NASA and the California Air Resources Board are conducting a series of research flights from San Diego to Trinidad Head near the Oregon border, taking atmospheric composition measurements in a study of the chemical dynamics of smog and greenhouse gases.
BAE Systems has developed a new lighter, smaller and more powerful radiation-hardened computer memory chip for use initially on a classified space mission, while also upgrading the design of its space-qualified computer. The two projects demonstrate how a major investment in upgrading the Specialty Microelectronics Foundry in Manassas, Va., is providing the type of custom-made, radiation-hardened devices the Defense Department needs to support its space operations.
THURAYA HANDOVER: Boeing has completed the handover of the Thuraya-3 Geo-Mobile satellite to Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications, which will use it to provide mobile phone services in 170 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. A Boeing 702, the satellite was launched Jan. 15 by a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL.
PARIS – France plans to greatly expand its military space capabilities in its first major strategic shift since the end of the Cold War. The move is part of a major reinforcement of reconnaissance/intelligence, ballistic missile protection, force projection and ground force capabilities planned over the next 15 years to allow the country to combat terrorism and other evolving global threats.
Two independent analysts at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) are nervous that the U.S. Navy’s bureaucracy may be on its way to essentially killing its Unmanned Combat Air System (N-UCAS) effort by rolling back its nascent demonstration program.
AUSTRALIAN TORPEDO: Australia test fired the new MU90 Lightweight Anti-Submarine Warfare Torpedo from the HMAS Toowoomba off Mandurah in Western Australia late last week. The MU90 “will provide a significant upgrade to the Anti-Submarine Warfare capabilities of the surface combatant platforms of the Royal Australian Navy, including the RAN’s FFG and ANZAC frigates,” Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said. The MU90 is being acquired in a three-phase program worth AUS$616 million.
September 23, 2008 Madrid, Spain Don’t miss the second annual AVIATION WEEK Management Forum dedicated to green initiatives in the airline industry, including: emissions treading; carbon offsets; and air traffic management improvement. Learn more at www.aviationweek.com/forums or call +1.212.904.3195.
Testing problems have led the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to shift the focus of next month’s ground-based midcourse ballistic missile defense system (GBMDS) test to radar integration rather than an intercept, according to MDA chief U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering. Obering, who has appeared twice on Capitol Hill in recent days, told separate audiences that the GBMDS program would be back “on track” with intercept tests late this year when the second of two system tests planned for 2008 occurs.
NASA Kennedy Space Center managers are confident that extensively damaged brickwork in the flame trench of Launch Complex 39A can be repaired without disrupting the planned Oct. 8 launch of Atlantis to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
The notion of predictable, reliable inter- and intracontinental airlift will be integral to the success of the new U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), according to the command’s chief, U.S. Army Gen. William Ward.
Nine Lockheed Martin C-5s are unable to fly and classified as “non-mission capable for supply” following a May 1 incident, though Air Mobility Command says the problem has created “no operational impacts.”
HUSH FUNDS: The fiscal 2009 funding request for classified programs will be the second-highest level of funding provided for classified acquisition programs since FY 1987, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). In a new update, the organization says the $34 billion tag on acquisition funding included in the FY 2009 DOD budget request represents a near doubling of classified acquisition funding since FY 1995.
AFGHANISTAN FOCUS: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) wants President Bush to shift resources from Iraq to Afghanistan. In a sharply worded letter to the White House, Skelton tells Bush “we must once again make Afghanistan our number one priority.” Noting the rise in attacks in Afghanistan’s eastern region and spreading Taliban insurgency across the border in Pakistan, Skelton says the U.S. “must reprioritize and shift needed resources from Iraq to Afghanistan.” Skelton says NATO allies must also do more but “the U.S.
PARIS – European space industry leaders are preparing a hedge scheme, to be submitted at the European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial summit in November, that would protect launch provider Arianespace with a hedge against future erosion of the U.S. dollar.
ACTIVE PROTECTION: A component of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) hit avoidance system, the Active Protection System (APS), will be run through an end-to-end test in July, according to Maj. Lewis Phillips, assistant product manager for hit avoidance. Two specific countermeasures comprise APS – short- and long-range. The short-range system will be tested this July, and the long-range countermeasure is on track for development and system testing in fiscal 2010.
Outbound U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says the service may have to “reshape and revise” the request for proposals (RFP) for a new refueling tanker competition, and one new criterion may be a flyoff of the dueling designs.
THAAD LAUNCH: The Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program will fly an intercept test against a separating missile target June 25 at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) chief, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Trey Obering, says that MDA’s current system configuration, which did not exist as recently as 2004, was accomplished “because we were given special authorities and flexibility that wasn’t general across the department.” He adds that his was a “great model for the future.
EXPLORER: NASA has selected two science proposals to be the agency’s next Explorer Program Mission of Opportunity investigations. The first will provide a U.S. science instrument for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s New exploration X-Ray Telescope (NeXT) that will study black holes and other extreme environments in the universe. The other investigation will fly an atmospheric remote sensing instrument package aboard a yet-to-be-determined future commercial satellite. The investigation initially will be funded at approximately $250,000 for a concept study.
A400M ROLLOUT: Airbus Military Aircraft will roll out the first A400M airlifter on June 26. Airbus still hopes to fly the aircraft by September, although it admits the deadline “is getting increasingly tight.” Engineers want the aircraft’s TP400 turboprop to accumulate some 50 hours on a C-130 Hercules testbed before clearing the first flight. The engine began a 30-hour ground run test campaign earlier this month.
INDIAN ENGINE: India soon is expected to release a request for proposals to develop its indigenous Kaveri aircraft engine. General Electric had earlier decided not to participate in the co-development of the engine, but Pratt & Whitney tells Aerospace DAILY that while it has not received any communication about the effort, “it is always interested in developing new partnerships.” Delays in getting the Kaveri project off the ground led India in 2004 to purchase F404-GE-IN20 engines to power at least the first 20 of its Light Combat Aircraft.
