Commercial satellite imaging company GeoEye is on schedule to meet the fall launch of GeoEye-1, being built by General Dynamics, according to Mark Brender, GeoEye vice president of communications and marketing.
International Space Station (ISS) thrusters fired under the control of freshly repaired computers, and its new solar array wing rotated like a windmill June 18, setting up a planned undocking for the space shuttle Atlantis at 10:42 a.m. EDT June 19.
Citigroup Investment Research analysts believe Capitol Hill is unlikely to pass major acquisition policy changes soon. "We don't expect Congress to have significant profit policy changes, but continue to push the Pentagon away from LSI [lead systems integrator] contracts as they desire the Pentagon to increase its capability in this area," they told clients recently.
PARIS - Infoterra of Germany is set to begin operating the commercial 1-meter resolution remote sensing spacecraft, TerraSAR-X, following a successful launch June 15 from Baiknour, Kazakhstan, aboard a Dnepr rocket. The launch had been set for late last year, but was delayed by problems with tantalum capacitors on the onboard computer and a Dnepr failure in July 2006. The Dnepr returned to flight in April, with a multisatellite payload including the EgyptSat-1 remote sensing/scientific spacecraft.
MISSILE DEFENSE: NATO defense ministers have authorized a study to assess possible integration of the U.S. missile defense system to be set up in the Czech Republic and Poland with the alliance's Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense System. The latter, when deployed in southeastern Europe, would plug the gap in missile defense coverage left by the U.S. system, which couldn't engage some of the shorter-range missiles launched from the Middle East.
PARIS - Despite significant delays in flight-testing the first A400M engine, the transport aircraft's schedule margin has not completely eroded, prompting managers to express confidence they can still meet the late October 2009 first aircraft delivery milestone.
MISSILE DETECTION: The Department of Homeland Security plans to prototype an existing two-color infrared missile warning system to support a late fiscal 2007 flight demo and evaluation, according to the revised broad agency announcement for the department's Project CHLOE counter-MANPADS unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) effort (DAILY, June 15).
OSPREY READY: The first combat squadron of the Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (VMM-263), is ready for expeditionary operations after having achieved initial operational capability, according to the service. Last month Gen. James T. Conway, Comman-dant of the Marine Corps, announced that the squadron is scheduled to deploy to Iraq in September with ten MV-22s (DAILY, April 16). The Ospreys will be used for medium assault support missions ranging from troop transport and resupply to casualty evacuation.
The U.S. Air Force is developing rules of engagement (ROE) for cyber warfare similar to those it uses for air and space operations, says the general in charge of setting up the service's new Cyberspace Command. "We're exploring the ROEs," said Lt. Gen. Robert "Bob" Elder, commander, 8th Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, La., the home of the new cyber command. And just as it does with its air and space operations, the Air Force wants to minimize collateral damage, Elder said June 13 during a breakfast roundtable with reporters.
International Space Station (ISS) crew members pulled panels and worked on the balky Russian-side computers as their colleagues from the space shuttle Atlantis repaired a torn thermal blanket outside June 15. Spacewalkers Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas were scheduled to disconnect a power cable they connected during an earlier extravehicular activity (EVA) June 11, after Russian controllers discovered that anomalies with two sets of three redundant computers started when the cable was connected.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) June 18 - 24 -- Paris Air Show, Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France, For more information call +33 (0) 1 5323 3337 or go to www.paris-air-show.com. June 25 - 28 -- Live Fire Test & Evaluation Conference, SPAWAR Systems Center Charleston - Naval Weapons STation, Goose Creek, S.C. For more information call (703) 522-1820, fax: (703) 522-1885 or go to www.ndia.org.
CZECH RADAR: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States will push forward with a plan to base a powerful missile defense radar in the Czech Republic despite a Russian offer to co-locate operations in Azerbaijan. "I was very explicit in the meeting that we saw the Azeri radar as an additional capability, that we intended to proceed with the radar, the X-band radar in the Czech Republic," Gates told reporters June 14 after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.
KEI BOOST: Kinetic Energy Interceptor contractors assert they are on target for a booster flight test in the second half of 2008. They told reporters late June 14 that they conducted a successful static test fire of the first stage of the three-stage rocket at a range in Utah. Three more such tests are slated for the first stage, as well as four similar fires for the second, before liftoff in a year.
DESTROYER HITS: U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has let two contracts to speed ahead with DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer efforts, the Defense Department announced June 11. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works is being awarded a $197.1 million cost-reimbursement type contract modification for Zumwalt long-lead material and pre-production planning to support detailed design and construction. It runs through December.
Two top secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) ocean surveillance spacecraft were placed in the wrong orbit June 15 when the 200-foot-tall Atlas V rocket they were riding on stopped firing too early in space following launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The top secret satellites separated safely from the malfunctioning booster, however, and have enough rocket propellant to continue their mission, an official said on background.
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command has extended Aurora Flight Sciences a $6.2 million contract modification for Orion unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) prototype development and test flight. Aurora's work will be performed in Starkville, Miss., and should be finished by September 2010. The company in July 2006 unveiled Orion, an unmanned aircraft designed to carry small payloads for ultra-long endurance surveillance missions, and which will be built in Mississippi.
PARIS - EADS Astrium is throwing its hat into the ring of companies anxious to tap the nascent space tourism market. Last week, the company--the first in Europe to show an interest in this segment--unveiled a novel concept featuring conventional turbojet engines, a liquid oxygen methane rocket motor for the boost phase, canards and very long rear-mounted wings.
FLIGHT PROFILE: Since Astrium's newly unveiled suborbital space tourism vehicle (see story p. 5) will take off and land like a conventional aircraft, no special launch facilities will be needed, the company says. Astrium is presently eyeing a site in Tunisia within easy reach of Paris, London and other major European cities that could double as an attractive luxury resort where customers could train for a week before making the flight.
Dassault Aviation says it will announce next week an alliance with Thales and other partners to develop and market tactical and long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Chairman/CEO Charles Edelstenne told reporters June 15 that one aim of the alliance would be to offer the Watchkeeper system designed by Thales for the U.K., or derivatives of that system, to meet requirements for a tactical UAV capability in France and other European countries.
