KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - NASA hopes to be installing the European Space Agency's Columbus module on the International Space Station (ISS) this week, pending flight rule workarounds to circuitry problems in the Atlantis engine cutoff (ECO) sensor system. The liftoff of Atlantis and its U.S./European STS-122 astronaut crew was set for no earlier than Dec. 8, but could also have been delayed into early this week or later depending upon events over the weekend.
ICE2 RECOMPETE: The U.S. Air Force's $2.25 billion Intelligence Information, Command and Control, Equipment and Enhancements (ICE2) contract recompetition may be a wide-open free-for-all, according to Washington-area federal IT consultancy Input. General Dynamics IT won the original ICE2 contract in June 2003 (DAILY, Aug. 20).
AIR RISK: The Pentagon is proposing to amend defense acquisition regulations to combine and extend contract clauses regarding assumption of risk for loss in leasing aircraft to the government. The proposed rule establishes requirements that apply "consistently" to all contract types, regulators said in a Dec. 7 notice in the Federal Register. Comments should be submitted by Feb. 5, 2008. Among other aspects, the provision would establish a share of loss for the contractor that is the lesser of $100,000 or 20 percent of the estimated contract cost or price.
TAXING CREDIT: Aerospace and defense industry representatives and others are pushing lawmakers to pass an extension of a favorite tax credit for research and development (R&D) efforts. The House on Nov. 9 passed a bill including language to extend the R&D credit for a year until Dec. 31, 2008. The Senate had yet to act when trade groups climbed Capitol Hill to lobby for the extension Dec. 5.
CYBER OPPORTUNITIES: The ability to centrally assess and communicate the fact that data links or satellites are under attack by adversaries will require further innovation by industry but could reap greater profit rewards as well, according to Air Force officials tied to the service's upcoming cyber command. The requirement includes collecting tremendous amounts of data, bringing it all together for personnel to spot changes in real time, and communicating conclusions and asset retasking to combat commanders (DAILY, Dec. 6).
JAGM RFP: A request for proposals for the reborn Joint Common Missile program, now called the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), is expected out next month. The earlier effort to replace the Maverick, Longbow and Hellfire missiles was awarded to Lockheed Martin but terminated as a result of budget cuts at the Pentagon. The military, however, hasn't let go of the requirement for a new small air-to-ground weapon, and JAGM will be designed to satisfy that need for the Army and Navy.
NASA's reassignment of Caris A. (Skip) Hatfield, the original program manager on the Orion crew exploration vehicle, was unrelated to a major weight scrub Hatfield oversaw that pulled the vehicle back within bounds. "Personal problems" between NASA managers didn't play into it, nor did unhappiness with Hatfield's technical solutions, insiders say. Administrator Michael Griffin refuses to discuss personnel matters with the press, but discounts charges the Orion program has been adding risk to reduce weight.
PARIS - Thales Alenia Space is teaming with Russia's NPO-PM to co-develop a multimission medium-high power spacecraft bus in a move that will reinforce the trend toward globalization in the satellite industry. The new satellite line, to be named the Express 4000, will borrow avionics and other features from Thales Alenia's Spacebus 4000 line, and carry a Thales Alenia payload. NPO-PM will be responsible for building, marketing and integrating the spacecraft at its Krasnoyarsk, Russia facilities.
NASA scrubbed its planned launch of space shuttle Atlantis Dec. 6 after two of four engine cutoff (ECO) sensors in the liquid hydrogen tank failed a routine test as the tank was being filled, violating a launch constraint that has held past missions on the ground for weeks.
MICA SALE: The Sultanate of Oman has confirmed the award of a contract for a vertical launch version of the Mica medium-range air-to-air missile and Exocet MM40 Block 3 antiship missiles, which have an extended 180-kilometer (112-mile) range and a littoral attack capability. The MBDA weapons are intended for Oman's three new Khareef offshore patrol vessels. This marks the first sale for the VL Mica, which protects against saturating air and antiship attacks.
High-altitude winds and an insulation-debonding issue have pushed launch of Italy's second COSMO-Skymed radar satellite back until the evening of Dec. 7 at the earliest. Managers scrubbed a planned launch attempt a little more than two minutes before liftoff Dec. 5 when weather-balloon data indicated out-of-bounds wind speeds at altitude above the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., launch pad. A retry Dec. 6 was postponed to give technicians time to repair some debonded cork insulation on the Delta 2 launch vehicle.
