The space shuttle Discovery is to rollout to Launch Pad 39B this week for final preparation and payload loading for the STS-116 mission set for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) as early as Dec. 7. The flight's Spacehab cargo module and ISS P5 port spacer truss section also will be transported to the pad this week separately and loaded in the Launch Complex 39B payload changeout room. The payload is to be inserted into Discovery's bay by the end of this week.
FT. HUACHUCA, Ariz. - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program to patrol the U.S./Mexican border using unmanned aircraft returned to the skies Oct. 30 here with a demonstration flight of its newest MQ-9 Predator B. The aircraft, designated CBP-104, is the second unmanned aerial system (UAS) to be deployed by Customs and Border Protection (CPB) along the southwest border. The first one crashed in the desert in April after seven months of service and nearly 1,000 flight hours.
Military branches and other defense agencies should expand their next fiscal 2007 supplemental budget requests beyond Iraq and Afghanistan war-fighting costs and seek funds to "accelerate specific force capability necessary to prosecute" the wider Global War on Terror (GWOT), according to an Oct. 25 memorandum from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. Internal budget submissions are due by Nov. 1 and high-level Defense Department officials are supposed to finalize the Defense Department package Nov. 15. "Time is of the essence," England wrote.
As the Pentagon gets ready to publish its 2007 roadmap for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Dyke Weatherington, head of the UAV Planning Task Force, provided glimpses Oct. 30 into what the U.S. military will be wanting for UAVs. The Pentagon will want to distribute more capabilities across a larger number of platforms and it will be focusing more on ground and maritime unmanned systems, Weatherington told attendees at the Shephard UV North America Conference & Exhibition in Tysons Corner, Va.
SUB WORK: U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding a $71.5 million contract modification for planning yard, design, configuration management and logistics support for new construction, operational, conversion and decommissioning submarines, as well as modernization support for operational and decommissioning submarines. The award - announced Oct.
The U.S. Air Force does not expect to take into account a controversial World Trade Organization (WTO) grievance between rivals Boeing and Airbus if it opts to issue a fixed-price contract for the KC-X refueling tanker replacement program.
In a rerun of last-year's line-closure panic, Boeing is again threatening that C-17 production will be closed without a government commitment to buy the massive airlifters in the fiscal 2008 budget. The company got a slight reprieve after Congress earmarked $4.3 billion in the FY '07 budget for 22 C-17s, although the Pentagon determined in late 2005 that it would allow the line to die down beginning in FY '07, allowing the Air Force to spend its procurement funds on F-22s and tankers.
JOINT INVESTMENT: SES Global and Eutelsat have announced a joint investment in the first European satellite payload for broadcasting video, radio and data to mobile devices and vehicle receivers. The 50/50 joint venture company will operate and commercialize the S-band payload on Eutelsat's W2A satellite, which will be orbited by Sea Launch in early 2009. The company will be set up by SES Astra and Eutelsat following approval from relevant regulatory agencies.
LEVEL 5: Lockheed Martin announced last week that its Florida-based Missiles and Fire Control business unit achieved a Level 5 rating during its recent Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) appraisal, which the company says is the highest possible rating for the maturity of its engineering and management. The independent firm Systems and Software Consortium, Inc. led the appraisal using the Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) Version 1.1. The assessment involved multiple sites, programs, and hardware and software engineering disciplines.
A pair of U.S./German satellites has added to the body of evidence that global warming is melting the polar icecaps, generating data that the Greenland ice sheet is losing almost 100 gigatons of ice per year. The twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft detect changes in the Earth's mass with precise measurements of the distance between them as they orbit in close formation.
Operators, buyers and builders of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) need to get better at their jobs to ensure the proper development and deployment of those systems, U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael Snodgrass said Oct. 30 at Shephard's UV North America Conference & Exhibition. Operators are too enamored with technology, buyers are too unwilling to clamp down on requirement creep and builders are too short-sighted and parochial, said Snodgrass, director of plans, programs and requirements for Air Force headquarters in Europe.
As the U.S. Coast Guard tries to manage an increasing work load while maintaining legacy missions such as Caribbean drug interdiction, the U.S. Navy has been increasingly providing support. The multi-department workload reflects both further mission and operational integration between the naval agencies, as well as the pressures of stretched defense budgets.
DMSP: Final preparations are under way at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for the Nov. 4 launch of the second Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Block 5D-3 spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force will use the second Boeing Delta IV to be launched from Vandenberg's new $4 billion SLC-6 launch site. The first of the 5D-3's was launched in 2003 on the last Titan II to lift off from Vandenberg.
HUBBLE: On Oct. 31, Administrator Michael Griffin is expected to formally announce NASA's decision to go ahead with a final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Vocal Hubble supporter Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) also will be on hand for the announcement at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, which operates Hubble. With external tank foam-shedding issues raised by the Columbia disaster apparently resolved after two clean flights, NASA feels confident enough to go ahead with the mission in 2008, probably in the spring.
Oct. 30 - Nov. 1 -- National Defense Industrial Association's 44th Annual Targets, UAVs & Range Operations Symposium & Exhibition, Marriott Baypoint Resort Village Golf & Yacht Club, Panama City Beach, Fla. For more information call (703) 247-2596 or go to www.ndia.org. Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Wildlife Hazard Management Workshop, Daytona Beach, Fla. For more information call (386) 947-5227 or email [email protected].
TASK FORCE ODIN: The U.S. Army is running a secretive initiative to provide an integrated array of sensors and even weaponized platforms for field commanders to tackle the improvised explosive device (IED) problem in Iraq. The effort, dubbed Task Force ODIN (Observe, Detect, Identify and Neutralize), could include existing systems, modifications to existing systems, and possibly new systems. In discussion are the I-Gnat unmanned aircraft and modifications to C-12 aircraft, although officials shy away from specifics.
COROT LAUNCH: Arianespace affiliate Starsem plans to orbit a modified Soyuz 2.1b launcher, equipped with a new Khimavtomatika RD-01124 third-stage engine, on December 21. The launch, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will orbit France's Corot planet-finding mission. A new variant with digital control system and a larger fairing derived from that of the Ariane 4 orbited Europe's Metop polar orbiting weather satellite on Oct. 19.
High-resolution radar returns from the moon's poles strongly suggest that future lunar explorers won't be able to mine deep craters there for water ice to convert into oxygen and rocket fuel. The finding by U.S. and Australian researchers, if true, could have a dramatic impact on the infrastructure NASA is developing to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2020.
Whether U.S. and Iraqi forces can beef up security in Baghdad over the next week could have a lasting impact on how many Virginia-class submarines the U.S. Navy receives in the near future, as well as the total U.S. submarine fleet in coming decades. This unlikely connection is just one example of how the Nov. 7 congressional elections, expected to be a national referendum on the U.S. occupation, could impact seemingly unrelated U.S. defense spending elsewhere. In this case, the impact of who occupies one Senate seat could reach deep into the ocean.
