EXPLORER 1: Fifty years ago, on Jan. 31, 1958, the U.S. launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, kicking off the U.S. space program in the wake of the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik the year before. Explorer 1 was launched from LC-26 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., onboard a Juno I rocket. The spacecraft was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology under the direction of William H. Pickering.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) will continue to market its Delta II medium-lift launch vehicle once its main U.S. government contracts wind down, restructuring the Boeing-heritage program for expected lower launch rates.
February 14 - 15, 2007 Washington, DC DOD LEADERS DEFINE TECH PRIORITIES & THE RESOURCES TO DEVELOP THEM! Don’t miss this opportunity to gain inside information about mission priorities, the technologies that will enable them and the resources to develop them. -- Identify long-, mid- and short- term defense technology priorities and requirements -- Assess funding capabilities
Re-entry debris data and analysis derived from the space shuttle Columbia accident is being applied to Pentagon studies of how much of the failed National Reconnaissance Office NROL-21 spacecraft will survive re-entry heating and strike Earth in late February or early March.
RAILGUN: The Office of Naval Research will test fire an electromagnetic railgun (EMRG) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Va. on Jan. 31, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST. The gun will be fired at more than 10 megajoules of energy, which is a power level never before achieved by an EMRG, according to the Navy.
Given its increasing dependence on satellites, the U.S. military is more prone than ever to a debilitating attack, according to a recent report by the George C. Marshall Institute. An attack would most certainly be on space-borne assets, but can be defended against, the January report says.
Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) had its protest against NASA’s COTS funded Space Act Agreement (SAA) terms denied by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Jan. 28.
President Bush and congressional Democrats clashed over many issues raised in Bush’s final State of the Union address Jan. 28, including a major issue of importance to the U.S. aerospace industry: funding math and science education and research. Both sides promoted the fact that they hashed out a related new law last year, but they blamed each other for not funding the policy initiative.
Boeing is touting an even newer version of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet that, paired with an advanced sixth-generation fighter in the works at the company, would give customers what Boeing deems a better package of capabilities than Lockheed Martin’s combination of the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
BRAZIL SUBS: Lockheed Martin said Jan. 29 that it was awarded a $35 million contract to deliver open-architecture combat software systems for one Tikuna-class and four Tupi-class submarines, as well as one shore-based trainer system for the Brazilian navy. The Foreign Military Sale, under the U.S. Navy, modernizes the Brazilian fleet and makes it more interoperable with U.S. systems, the company said. “This modernization effort also will enable the Brazilian submarine force to defer future obsolescence of its combat system,” Lockheed added.
BEIJING – The Japanese Defense Ministry wants to buy more airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft and will fit its Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrollers, now under development, with radars that can detect cruise missiles. The moves are responses to rising Chinese cruise missile strike capabilities, says the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, adding that the government also is considering development of an advanced long-range surface-to-air missile system.
The release of a technology development request for proposals (RFP) for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) is anticipated within the next few days, BAE Systems told Aerospace Daily Jan. 29.
LONDON – Senior British Defense Ministry officials are warning that the ongoing planning round will almost certainly see cuts or significant delays in some of its major procurement programs. Gen. Kevin O’Donoghue, the U.K. Chief of Defense Materiel, told the British Parliament’s Defense Committee Jan. 29 that he suspected the ministry would have to delay or make cuts to some of its core programs. “Which they are, or quite what they may be, I don’t know,” he said. “We are in the middle of a planning round.”
Although the formal operational introduction of the first Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) spacecraft isn’t slated to occur until January 2009, the U.S. Air Force expects to make the communications satellite available for warfighters to use as early as April 2008. Following launch last October, the first WGS spacecraft, known as SV-1, was turned over to the Air Force by manufacturer Boeing on Jan. 28 (DAILY, Jan. 29). SV-1 is now beginning the process of regulation and certification by Army and Air Force operational testers.
BRAZIL RADAR: ITT Corp. has been awarded a sole-source contract by CISCEA, part of the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, to upgrade four PAR-2000 precision approach radar systems sold to the country in 1997. The $9.4 million contract includes spare parts, training, and assistance with operations and technical support. Work at the original Brazilian PAR sites will begin in 2008 and conclude around 2013. The PAR-2000 modernization program is designed to enhance supportability of the system deployed at military airfields throughout Brazil.
After a 10-day visit to China, the commanding officer of U.S. forces in the Pacific region says he knows nothing more about Beijing’s intentions behind a stunning kinetic antisatellite (ASAT) demonstration that took place just more than one year ago.
The launch by the Chinese of an anti-satellite hit-to-kill missile (ASAT) in January 2007 will have resonance well into the future, the fourth annual Space Security report said, affecting discussions on strategy, environment, law, and technology for years to come. After a prolonged decline in the annual amount of space debris that ended in 2004, the report from Spacesecurity.org found that rates of debris are on the increase again, driven primarily by the Chinese ASAT test.
LONDON – The British Defense Ministry is now admitting it faces further delay to the in-service date of its Airbus A400M military transport. Written evidence to the British Parliament’s Defense Committee notes that delay to the A400M program “has placed the U.K.’s in-service date of March 2011 … at significant risk.” The 2011 introduction already reflected a shift from the originally planned in-service date of December 2009. The Royal Air Force is due to receive 25 A400Ms to replace its Lockheed Martin C-130K tactical transports.
MESSENGER IMAGES: On Jan. 30, NASA will announce the latest scientific findings and release new images of Mercury taken by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (Messenger) spacecraft during its flyby of the planet earlier this month (DAILY, Jan. 15). After a trip of more than 2 billion miles, Messenger’s cameras and sensors collected more than 1,200 images and made other observations during the Jan. 14 flyby. Data included the first up-close measurements of Mercury since the Mariner 10 spacecraft’s third and final flyby on March 16, 1975.
NASA’s Ames Research Center and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) signed a memorandum for the record on Jan. 26, agreeing to begin technical discussions on possible topics of collaboration in small satellite research. Areas for joint work include satellite communication, navigation systems, planetary exploration, lunar science, rovers, small satellites and related technologies.
The U.S. military’s inability to properly set up or enforce a maintenance contract for equipment and vehicles needed for Iraq combat is costing the Pentagon money and hurting Defense Department operations, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.
ARMY Textron Marine & Land Systems, Textron Inc., New Orleans, La., was awarded on Jan. 18, 2008, a $227,798,613 firm-fixed-price contract for armored security vehicles. The work will be performed in New Orleans, La., and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One bid was solicited on May 9, 2005, and one bid was received. U.S. Army TACOM LCMC, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-05-C-0470). NAVY
