Selex Communications. The new CEO there is Giancarlo Grasso, a special advisor to the Finmeccanica chairman.
PARIS A multibillion dollar order for 35 additional Ariane 5 boosters will position Arianespace to profit from anticipated sustained growth in satellite launch demand in the coming years. The order, worth more than 4 billion euros, follows the purchase of 10 additional Soyuz boosters last fall largely to serve the new launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana. The Kourou pad is due to start up at year’s end.
NEW YORK The Pentagon’s director of procurement and acquisition policy, Shay Assad, said Feb. 4 that the U.S. Defense Department is going to drive a harder bargain with contractors as part of an effort to fix its long-dysfunctional procurement system. “What we’re going to be doing is trying to get as good a deal for the taxpayers as we can,” he said. Contractors’ “first obligation is to their shareholders,” he noted. “Sometimes we lose sight of that.”
OK BY SASC: The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has approved the Obama administration’s nominations for high-level Defense Department leadership. The SASC on Feb. 5 forwarded the nominations of William Lynn III to be deputy secretary of defense, Robert Hale to be chief financial officer, Michèle Flournoy to be undersecretary of defense for policy, and Jeh Charles Johnson to be the Pentagon’s top lawyer. The full Senate will decide whether to confirm the nominations.
AXEL EXERCISED: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology have designed and tested a small robot that can rappel off cliffs, travel over steep and rocky terrain and explore deep craters, according to the agency. Called Axel, the two-wheeled rover could be used on other worlds like Mars, or for terrestrial uses such as assisting in search-and-rescue operations.
LONDON The British Defense Ministry is considering technology insertion programs across key elements of its aerospace engine fleets, with an initial nine-month study contract pending for Rolls-Royce. The study will look at engine reliability, safety and cost drivers on the Eurofighter Typhoon, Tornado GR4 and Harrier GR9 combat aircraft fleets, as well as WAH-64 Apache and AgustaWestland Merlin helicopter fleets in service with the British armed forces.
Precautionary contamination checks have been ordered for the Lockheed Martin NOAA-N Prime weather satellite after ground-based air conditioning for its Delta II launcher failed late Feb. 4 and a second launch attempt was scrubbed. The equipment is designed to provide cool, dry air inside the payload shroud through an umbilical hose that separates at liftoff. NASA officials say they must check to be sure an unacceptable level of hydrocarbons was not introduced into the satellite’s environment, although they think it unlikely.
The most significant challenge facing the unmanned aerial system (UAS) community is integration into the national airspace, according to Rear Adm. William Shannon, the U.S. Navy’s program executive officer for unmanned systems, echoing an oft-repeated concern among the services. “What will it take for the UASs to be accepted into the national airspace?” Shannon asked an audience at the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) program review in Washington Feb. 3.
FORCE PROTECTION: U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command chief Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan faced House Armed Services Committee Members Feb. 4. Testifying before twin subcommittees — Seapower and Expeditionary Forces and Air and Land Forces — Brogan covered force protection systems from A to Z. The theme of his comments, Brogan said, was the “iteration and evolution” of equipment from flak jackets to lightweight armored vehicles. Much of the committee members’ concerns centered on providing troops with proper body armor, although Massachusetts Rep.
MORE LAUNCH: The U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a $31.3 million contract modification to provide additional M299 Launchers and related equipment. The launchers are used aboard a variety of platforms to launch all Hellfire missile variants. Under the modification to a $51.3 million Launcher Bridge 3 contract awarded in 2007, Lockheed Martin will supply an additional 298 M299 helicopter-mounted four-rail missile launchers, 134 launcher electronic assemblies (LEAs) and multiple spares. Deliveries are scheduled to be completed in 2011.
GMD SUPPORT: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has awarded Boeing a one-year, $250 million contract for Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) maintenance and operations support. Awarded Feb. 2, the contract includes an option for 2010 and covers operator and maintainer training, supply chain services, on-site engineering support and technical data development, according to Boeing. The GMD system includes operational sites in Alaska, California and Colorado, as well as the Sea-Based X-Band radar system.
The U.S. Navy has slightly altered its schedule for developing and testing the new Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial system (UAS) after an industry protest put the effort on hold temporarily last year.
