Delivery of the Japanese Kibo module to the International Space Station and the safe return of Discovery and its STS-124 crew June 14 opens the way for the final 10 missions of the shuttle program, including the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope set for launch Oct. 8. STS-124 Commander Navy Cdr. Mark E. Kelly and mission pilot Ken Ham piloted Discovery through her 35th reentry and landing and the 70th landing of an orbiter at Kennedy Space Center since the 1981 inception of the program.
INSTRUCTING INSTRUCTORS: Iraq’s young air force has established a schoolhouse for the fundamentals of flight instruction at Kirkuk Regional Air Base. Seven of the country’s most experienced pilots are enrolled. A U.S.-led team is implementing the program, which is modeled after the U.S. Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command model for developing flight instructors.
The Eurofighter is helping to provide security over Austria during an ongoing European soccer tournament, a Eurofighter spokesman says. “The Ministry of Defense in Austria has tasked the Austrian Air Force to survey and control the airspace, especially in the area of the soccer stadiums, during the European soccer championship ‘EURO 2008,’” Eurofighter spokesman Theodor Benien told Aerospace DAILY.
ECASS COMING: The U.S. Navy expects a request for proposals for new Electronic Consolidated Automated Support System benches in early 2009, according to Capt. Mike Belcher, aviation support equipment program manager (PMA 260). The system design and development phase with engineering development models will last until around 2012. Then the Navy will build some low-rate-initial-production stations and enter full-rate production in 2014, he said. Full capable eCASS units should arrive in the fleet by 2015.
The U.K.’s third Skynet 5 new-generation military communications satellite has been launched from Kourou, French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 ECA rocket. The 4.7 metric ton Skynet 5C, financed, built and operated by EADS Astrium Services’ Paradigm unit, will provide highly protected UHF/SHF coverage for forward forces around the globe from its perch at 17.8 deg. W. Long.
INFO LINK: In December 2009, work will be complete on an $18.7 million contract awarded by the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) to Rockwell Collins-BAE joint-venture company Data Link Solutions (DLS) for two types of Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Low Volume Terminals (MIDS-LVT) for U.S. and coalition forces. Under the contract, DLS will provide the MIDS LVT-2/11 and LVT-1 terminals. The MIDS LVT-2/11 is specifically designed for U.S.
FURIOUS HERTI: BAE Systems and Thales are working on an armed derivative of BAE’s Herti unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), dubbed Fury. Trials are underway to fit the UAV with the Thales Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) now in development. Captive-carry trials of the LMM store have been conducted as has a static live fire test. BAE and Thales have yet to conduct a guided airborne launch of a live weapon. These trials will be used to show safe separation and that the vehicle’s systems are capable of guiding the weapon to target.
The space shuttle Discovery’s STS-124 crew is ready to complete their Japanese Kibo module delivery mission with a landing at Kennedy Center June 14, weather permitting. “Tomorrow’s entry is looking very good,” Entry Flight Director Richard Jones said during a briefing June 13. The latest weather forecasts show favorable conditions, he said.
SLOT APPLICATION: EchoStar Corp. reportedly has filed an application to build and fly a C-band satellite at 84.9 deg. W. Long. A satellite manufacturer has yet to be named. EchoStar Corp., which was spun off from Dish Corp. earlier this year to develop its fixed satellite service business, currently offers capacity on three FSS spacecraft, all in Ku-/Ka band. The units, two of which are owned by SES Americom, are located at 85, 105 and 121 deg. W.
GLASS HALF FULL: The blank glass mirror, a key component for GeoEye’s next-generation Earth imaging satellite, has been delivered to ITT for polishing and grinding later this summer. GeoEye-2 is expected to launch by 2012, and ITT is handling development of the satellite’s camera. Selection of satellite builder is expected later this year. A resolution requirement hasn’t yet been set for the system. Although GeoEye has an operating license for 0.25-meter resolution, this would limit use of the products to the U.S. government.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) June 17 - 19 — Joint Warfighting 2008, DOD Capabilities for the 21st Century, Virginia Beach Convention Center, Va. For more information go to www.jointwarfighting.org
STATION KEEPING: NASA Administrator Mike Griffin reiterates his conviction that the U.S. will not pull out of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015, when its treaty obligations end — an endgame feared by the U.S. agency’s international partners. “It’s inconceivable that the U.S will abandon a perfectly functioning ISS just because of some arbitrary date,” Griffin tells a gathering of European space leaders at the French National Assembly. “I believe the U.S.
