A panel reviewing astronaut health issues in the wake of the Lisa Nowak arrest was told that on at least two occasions astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so intoxicated that they posed a flight-safety risk. The panel also reported "heavy use of alcohol" by astronauts in crew quarters before launch, within the standard 12-hour "bottle to throttle" rule applied to pilots of conventional aircraft.
Boeing's new X-48B, an unmanned blended-wing-body demonstrator, flew for the first time on July 20th at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The 21-ft. wingspan, 500-lb test vehicle climbed to 7,600 ft. and reached an airspeed of 70 knots during a half-hour flight. The goals are to reach 10,000 feet and 120 knots by the end of the program. Researchers want to test stability and flight control at low-speeds during takeoffs and landings. Later, researchers will switch emphasis to look at the design's low-noise characteristics.
The recent battles over supplemental appropriations may be the first jabs in a developing brawl between lawmakers and the executive branch, says a recent Congressional Resource Service (CRS) report. "In the past, Congress has sometimes, though rarely, used the power of the purse to cut off funding for military operations, to put limits on the numbers of troops that may be deployed in specific military actions abroad, and to set other conditions on the conduct of military operations," says the report released earlier this month.
House appropriators are looking to boost the Defense Department's shipbuilding, although not necessarily the way the U.S. Navy or the Bush administration wanted, and are providing more funds than House defense authorizers for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) and Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The House Appropriations Committee (HAC), in its fiscal 2008 defense spending bill that it marked up July 25, also significantly supported U.S. Air Force fighter programs but pushed the service to rein in Joint Strike Fighter costs.
The Mars rover Opportunity, nearly starved of electrical power by a dust storm that has blocked sunlight for a month, is beginning to see positive solar array power margins. If the trend continues, it would enable the rover's descent into Victoria crater by early August, says John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But that depends on whether the dust storm is really abating or whether Mars throws a fourth dose of impenetrable dust haze, further blocking sunlight for solar array power.
The U.S. Navy continues to struggle with its financial juggling act, looking to buy more ships than it may be able to afford, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. "The Navy is beset with long-standing problems that affect its ability to accomplish ambitious goals for its shipbuilding portfolio," wrote Paul Francis, GAO director of acquisition and sourcing management team, in July 24 testimony before Congress.
Trying to head off Democratic-led congressional doubts about its nuclear weapons strategy and budget requests, especially for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), the U.S. secretaries of defense, energy and state have provided Capitol Hill with a three-page statement on U.S. national security and nuclear weapons.
RELUCTANCE: The U.K. House of Commons defense committee says the reluctance of other NATO countries to commit more ground troops to Afghanistan, particularly in the south, is undermining the credibility of the NATO effort there, and wants the defense ministry to show it can persuade neighboring nations to take up the slack. The committee also found that NATO nations have met the organization's call for more helicopters, but provision of appropriate models and sufficiently trained air and ground crews remain a problem.
CANADIAN C-17s: The first of four C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft for the Canadian Defense Forces took flight for the first time July 23 in anticipation of its scheduled Aug. 8 delivery, manufacturer Boeing announced. The airlifter took off from Long Beach, Calif., at 3:36 p.m. Pacific time and flew for three hours and 45 minutes. The seven-person crew put the aircraft through a series of functional checks, flying west over the Pacific Ocean before returning.
Having secured a £7.7 billion ($15.8 billion) increase in its defense budget over the next three years, Britain's Ministry of Defense will now place orders for two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers, according to U.K. Defense Secretary Des Browne. The two ships, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, will enter service in 2014 and 2016, respectively. They will be the largest ever to sail in the Royal Navy and will be based in Portsmouth, Browne said July 25.
Associate Administrator for Space Operations William Gerstenmaier says NASA has taken extra steps to ensure that the ongoing strike by roughly 570 space shuttle workers at Kennedy Space Center is having no impact on safety. "We've made sure that we are processing the vehicles in a safe manner," he told Congress July 24. NASA has provided more insight and oversight during "critical activities" in shuttle processing, particularly for operations inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and brought in more safety inspectors, he said.
EARNINGS: Lockheed Martin reported second quarter net income of $778 million, a 34 percent increase from a year earlier that soundly beat Wall Street's expectations. Quarterly sales were up 7 percent to $10.7 billion. The company also raised its earnings guidance for the year by 7 percent. Northrop Grumman announced a more modest 7 percent increase in second quarter income to $460 million. Its sales rose 4 percent to $7.9 billion. Next up: Boeing and General Dynamics, which are scheduled to announce their quarterly earnings July 25.
Tommy Holloway, chair of the International Space Station (ISS) Safety Task Force and former ISS manager for NASA, told House lawmakers July 24 that he doubts the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program can make up for a "substantial part" of the projected ISS logistics shortfall in the crucial first few years after the space shuttle's 2010 retirement.
The Defense Department needs to better justify the purchase of brand-name equipment for a satellite systems program, the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) says. In general, DOD meets federal acquisition guidelines for the satellite equipment purchases, the IG says in the July 23 report.
NASA BUDGET: The Bush administration criticized House appropriators' fiscal 2008 plus-ups of NASA's aeronautics, education and science requests in a statement July 24, saying that the increases would create "unsustainable outyear funding requirements." The appropriators added a total of $313.1 million to the administration's $17.31 billion topline request in their version of the agency's spending bill. The White House also is concerned about the appropriators' cut of $85 million from the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) program.
TREATY LAW: Russia's announced suspension of its cooperation under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) is likely to spur further debate on treaty law, according to the American Society of International Law (ASIL). With U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and North Korea exiting the Non-Proliferation Treaty, lawyers are increasingly debating how and whether the countries can jettison previously agreed-upon international responsibilities. In particular, Russia's suspension raises questions about what Western powers still have to do.
TRUCK LASER: The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command said July 20 it awarded Boeing a potentially $50 million deal for a truck-mounted laser weapon system that destroys rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds. Under the High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) Phase I $7 million contract, Boeing will develop and complete a preliminary design of a rugged beam control system on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.
