With its status as the world's most populous Muslim nation making it a critical ally in U.S. counterterrorism operations, the United States is providing Indonesia with almost $16.2 million worth of maritime domain awareness upgrades, according to a Sept. 13 Defense Department announcement.
AIRBORNE SENSORS: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has issued Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated System Sector a $5 million contract modification to develop "sensor craft technologies." The company will work on "maturing the technologies through major ground and flight-test activities," the Defense Department said Sept. 13. Award solicitations began in January and wrapped up this month. The work will be finished by March 2009.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas - Astronauts from the crews of the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station worked together Sept. 14 to deploy another set of station solar arrays, doubling the power available on the orbiting laboratory and clearing another hurdle on the way to ISS assembly-completion four years hence.
While remote satellite imaging industry officials are pleased with the recent deal between the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) and industry for a half million dollars to help design and build the next generation of imaging satellites, industry experts said Sept. 13 at the Commercial Remote Sensing Satellite Symposium in Washington that the level of commitment needs to be sustained.
SAT NETWORK: Ondas, a Spanish media company proposing to build a European digital mobile satellite radio network, has signed up the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute of Germany to develop core radio frequency and waveform design for the system. Fraunhofer has already provided such services for WorldSpace, which is working on a competing network, and XM Radio, its U.S. partner. Delphi recently joined Ondas as a strategic investor and technology provider for its system, which it aims to start up by 2009.
While officials of Joint Strike Fighter prime contractor Lockheed Martin say the aircraft's development is on time and on budget, the company still has some hurdles. "Our biggest challenge is getting all the parts," said Tom Burbage, top Lockheed JSF executive, during a Sept. 12 briefing.
RECON SAT LAUNCH: Japan has launched the second of two optical reconnaissance satellites aboard an H-IIA booster from the Tanegashima Space Center, improving its surveillance capacity for watching North Korean missile development programs. Development of a four-satellite reconnaissance program, with two optical and two radar spacecraft, has been a major drive of the country's space program, consuming about a third of its development budget in recent years. Officially called "Information Gathering Satellites," they are built by Mitsubishi Electric.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - The STS-115 Atlantis mission set for landing Sept. 20 is clearing the way for the resumption of night launches critical to completion of the International Space Station before the shuttle is phased out in 2010. It is also validating key post-Columbia shuttle accident changes supporting the expected mid-October approval for a final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Homeland Security Department's inspector general has said the Coast Guard will be unable to increase the total number of mission resource hours without the acquisition of additional aircraft, cutters and boats provided by the Deepwater recapitalization program. The IG's conclusion, based on fiscal 2005 data, was the topic of a Sept. 14 hearing by the House Coast Guard subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.,) a longtime advocate of accelerating the Lockheed Martin-Northrop Grumman program.
Following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Air Force last month, NASA is preparing similar agreements with the U.S. Army and the Defense Department to foster cooperation as it embarks upon its restructured aeronautics research program. Although an MOU with the Army already exists, "we want to make sure that it's updated, and the commitment is explicit," Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Lisa Porter told The DAILY. The agreement should be signed within a matter of months.
The story "ISS section added by Atlantis crew" (Sept. 13) listed an incorrect weight for a section added to the International Space Station's spine. The correct weight is 34,977 pounds.
The U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the Special Operations Command have started their accelerated efforts for the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV), with down-selection of contractors slated for early next fiscal year and a final award winner chosen in FY '08, program officials said Sept. 13.
ATK, which is already prime contractor on the first stage of NASA's planned Ares I human-rated launch vehicle, will head a team with Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) to build the vehicle's upper stage. Lockheed Martin was just named prime contractor to build the Orion crew launch vehicle that will fly atop the Ares I, and PWR is under contract to develop the J-2X rocket engine that will power the upper stage.
WEATHER RADAR: Lockheed Martin Corp. has promised to fund University of Oklahoma researchers as they explore which radar signals are best suited for a planned Multifunction Phased Array Radar (MPAR) that will provide more precise weather prediction and warning capabilities. A June study from the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research said the MPAR could cut the number of weather radar and commercial aircraft surveillance units by 35 percent and lead to $5.8 billion in savings in acquisition and lifecycle costs.
Russia and China are ready to sign a major new space cooperation agreement that will partner the two nations on new lunar exploration. "Russia is ready for close cooperation with China in the field," says Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency. "This is a serious and quite promising field of cooperation. In the past the Russian-Chinese cooperation has been mostly limited to the sales of Russian equipment, but now we are considering the development and implementation of joint projects," Perminov said on the agency's Web site.
POLLUTION CONTROL: The European Union is providing 154 million euros ($195.4 million) to the European Maritime Safety Agency, a large chunk of which will go to buy satellite imagery services. EU parliamentarians approved the funding, which is to run from 2007-2013. EMSA formally was stood up this month with a mandate to establish a centralized satellite imagery service to detect pollution and the ships responsible.
The Norwegian frigate F-310 Fridtjof Nansen successfully intercepted its target during the first live missile firing test of its Lockheed Martin-developed SPY-1F Aegis Weapon System in the North Atlantic, Lockheed said Sept. 12.
Funding for U.S. defense, military operations, homeland security and related activities has increased some $843 billion since Sept. 11, 2001, or 50 percent more than just inflationary growth in the last five years, according to Steve Kosiak of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
The threat of corporate misconduct and its impact on a company's reputation is now higher on the agendas of aerospace and defense company managers and directors, as well as financial regulators, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report issued Sept. 13.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is looking to buy three or four Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transports before the U.S. production line shuts down to alleviate the alliance's airlift shortfalls. The alliance has released a letter of intent based on the commitment of 13 member states to buy the aircraft and establish a NATO Strategic Airlift Capability unit at U.S. Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany. The organization would be modeled on the NATO AWACS force.
Raytheon on Sept. 13 unveiled its plans to market a derivative of the military's Active Denial nonlethal weapon, and gave media the chance to experience the system's effects for themselves during a demonstration in Arlington, Va.
