WINNER: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientist John Mather is this year's co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics, for work with NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite that helped confirm the Big Bang theory of the universe's formation. Currently the senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, Mather is the first NASA civil servant scientist to receive the award.
Due to a change in the Defense Department's fiscal 2007 authorizing legislation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will not be offering cash prizes to the top performers in its Urban Challenge robotic vehicle competition next year. In 2002, DARPA received prize authority from Congress that extended through the end of FY '06. The first Grand Challenge was held in 2004, although none of the teams performed well enough to claim the $1 million prize. A Stanford University team won the 2005 Grand Challenge purse of $2 million.
WING CLIPPED: A Kyrgyz Tupelov Tu-154 airliner taking off from Manas International Airport, Kyrgyzstan, on Sept 26 struck the wing of a taxiing U.S. Air Force KC-135. The tanker had just finished landing after a mission in Afghanistan and was moving from the runway when the accident occurred. Air Force officials have convened a safety investigation board to determine the cause.
BIRD WATCHING: Congressional defense authorizers have mandated that the Defense Department commission and provide another independent study on the proposal for a multiyear F-22 procurement contract. The conferees included a provision in their fiscal defense authorization measure, which passed Congress over the weekend, to authorize a three-year, 60-aircraft multiyear award subject to the completion of a federally funded research and development center report on multiyear cost estimates.
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center plans to fly General Atomics' Altair unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) this month over controlled fires at Yosemite National Park in California to demonstrate how UAVs can assist with fire research and response.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $98,900,000 firm-fixed-price contract modification. This undefinitized contract action increase is not-to-exceed, F-22A Lot 6 long lead and funding through Oct. 31, 2006. At this time, $74,081,250 has been obligated. The work will be complete by February 2010. Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. (FA8611-05-C-2850/P0003)
Despite the seeming success of their partnership during the military invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Air Force and Army still have yet to resolve their issues over air and ground missions, while the Pentagon is still uncertain in unconventional battles, a recent RAND Corp. study says.
DEFENSE MERGER: Defense Equipment and Support is the name being given by the British to the planned merger of the U.K.'s Defense Procurement Agency and the Defense Logistics and Support Organisation. Army Gen. Kevin O'Donoghue has been named as the first chief of defense material. The merged organization is due to come into being on April 1, 2007.
The U.S. Navy and Special Operations Command have reworked and boosted their inventory of legacy SEAL Delivery Vehicles (SDVs), modernizing 10 submersibles and delivering four new crafts. The SDV reinvigoration comes following the failure of the Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS), which was stopped after the first mini-submarine was produced because of reliability concerns.
STEALTHY AWACS: The F-22's operational debut is winning fans and the stealthy fighter is shaking off its reputation as a Cold War anachronism. In the recent Northern Watch exercises in Alaska, less-advanced fighters received situational awareness and targeting information from F-22 intelligence-gathering systems and long-range radar. Once the F-22s had expended their missiles, "they remained in the middle of the battle acting as [a stealthy] AWACS," says a Washington-based observer.
A high-power microwave weapon likely will be demonstrated first on a sophisticated variant of an unmanned combat aircraft, followed by introduction of an operational capability on the F-22A and F-35 stealth fighters. HPM weapons, which can disable enemy electronics and scramble computers, would come as an upgrade to the fighter's radar. However, the capability will emerge first as a dedicated payload for selected unmanned combat aircraft, says George Muellner, Boeing advanced systems chief.
Reporters who had to rely on a trans-Pacific telephone hookup to cover NASA Administrator Michael Griffin's visit to China last week may want to apply the technique closer to home. China denied visas to U.S. journalists who wanted to cover Griffin's tour of Chinese space facilities, some of them run by the Peoples Liberation Army. But access to government information can be just as tricky in Washington.
CONDUCT CODE: Resumption of International Space Station assembly apparently has spurred NASA to formalize the code of conduct that station crewmembers have been using since the first of them reached the orbiting facility on Nov. 2, 2000. The agency officially adopted the code last week, unchanged from its original published draft. "It was really just a crossing of tees and dotting of eyes," explained an agency spokesman.
In following the fighter road map set down through the Quadrennial Review (QDR), the U.S. Air Force is looking for ways to stretch out the usefulness of its F-16 fleet. Pointing out that the later Block 50 and Block 52 fleet of F-16s has capabilities relevant for current conflicts, Gen. Ronald Keys says the Air Force is looking to bring earlier block 40s into the same configuration. The service is to keep flying the aircraft - designed decades ago - until the replacement Joint Strike Fighter F-35s come online.
ARMY Datapath Inc., Duluth, Ga., was awarded on Sept. 21, 2006, an $181,163,653 firm-fixed-price contract for hub satellite communications trucks, satellite transportable terminals, associated spare parts, maintenance, and contractor field service representative support. The work will be performed in Duluth, Ga., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 30, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-06-C-G410).
AUSTIN RETIRED: The amphibious transport dock USS Austin (LPD 4) was decommissioned in a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Sept. 27. As the first LPD-class ship built, Austin has been involved in many firsts through its service. The ship was involved in the nation's space program as the recovery ship for Apollo 12, and part of the recovery forces for Apollo 14 and 15.
The European Defense Agency is looking for industry help in assessing future needs to allow forces to operate effectively in a conflict zone contaminated by biological warfare agents. EDA notes that "member states must plan, equip and train their military forces to operate in the unique environment created by biological warfare agents and associated hazards within the framework of [European Security and Defense Policy] operations."