LIGHT FANTASTIC: Lockheed Martin is considering a balloon-borne launch for the Vulture ultra-long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) project being conducted by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The company’s Skunk Works won one of three Phase 1 development contracts in April, along with Boeing and Aurora Flight Sciences (Aerospace DAILY, April 15, 21). The Skunk Works plans a 300-foot wingspan vehicle with strut-braced wings and tail surfaces that rotate so the solar cells face the sun.
GREENBELT, Md. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is undergoing the final integration of its instruments here at Goddard Space Flight Center, with the team eyeing launch on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral between roughly Thanksgiving and the end of the year. The first official launch opportunity is November 24, although the team only has a “handful” of days of schedule margin to make that target, according to Craig Tooley, LRO project manager.
BUYING DRS: Italy’s Finmeccanica is pursuing a dual-track approach to financing the purchase of U.S. defense electronics company DRS Technologies: re-capitalization, and the flotation of its energy subsidiary. Talks are already underway with the Italian treasury, and with its private shareholders, over raising funds. DRS has a price tag of €3.4 billion euros ($5.27 billion). The Finmeccanica board approved re-capitalization proposals to raise up to €800 million in 2007, as needed when an appropriate acquisition target was identified.
SAN DIEGO – The U.S. Marine Corps has sought out Israeli company Elisra to demonstrate the capabilities of a new Tactical Video Data Link that would connect, via live feed, attack helicopters with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ground troops. The TVDL weighs about 11 pounds and is designed to fit into any attack helicopter cockpit. The system enables real-time, broadcast-quality video and data streaming from UAV payloads or ground-based sensors to be displayed for the aircrew.
In the wake of the U.S. Air Force leadership shake up, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is directing the service to field six more Predator combat air patrols (CAPs), as well as more Reapers to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The robotic arm on the Phoenix Mars lander is beginning to expose a hard white layer just in front of the spacecraft, providing additional evidence that the high-priority water ice the mission was launched to study is within easy reach. Imagery taken shortly after landing July 25 showed two large areas of apparent water ice that had been blown free of topsoil by the spacecraft’s landing rockets. These areas, dubbed “Snow Queen” and “Holy Cow,” are under the lander, however, and not directly reachable by the arm,
BLUE RIBBONS: A task force asked to review Defense Department’s nuclear weapons management includes retired high-level officers Michael Carns and Edmund Giambastiani, as well as major defense policy wonks John Hamre, Franklin Miller, Jacques Gansler, J.D. Crouch and Christopher Williams. The panel, led by defense guru James Schlesinger, has been tasked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to scrutinize nuclear stewardship across DOD after slip-ups at the Air Force led Gates to fire the secretary and chief of staff there earlier this month.
JASON-2: The U.S. has rescheduled the launch of the Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission until June 20 because of an issue with backup flight batteries on the Delta II launcher. The $432 million mission, which had been planned for June 15, is intended to ensure continuity of vital sea-surface height measurements in the event Jason 1, launched in 2001, falls silent. The mission is funded by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Eumetsat and French space agency CNES.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – A contractor team headed by Oceaneering International Inc. will build the next-generation spacesuit for NASA under a contract potentially worth $745.9 million through 2018, the agency announced June 12. Oceaneering’s proposal defeated a bid submitted by a joint venture of veteran suitmakers ILC Dover and Hamilton Sundstrand.
A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis reports that executing the U.S. Navy’s latest version of its 30-year shipbuilding plan would cost an average of $27.4 billion per year (in 2009 dollars), or more than double the $12.6 billion a year that the Navy has spent on average since 2003.
Embraer has sold eight Super Tucano trainer/light strike aircraft to the Dominican Republic, and is poised to finalize a deal with Chile next month for another 12 units. The company also is discussing the sale of eight aircraft to the U.S. for duty in Iraq. The aircraft are earmarked for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, which it is refocusing on in an effort to boost Super Tucano sales.
MGV DISPLAYED: Just in time to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 233rd birthday, Future Combat Systems (FCS) lead systems integrators Boeing and SAIC debuted the first Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) prototype, the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), on the National Mall and at the Pentagon June 11. The vehicle’s public unveiling marks the successful integration of the MGV NLOS-C, the first of eight such common-chassis vehicles in FCS.
