The first two men to follow their fathers into orbit met on board the International Space Station this morning, following the safe docking of their Soyuz TMA-13/17S vehicle at the nadir side of Russia’s Zarya module. Expedition 17 Commander Sergey Volkov, son of Soyuz cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, greeted Richard Garriott, the son of Skylab and shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott, when the hatches separating the two craft were opened at about 6 a.m. EDT.
PARIS — The French government will go ahead with a roadmap for reorienting and streamlining its defense program, despite the potential effect of the financial crisis and heavy criticism from military and political leaders worried about its consequences.
Delays continue for the U.S. Air Force’s $15 billion combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement program. Contractors confirm that Air Force briefings scheduled for early October have been postponed as the service focuses more intently on its internal review of the troubled acquisition, which was slapped down twice by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and is now the subject of a Pentagon Inspector General (IG) investigation.
LEAN TIMES: The course for fiscal 2009 for the U.S. Navy Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) “looks pretty stable” and should not really feel the effects of the current global market instability, says Capt. Mike Kelly, commanding officer of the San Diego base. FRCSW essentially is a steady-state operation without giant excursions, and it has the budget it needs for now, he tells Aviation Week. But expectations for fiscal 2010 are more fraught with uncertainty, Kelly explained Oct. 10.
TESTED METTLE: The U.S. Navy Department on Oct. 3 dedicated the “Zubowski Flats,” a new “realistic ground antenna test range” for counter-improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind. Efforts will center around new technologies that jam IED signals and create better armor. The range is named in honor of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Scott Zubowski from North Manchester, Ind., the first Marine from Indiana killed in Iraq by an IED.
Despite the dominance of fixed-wing aircraft and related expenses atop the Pentagon spending lists at the mid-year point of 2008, the U.S. Army ranked the highest among the services in contract spending, according to an Aerospace Daily analysis of data provided by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR).
ARMY DRS-C3 Systems Inc., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., was awarded Oct. 7, 2008, a $8,694,387 firm fixed price contract. This procurement is for 564 tube-launched optically-tracked wire guided missile launchers. Work will be performed in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., with estimated and completion date of Jul. 31, 2010. One bid was solicited and one bid was received. U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-08-C-0145). NAVY
The Pentagon needs to develop a more coherent picture of its supplier base, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). “DOD’s efforts to monitor its supplier base lack a department-wide framework and consistent approach,” GAO said in its report, released earlier this month.
Another significant step for seabased unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) took place recently on the Mediterranean when a rotary-wing UAV was automatically landed on a French Navy frigate, the Montcalm. The demonstration Oct. 9 and 10 was made by French military shipyard DCNS, which worked on an automatic deck landing and take-off system, the SADA (Système d’Appontage et de Décollage Automatique) in close collaboration with Austrian company Schiebel, which developed the CAMCOPTER S-100 that was used for the demonstration.
The Standing NATO Maritime Group will begin anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in two weeks. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a press conference Oct. 9 — the first day of an informal meeting of allied defense ministers in Budapest — that NATO ships would escort vessels transporting World Food Program (WFP) aid to Somalia upon request of the United Nations. He said the NATO warships also would conduct patrols off the Somali coast to deter pirates.
LONDON — The U.K. Defense Ministry is seeking potential bidders to provide support for rotary wing training for the two decades following the expiration of the present service provision in 2012. The ministry is now seeking “prospective bidders” to support the Defense Helicopter Flying School (DHFS), which handles rotary wing training for all three armed services.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a cost plus fixed fee contract with Honeywell International Incorporated of Clearwater, Fla., for $9,391,835. This action will provide “Advanced Inertial Measurement Unit” for the Advanced Ballistic Missile Technological Program. At this time $80,000 has been obligated. Det 8 AFRL/RVKV, Directorate of Contracting, Kirtland AFB, N.M., is the contracting activity (FA9453-08-C-0612, P00003).
MANIPULATED MEDIA: The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency has aw $254 million contract to support the National Media Exploitation Center (NMEC). The deal has a six-month base period of performance and four one-year options. “Work will be performed primarily overseas,” according to the contractor. The NMEC provides “strategic document and media exploitation” to the intelligence community, law enforcement and Defense Department. Under the contract, SAIC will provide linguist translation and transcription, media and document exploitation and related support services.
Two new crew members and a wealthy space tourist are en route to the International Space Station (ISS) after a nominal launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome Oct. 12, with docking scheduled early Oct. 14.
Lockheed Martin is starting to receive the big assemblies for the first of two spacecraft it is building for the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) constellation that’s due for launch in the first quarter of 2010. The first major piece to arrive at the company’s Sunnyvale, Calif., facility is the integrated propulsion subsystem from Lockheed Martin’s Mississippi Space & Technology Center at the Stennis Space Center.
TWISTED SATURN: New images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have revealed enormous cyclones at both of Saturn’s poles. The cyclone at the gas giant’s north pole is only visible in the near-infrared wavelengths because the pole is in winter. The whirlpool-like cyclone there is rotating at 530 kilometers per hour (325 miles per hour), according to NASA, which is more than twice as fast as the highest winds measured in cyclones on Earth. The images can be found at www.nasa.gov/cassini.
Raytheon is eyeing the potential world market for aircraft based on the Astor airborne ground surveillance system the company developed for the U.K. — a market some outside analysts have estimated at 30-50 aircraft. Raytheon officials won’t share their own analyses of global demand for the system, which is essentially an affordable version of the U.S. Air Force’s digitally formidable, Northrop-built E-8 Joint Stars ground-surveillance system design. Instead of a mission crew of 23, there would be only three-to-five analysts on board.
ARMY Raytheon Co., Largo, Fla., was awarded Sept. 30, 2008, a $21,635,359 cost plus fixed price contract for development effort for the Joint–Tactical Terminal senior upgrade kit. Work will be performed in Ontario, Canada, Linthicum, Md., and Columbia Md., with estimated and completion date of Oct. 1, 2010. Bids solicited were IBOP and one bid was received. CECOM Acquisition Center, Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-08-C-T210).
Iran plans another satellite launch attempt soon, according to the country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Debate continues as to whether an earlier attempt this summer was a success or possibly resulted in just the upper stage of a space launch vehicle attaining orbit. The payload planned for the next attempt will be designated “Omid” (Hope) and will carry imaging and radio relay equipment. The spacecraft will be launched with a multistage booster equipped with 16 engines designed to place the satellite into a 430-mile orbit.
SPROUTING SALES: General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products said last week that U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command has awarded it two new orders for Hydra-70 rockets and warheads. Worth about $85 million altogether, the awards fall under a five-year contract signed in 2005 that has a total potential value of more than $900 million if all options are exercised. Deliveries will begin in May 2010.
Scientists are puzzling over a massive planet-sized object discovered by Europe’s Corot orbital observatory that is unlike any heavenly body seen before. The object, dubbed Corot-exo-3b, is about the size of Jupiter but with 20 times Jupiter’s mass, and takes only four days and six hours to orbit its parent star.
KOREAN CAPABILITIES: The commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, Army Gen. Walter Sharp, says that despite rumors of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il’s health, reported missile tests and difficulty in talks over nuclear capabilities, the allied stance remains the same. “We’ve not seen anything out of the normal,” Sharp says of the otherwise famously volatile hermit state. “We continue to be concerned about the development, the proliferation and testing of missile systems in North Korea.” Meanwhile, Sharp expects to maintain the same U.S.
