TerreStar says it has obtained approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to delay launch of its first dedicated hybrid mobile satellite service spacecraft until June 30, 2009, and push back its operational debut until Aug. 30 of the same year. The satellite had initially been pegged for launch on Sept. 30 and operation on Nov. 30, but ran into design problems that have affected the satellite’s reflector and S-band feed array. TerreStar also received a similar OK from Industry Canada for the deferral.
DARPA is seeking concepts for an aircraft capable of converting into a submarine that can clandestinely insert and extract an eight-person special forces team. The mission is to take off from a runway, fly 1,000 nautical miles as a conventional aircraft, fly another 100 nautical miles close to the surface, then travel the final 12 nautical miles to the coast underwater. Transit should take less than eight hours.
NEAR MISS: A joint U.S.-Japanese test of the Aegis sea-based ballistic missile defense system did not yield a target intercept. The demonstration, which took place Nov. 20, was Japan’s second flight-test of the Aegis system. The first resulted in an intercept last December. During the recent test, Japan’s Chokai destroyer tracked a ballistic missile target launched from Kauai, Hawaii, developed a firing solution, and launched an SM-3 Block IA, but the weapon failed to intercept. The Missile Defense Agency is investigating the miss.
A Boeing-led team has been selected to continue development of a system enabling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to autonomously rendezvous with a tanker and refuel. Phase 2 of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Automated Aerial Refueling (AAR) program will involve actual fuel delivery to a surrogate UAV.
The NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover team has selected four finalist landing sites, all with ties to Martian water, as it moves toward final site selection next summer to support an Atlas V launch in September 2009. The nuclear-powered MSL rover is the size of a small car and carries much more powerful instrumentation to assess whether life evolved at any of the watery sites.
LASER HOG: The U.S. Air Force has conducted the first release of a GBU-54 Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) from an upgraded A-10C. In the test at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., the 500-pound weapon was dropped on a Global Positioning System-designated target and then redirected in flight to a laser-illuminated target. First used in combat by a USAF F-16 in August, Laser JDAM is designed to attack moving targets, The U.S.
Canada has commissioned MacDonald Dettwiler Associates (MDA) to begin preliminary definition of a radar satellite constellation to ensure continuity of C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging capability and maintain Canada’s sovereignty over its far-flung northern reaches. The system will utilize small 1,300-kilogram (2,900-pound) satellites, barely half the mass of the existing Radarsat 2, each of which will be launched separately aboard a Dnepr-1 rocket.
The amount Congress appropriated for 20 F-22 Raptors in fiscal 2009 was incorrectly reported in a Nov. 20 DAILY article. It is $140 million. The amount the Defense Department claims it will save taxpayers by spending only $50 million also was incorrect. It is $90 million.
The U.S. Army should field a dual-surge, full-spectrum force to better address the stresses and strains of persistent irregular warfare, according to Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) chief Andrew Krepinevich.
EQUATORIAL SHOTS: Sea Launch and Intelsat have signed an umbrella launch contract covering five missions from Sea Launch’s mobile equatorial launch platform that will be conducted from late 2010 through 2012. Sea Launch has performed eight successful missions for Intelsat, including Galaxy 18 and Galaxy 19 this year.
Astronauts Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough took time out from cleaning and lubricating a damaged rotary joint on the International Space Station Nov. 20 to grease up the station arm for a better chance at grappling an automated Japanese cargo carrier next year.
NASA conducted a roughly four-second ground firing of the Launch Abort System (LAS) motor for the Orion spacecraft at Alliant Techsystems’ (ATK) facility in Promontory, Utah, on Nov. 20, marking the first test of its kind since the Apollo era and clearing the way for the first integrated pad abort flight-test this coming spring at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
NEW YORK – The Pentagon plans to begin adding more personnel to the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) in an attempt to bolster the work force responsible for overseeing billions of dollars worth of contracts.
Crews on the International Space Station and the space shuttle Endeavour have finished transferring the big equipment racks just delivered by the STS-126 mission, and are well on their way to activating the two racks that will recycle urine and other liquid waste into drinkable water. Meanwhile, extravehicular activity (EVA) experts at Johnson Space Center in Houston believe they will be able to finish all of the station-lubrication work planned for the station, even without the two grease guns lost overboard on Nov. 18 (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 19).
Sikorsky has begun flight-tests of the CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter for the Canadian Forces, with the delayed first flight taking place from the company’s development center in Florida Nov. 15. Sikorsky was awarded a C$1.8 billion ($1.5 billion) contract in November 2004 to build 28 CH-148s to replace Canada’s long-serving Sea King ship-based helicopters. First delivery was originally scheduled for the end of this month, but has been delayed by development issues.
NASHUA, N.H. – BAE Systems is demonstrating new communications algorithms that can compress as many as five simultaneous, stealthy radio conversations into the same time and frequency slot. BAE Systems’ demonstration is part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Interference Multiple Access (DIMA) communications program.
POWER OUTAGE: An MQ-1B Predator unmanned aircraft crashed at Balad Air Base, Iraq, on June 2 because of a catastrophic electrical system overload, a U.S. Air Force accident investigation has concluded. The overload was due to a failure of either the number 2 alternator or a cable between it and the dual alternator regulator, which led to a primary control failure. Eight Predators were lost in theater during fiscal 2008.
U.S. Defense Department leaders may have effectively choked off further F-22 procurement through their narrow interpretation of fiscal 2009 defense lawmaking. Despite some congressional insistence that the Pentagon spend $143 million in advance procurement for 20 F-22s in FY ’09, Pentagon acquisition czar John Young on Nov. 19 stood by a DOD announcement last week to allocate only $50 million for long-lead parts for four aircraft.
LOS ANGELES – Results from the U.S. Army’s C4ISR On-The-Move Event 08 exercise last summer at Fort Dix, N.J., indicate that the network-centric operations (NCO) capability is mature enough to be fielded, Boeing says.
LAUNCH ORDER: Honeywell has received a $52 million contract for the first production batch of F124-200 engines to power Alenia Aermacchi’s M-346 advanced jet trainer. The Italian air force is launch customer for the twin-turbofan M-346, with an order for 14 aircraft to be funded by the country’s economic development ministry. Honeywell also is preparing to offer an afterburning version of the engine, the F125IN, to re-engine the Indian air force’s Sepecat Jaguars. A request for proposals is expected early next year.
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for final preparations prior to its scheduled January launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Taurus rocket. Built by Orbital and dedicated to the study of carbon dioxide and the carbon cycle in the atmosphere, OCO will be launched into a 438-mile-high near-polar sun-synchronous orbit inclined 98.2 degrees to the equator. From there it will map the globe once every 16 days, flying in formation with five other spacecraft in the NASA-led A-Train constellation.
Hawker Beechcraft has been awarded a $171.5 million contract by the U.S. Air Force’s Big Safari special-mission modification group to supply 23 King Air 350ER twin-turboprops for ISR missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, with an option for six more.
POWER UP: Boeing has completed Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) upgrades on its third C-130. The aircraft moved into ground test and evaluation at Boeing’s San Antonio, Texas, facility Sept. 26. The company illuminated the aircraft’s electrical systems on Oct. 1. During the 10-month installation, AMP 3 received a fully integrated, night-vision-goggle compatible, digital glass cockpit and a new digital avionics system. Boeing said successful power up is an important step toward first flight, which is scheduled for February 2009.