ATK ORDER: Alliant Techsystems will continue to provide Orbital Sciences Corp. with its Orion solid-fuel rocket motors under a new $35 million contract. Orbital uses the motors, which range in length from four to 33 feet, in its Pegasus, Taurus and Minotaur I space launch vehicles. ATK has delivered 100 flight sets of the Orion motors, which are also used in the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Orbital Boost Vehicle.
NEW DELHI - Despite a flurry of denials by Eurocopter and the Indian army, the country's ministry of defense has decided to terminate a $600 million deal to purchase 197 AS550 Fennec helicopters. "The government has decided to cancel the RFP [request for proposals] for 197 helicopters for the army," defense ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said. "A fresh RFP will be issued soon." Final price negotiations were ongoing with Eurocopter and the contract was expected to be signed in December (DAILY, Dec. 6).
U.S. aerospace has attained peak after peak in significant business-performance measures during the past few years, and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) sees more of the same in 2008. "This trend will continue in dramatic fashion," new AIA chief Marion Blakey said in her first address to the annual AIA year-end luncheon outside Washington. "The news through 2010 should be equally good." (See charts p. 5-8).
Odyssey Moon, the first entrant in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, is offering no details of how it will place a robotic explorer on the lunar surface, but its prime contractor, MDA of Canada, has decades of experience in space robotics and exploration. Odyssey Moon Chairman Ramin Khadem, an investor and former chief financial officer for Inmarsat, says it is too early in the competition to talk specifics, which are not expected to begin emerging until next year.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully completed the second firing of the P80 first stage solid rocket motor intended to power Europe's Vega light rocket. The firing, carried out on a test stand in Kourou, French Guiana, delivered 190 metric tons of thrust - equivalent to a third of the total thrust generated by the Ariane 5's solid rocket boosters - for a nominal duration of 111 seconds. The first firing took place late last year.
U.S. Air Force Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) chief Gen. Norton Schwartz says the U.S.'s global reach is "not nearly as robust" in certain areas as necessary, creating potential for problems in the future.
DARPA PAM: BAE Systems said it will adapt large-scale software systems to address emerging threats such as asymmetric warfare for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Producible Adaptive Model-based Software (PAMS) program will develop software that supposedly enables systems to learn from their performance relative to changing conditions. The initial contract is valued at $3.4 million and runs through January 2009, followed by a second phase also worth $3.4 million.
NEW DELHI - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has rescheduled two launches from its launch pad at Sriharikota on its polar satellite launch vehicle - Cartosat A and the Israeli military satellite TechSAR - for the January-February 2008 timeframe. An ISRO spokesman said recent reports in the media that ISRO was under pressure by the U.S. to abandon the TechSAR launch were "totally baseless, false and speculative."
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced the successful test of the Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE) on Dec. 3, an important step in establishing an air-launched intercept system. International competition to develop this type of weapon is fierce. Raytheon's offering is a longer-range version of the AIM-120 advanced medium range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM), and could be launched from manned or unmanned aircraft and airships (DAILY, May 22, 2006).
Exostar projects that its supplier communication network of 38,000 aerospace and defense customers should double during 2008, driven by two major supply chain integration efforts by its clients. The company hosts a number of secure collaborative computer applications through which its clients do business and share information with their supply chains. Exostar's network includes Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Northrop Grumman and EADS.
MANTECH PROGRAM: Manufacturing Technology (ManTech), a program employed for decades by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, has for the first time gone department-wide, with its deployment by the entire Defense Department for 2008. Beginning in fiscal 2008, the program expects to fund investments that will mature ceramic matrix composites manufacturing processes, system-on-chip packaging technology and design guidelines and advanced manufacturing processes for prosthetics.
The U.S. Coast Guard accepted the first shore installation of its National Security Cutter (NSC) software suite at its Petaluma Training Center in California Dec. 5, marking the final phase of a $20 million C4ISR simulator. According to software designer Lockheed Martin, the suite in Petaluma provides a near-duplicate environment to the one of the NSC, providing crews training there with a real feel for what the ship will offer.
