The U.S. Army has awarded iRobot Corp. the $286 million xBot contract for up to 3,000 military ground robots over the next five years, after stripping the award from original winner Robotic FX.
This month NASA plans to begin testing core components of its Apollo-derived J-2X engine, which will power the upper stage of the Ares I and Ares V rockets that are being designed to send astronauts and cargo on their way to the moon. NASA will test the engine's powerpack - a gas generator and turbopumps that perform the rocket engine's major pumping and combustion work - at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Canadian Land Staff Chief Lt. Gen. Andrew Leslie says his most immediate materiel needs include the addition of a medium/heavy lift helicopter into the fleet as soon as possible.
Structural problems have prompted the U.S. Navy to ground 39 of its P-3C aircraft, ten of which are deployed to units abroad. The grounded aircraft are operating beyond known structural limits in an area of the lower section of their wing. Analysis of the problem and fixes are expected to take up to two years. The fix will include a replacement of the structure at the trailing edge of the wing between the two engine nacelles, according to John Milliman, a spokesman for Naval Air Systems Command at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
DMSP SHIPPED: Lockheed Martin Space Systems has shipped the Flight-18 Block FD-3 Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite to Vandenberg Air Force Base for launch next July on an Atlas V. It is among four spacecraft in storage to fulfill the U.S. Air Force's strategic and tactical weather forecasting requirements. The Block FD-3 has larger sensor payloads than previous generations. It will be the second payload launched on an Atlas V from Vandenberg.
NASA has picked a pair of celestial targets for the Deep Impact spacecraft that blasted the comet Tempel-1 with a copper projectile on July 4, 2005. Under the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization and Deep Impact Extended Investigation (EPOXI) mission, the Ball Aerospace mothership will use the larger of its two telescopes next month to examine planetary systems that have been discovered around other stars, and then conduct a close flyby of the comet Hartley 2 on Oct. 11, 2011.
The U.S. Coast Guard's embattled Deepwater recapitalization program will be revised over the next several months as the Homeland Security Department's armed service adjusts to aborted unmanned aircraft and patrol boat efforts while trying to meet increased post-9/11 requirements.
KEEP FLYING: Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) on Dec. 17 announced new legislation proposing adding money to NASA's budget to extend space shuttle operations until the Orion vehicle arrives, eliminating the anticipated gap in U.S. human spaceflight capability. The bill would provide for two shuttle flights per year after 2010 - the orbiter's current retirement date - while also providing additional resources to accelerate Orion's debut from its 2015 target.
A Democratic effort on Capitol Hill to provide a spending bill for the rest of the federal government outside of the Defense Department is already drawing opposition from the White House and some Republicans.
ROBOT LOSS: The U.S. Army reportedly has stripped Robotic FX of the $280 million xBot bomb-disposal robot program after investigating the Illinois-based contractor in light of a lawsuit brought against it by competitor iRobot. iRobot lost xBot to Robotic FX in an unusual reverse auction procurement. Prior to the auction, iRobot filed a theft of trade secrets lawsuit against Robotic FX, which was founded by a former iRobot employee, alleging that it stole its proprietary designs (DAILY, Oct. 26).
Nineteen senators are pressuring the White House and Pentagon to "rightly fund" C-17 production by including it in the forthcoming fiscal 2009 budget request due to Congress in February. Two letters, dated Dec. 13, were dispatched; one each went to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Both letters encourage the Bush administration to stop looking to Congress to plus-up funding for Boeing's strategic airlifter production line in Long Beach, Calif.
AIR FORCE United Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Group of East Hartford, Conn., is being awarded an undefinitized contract for $114,663,000. This action provides for F119-PW-117-PW-100 engines, CY08 sustainment undefinitized contract action. At this time $85,997,000 has been obligated. Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (FA8611-05-C-2851).
TEL AVIV, Israel - Urban Aeronautics has signed a three-year contract with Turbomeca for an Arriel-class engine to power the MULE unmanned aerial vehicle. The MULE is an unmanned vertical take-off and landing platform powered by internal rotors - a design called Fancraft technology, patented by Urban Aeronautics. The 5.3-meter (17-foot) aircraft was designed for resupply and medevac missions, according to Janina Frankel-Yoeli, vice president of marketing.
ARMY BAE Systems Land and Armaments, York, PA, was awarded on Nov. 29, 2007, a $135,163,802 cost-reimbursable contract for reset of Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Work will be performed in York, Pa., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was one bid solicited on Aug. 14, 2007, and one bid was received. The Tank, Automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity W56HZV-05-G-0005. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
YET AGAIN: With time running out and lawmakers still divided over most of the fiscal 2008 spending bills, Congress has passed another continuing resolution (CR) to keep government operations going for another week. The CR, the third this year, will fund most government operations, except defense and homeland security, through Dec. 21, by which time congressional leaders hope to have rolled all remaining spending measures into a compromise omnibus bill (DAILY, Dec. 12).
SECOND COMPETITOR: Astrobotic Technology of Redmond, Wash., says it will be an entrant in the Google Lunar X Prize competition to put a robotic rover on the moon. It has tapped Raytheon to design advanced lunar landing technologies, and the company might also be tapped for engineering management, the lander design and high-bandwidth telecommunications. Odyssey Moon was the first team to formally announce its intention to vie for the $20 million prize, which will go to the first private company to reach the moon by Dec.
UAV MEETING: Dyke Weatherington, head of the Pentagon's unmanned aerial systems (UAS) planning task force, tells analysts and UAS operators he's trying to organize a high-level meeting among DOD, NASA and FAA officials to thrash out the UAS airspace access problem, but he can't find a high-level NASA official who is interested in participating. NASA's earlier effort to help enable "file and fly" UAS operations in the U.S., known as Access Five, was abandoned after the agency's aeronautics budget was slashed (DAILY, Sept. 27, 2005).
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] Jan. 7 - 10 -- 46th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' (AIAA) Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. Green Sierra Resort Hotel, Reno, Nev. For more information call (703) 264-7500, fax (703) 264-7551 or see www.aiaa.org Jan. 15 -- National Defense Industrial Association's Women in Defense Executive Breakfast. NDIA Headquarters, Arlington, Va. For more information call (703) 247-2589, fax (703) 522-1885 or see www.ndia.org
TRADE MERGERS: Two major Washington-area trade groups representing federal contractors will combine, as the Professional Services Council (PSC) and the Contract Services Association of America (CSA) said they have approved plans to merge into a unified association. The PSC-CSA merger, which keeps the PSC name, comes on the heels of a similar announcement a month ago by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA).
