Within the space of a week, NASA and the U.S. Forest Service flew the Altair unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) twice over forest fires in California, including an impromptu flight over the deadly Esperanza fire that investigators suspect was deliberately set.
James Webb Space Telescope prime contractor Northrop Grumman is testing a newly constructed full-scale prototype of the observatory's sunshield to verify its design concept and deployment techniques, the company announced Nov. 1. Intended to shade the telescope's sensitive thermal optics, the five-layer tennis court-sized sunshield is made from a polymer-based film. It will help the observatory see distant galaxies, early stars and planetary systems.
A push is under way in Canada to leverage $11.5 billion in planned military aircraft purchases to win domestic companies a larger role on hot new aerospace programs such as Lockheed Martin's Crew Exploration Vehicle and Boeing's 787 aircraft.
Military and industry leaders are looking for ways to better tap sensors and automate airborne freight and tanker services. Cargo hauling and refueling are ripe for the kind of improvements that net-centric connections and related sensor packages can bring, experts told attendees Oct. 30 at the Shephard UV North America 2006 conference and exhibition.
SALES UP: Rockwell Collins Inc.'s defense electronics systems and products sales increased $15 million, or 4 percent, to $378 million for the recently completed fourth quarter compared with a year earlier, the company said Nov. 1. Higher revenue from electronics systems upgrades for various helicopter platforms, as well as the Future Combat Systems Integrated Computer System and Ground Element Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network System development programs "more than offset" lower revenue from fixed-wing aircraft electronics systems upgrade programs.
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has surpassed 1,000 sols - Martian days - on a mission in which the rover's lifetime was designed to be only 90 sols. Each Martian day is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. That means that in Earth days, Spirit has been on Mars more than 1,026 Earth days.
Upgrades and repairs planned for the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in 2008 promise to bring the orbiting instrument to the "apex" of its capabilities, enabling it to point the way to some of the fundamental questions about the nature of the universe that it already has helped raise.
Raytheon Co. hopes to secure a U.S. Air Force contract in January for its Universal Control System (UCS), which the company claims is the first-of-a-kind ground-based cockpit for simultaneous operation of up to eight different unmanned vehicles in the air, on land or at sea.
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s recent earnings reports paint a picture of a company that has been masterful in squeezing more profits out of its operations. Going back over the last six quarters, the defense and information technology giant posted only modest year-over-year revenue increases of 4 percent, 7 percent, 9 percent, 5 percent, 9 percent and 6 percent. But net income during the same period has risen 47 percent, 26 percent, 60 percent, 44 percent, 39 percent and 56 percent.
One of America's biggest strengths - its command and control of space - may become one of the country's most vulnerable points, says Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of Air Force Command's Space and Missile Systems Center. "My greatest nightmare, what keeps me awake at night, is that an enemy will be able to disrupt our asymmetric edge," Hamel said Oct. 30 at the Shephard UV North America 2006 conference in Tysons Corner, Va.
The 5.1-ton Chinese SinoSat-2 direct broadcast satellite is being maneuvered toward its geosynchronous orbit parking location at 92.2 east longitude following liftoff from the Xichang launch site on a Long March 3B Sept. 29.
The U.S. Air Force's vaunted transformational satellite (TSAT) network - the backbone for the Pentagon's electronic information grid and operational strategy - could see further launch delays because of recent budget cuts, says Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of Air Force Command's Space and Missile Systems Center. "It's very likely we'll see delays on the first launch," Hamel said Oct. 31 at a breakfast briefing with reporters in Washington.
RESULTS: Herley Industries Inc. said Oct. 31 that its fourth quarter net sales ending July 30 were $42.8 million, while net income was $713,000, or 5 cents per share. One-year net sales ending July 30 were $176.3 million compared to $151.4 million for FY 2005, up $24.9 million or 16 percent.
GREENBELT, Md. - NASA intends to perform a fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in May of 2008 that should extend the observatory's life through 2013, Administrator Michael Griffin formally announced Oct. 31 "We are going to add a shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope," Griffin told NASA employees here at Goddard Space Flight Center, which manages the telescope. The announcement was greeted with applause.
BAE Systems said Oct. 31 that it had successfully fired the first round from the firing platform for the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), a unique element of the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS).
