Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has arrived at Kourou, French Guiana, after a two-week voyage from Rotterdam aboard the MN Toucan, the dedicated payload/launcher vessel operated by Arianespace. The final sections of the ATV, intended to resupply the International Space Station and periodically reboost it to higher orbit, were unloaded July 31, along with associated test equipment and rigs, and transferred to Arianespace's big S5 processing facility.
China's naval helicopter unit has learned to land on moving ships at night after trying and failing to do so for three decades. Luo Changshuang, political commissar of the shipboard air troop, says the unit is now an all-weather, multitask combat force.
ACQUISITION REFORM: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine), has forwarded to the Senate legislation Collins authored to supposedly increase accountability in federal contracting. The proposed Accountability in Government Contracting bill falls short of provisions in another acquisition reform bill proposed by high-profile Senate Democrats that has since stalled in Lieberman's committee (DAILY, Feb. 22).
Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) chief executive John Douglass believes that strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics educational programs has enjoyed new national urgency as several groups have dedicated millions of dollars to highlight the drive in next year's presidential election. AIA has led industry members in prompting Congress into "providing ample funding and devoting resources," and members have responded, Douglass said in the AIA's summer newsletter.
While the amount of classified U.S. military or "black" funding has increased through the years, the percentage compared to overall Pentagon spending remains roughly the same, according to a recent report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA).
A congressional compromise measure that aims to boost U.S. math and science education, as well as technology research, should pass both the House and Senate by the end of the week, leading lawmakers said Aug. 1. The legislation follows an almost two-year effort by lawmakers from both parties to find incentives to lure U.S. students into high-tech fields in the face of international competitors, especially India and China, similar to how the 1960s space race girded the United States against the Soviet Union.
SSME CONTRACT: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will get another $975 million to support the space shuttle main engine (SSME) until the shuttle is retired in 2010 under a contract extension announced Aug. 2. The extension of the cost-plus-award/incentive fee contract first awarded in April 2006 brings its total value to a little more than $2.05 billion. The company will maintain and refurbish the reusable SSMEs until September 2010.
The Indian government is looking at reissuing a request for proposals in the next few months for which Boeing Integrated Defense Systems' (IDS) Harpoon missile was the only proposal out of five that met requirements. The original tender for around 30 missiles is expected to be upped to 80 missiles the second time around. The Harpoon was the only missile proposed that was judged a suitable candidate to replace BAE's Sea Eagle medium weight, anti-ship missiles for its SEPECAT Jaguar aircraft.
ELV CHIEF: Giovanni Bignami, head of Italian space agency ASI, has been named to head ELV, the Avio-ASI joint venture in charge of developing Europe's Vega light launcher. Bignami, who joined ASI in April, has been spearheading a drive to launch design of a higher power version of Vega, perhaps in cooperation with Germany. ELV also confirmed Vega would make its inaugural launch in the first half of 2008, and said it is close to concluding a contract with operator Arianespace for the first 10 launch vehicles.
Northrop Grumman completed its first KC-30 tanker airframe in July, the company announced. The first KC-30, called SDD-1, was assembled in 30 days at the EADS commercial aircraft center. The proposed tanker is based on an Airbus A330/A340 airframe, and is being pitched as a replacement to the aging, and some would say ailing, KC-135 fleet currently operated by the Air Force. Boeing is also in the running for the KC-X replacement, offering its tanker version of the 767, the KC-767 Advanced Tanker.
Russia's Progress 26 robotic resupply vehicle is en route to the International Space Station after launch Aug. 2 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff of the Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress came on time at 1:34 p.m. EDT, setting up an Aug. 5 docking at the station's Pirs docking compartment using the automatic Kurs system. Progress 24, which reached the ISS in January, undocked from that spot on Aug. 1 and re-entered the atmosphere with a load of trash.
Senate authorizers are pushing for the U.S. Coast Guard to buy or build two more polar-class icebreakers, maintain the Long Range Aids to Navigation-C (LORAN-C) system and align its senior command structure with the other armed forces and create deployable force packages. The moves come as the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Aug. 2 marked up a fiscal 2008 Coast Guard authorization bill that allocated $998.07 million total for Coast Guard acquisition, including the embattled Deepwater recapitalization program.
The U.S. has spent nearly $3 billion to buy and ship equipment to Iraqi security forces, but the Pentagon cannot guarantee that it reached the forces it was meant for, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. "Since 2003, the United States has provided about $19.2 billion to develop the Iraqi security forces, including at least $2.8 billion to purchase and transport equipment to Iraqi forces," GAO says. "DOD recently requested an additional $2 billion to continue these efforts."
SBIRS TEST: Lockheed Martin said Aug. 1 that it successfully completed an end-to-end test between the space and ground elements of the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and called it a key milestone in preparation for launch and on-orbit operations of the program's first geosynchronous orbit (GEO) spacecraft. The Interim Mission Control Station Backup in Boulder, Colo., Lockheed Martin's SBIRS Auxiliary Support Center, Northrop Grumman's Satellite Payload Operational Test Station and the satellite Functional Test Assembly participated in the interface.
The Bush administration is looking to add $5.3 billion to already requested fiscal 2008 defense supplemental appropriations "to maximize production and fielding" of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, according to officials' statements and documents. The FY '08 off-budget request, sent to Capitol Hill in February with the base budget request, contained $400 million for MRAPs. But the total FY '08 requirement is now projected to be $5.8 billion, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England recently told the House Budget Committee.
The U.S. Navy has chosen Northrop Grumman over Boeing for a $635.9 million award for the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) effort. The demo will involve shipboard operation, including catapult takeoffs, arrested landings and flights in the immediate vicinity of an aircraft carrier, according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). Flight-testing is scheduled to begin in late 2009 and culminate with carrier-based operations by September 2013 when the UCAS-D award runs out.
CBP Air and Marine, the aviation branch of Customs and Border Protection (CPB), has taken delivery of two AgustaWestland AW 139 medium-lift helicopters in Miami. The multi-engine helos "will strengthen Air and Marine's ability to transport law enforcement personnel and provide surveillance in support of homeland security operations in challenging environments," said Michael Kostelnik, head of CBP Air and Marine.
DMSP SENSORS: The Pentagon has solidified contract details with Northrop Grumman to provide sensor work to extend flights 19 and 20 of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Dates to launch these Pentagon-operated weather satellites have been extended to bridge a gap in coverage until the new Defense and Commerce Department National Polar Orbiting Operational Satellite System (NPOESS) is declared operational. The $11 billion NPOESS effort experienced technical difficulties, prompting a launch delay of the program's first sensors to 2009.
A group of House lawmakers wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates Aug. 1 to use the new urgency in Washington for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles "to improve the efficiency" of military spending overall.
Finally, the U.S. Air Force's $5 billion multiyear contract to purchase 60 F-22s over three years has been signed, followed by a huge, collective sigh of relief from Lockheed Martin. Congress had until 5 p.m. July 31 to file any objections to the deal. While the process ended in silence, it didn't start that way. To satisfy Congress, the Secretary of Defense had to certify that the deal qualified for a multiyear contract. Lockheed Martin officials note that nobody else has had to do that.
Despite widening war opposition on Capitol Hill, underlying defense budgets continue to be strong, with the House Appropriations Committee's (HAC) markup of fiscal 2008 legislation further reaffirming that a Democratic Congress wants to avoid the stigma of being weak on defense, Wall Street analysts say. While there continues to be rhetoric regarding mandatory troop withdrawals, the reality is that the core Defense Department investment account is up 13 percent while core procurement is up 24 percent from FY '07 under the HAC bill, Citigroup analysts say.
