Orbital Sciences Corp. will handle final development, production and launch of the K-1 vehicle proposed by its new partner, Rocketplane Kistler (RpK), in its bid for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) effort to seed commercial delivery of cargo and perhaps crew to the International Space Station.
President Bush has authorized the State Department to continue funding and outfitting Colombia's Airbridge Denial (ABD) program against civil aircraft reasonably suspected of trafficking illicit drugs, the White House said late Aug. 17.
Boeing upped the ante Aug. 18, directing program suppliers to stop work on uncommitted C-17 aircraft. The move will be the first step in an orderly shutdown of the production supply chain should no further orders be received from the U.S. government, the company said. Boeing has been saying for weeks that it needs some type of a commitment from the U.S. Air Force, or a foreign air force, for another 10 C-17s, worth about $2 billion, in order to keep a whole production line going.
With a gap in launch vehicle work looming at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans following construction of the last space shuttle external tank and prior to the manufacture of NASA's new Ares launch systems, Michoud caretaker Lockheed Martin is working with the agency to try to stem work force departures by competing for new work to be done at the facility and shifting some current work there.
HELO DATA REVIEW: Navy analysts are reviewing data from recent tests on U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 helicopters to evaluate what type of self-protection suites would be best for the aircraft. Marine and Navy officials say the helicopters need better self-protection because they face more and different threats in their current missions. Navy officials said they were able, for the first time, to do apple-to-apple comparisons of legacy and proposed self-protection systems using simulated threats on the aircraft.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems said Aug. 18 that it has been awarded a $187 million contract modification to provide the U.S. Army with 5.56mm, 7.62mm, and .50-caliber small arms ammunition. The award is part of a $213 million firm-fixed-price contract. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill.,
The two golf cart-sized spacecraft that make up NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission are set to launch Aug. 31 aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. During their two-year mission, the spacecraft will study coronal mass ejections, which can send more than a billion tons of the sun's outer atmosphere into space. Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) built the spacecraft, which will be managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
U.S. and Iraqi air force officials are in a rush to develop, buy and deploy a small fleet of rugged, reliable and resourceful counter-insurgency aircraft specifically designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The officials are reviewing responses to proposal requests issued this spring for a fleet of around a dozen more of the aircraft that military officials say are needed now to fight insurgents.
The fighting in Lebanon is already triggering debate about the division of missions between the Israeli air force and army. The conflict also revealed classified technology that Tel Aviv kept under wraps prior to the simultaneous conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Analysis of the combat is being rushed because many believe the U.N. ceasefire will not be lasting. Both U.S. and Israeli military officials doubt that either U.N. or Lebanese troops can disarm Hezbollah troops, and that means that a continuation of the fighting is inevitable.
Aug. 21 - 25 -- 39th Annual Rotary Wing Technology, "A Comprehensive Short Course in Rotary Wing Technology," Penn State University Park, University Park, Penn. For more information go to www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/RotaryWing/. Aug. 29 - 31 -- AUSVI's Unmanned Systems North America 2006, Orlando, Fla. For more information call (703) 845-9671 or go to www.ausvi.org.
INFLUENCE PEDDLING: What do the Air Force's recent discussion of its digital A-10 Warthog, Boeing's assertions of closing the C-17 production line, rumors of cutbacks to Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter production and the flare-up of readiness funding for the Army, Marine Corps and National Guard all have in common? Audience. House and Senate defense authorizers - more specifically their staff, as lawmakers are in recess until after Labor Day - are working on a compromise to their annual policy bills.
UAVs IN THE GUARD: Pentagon plans to take manned aircraft from Air National Guard units and give them UAVs are expected to become a reality by year's end. An initial group of crews from the California ANG's 163rd Air Refueling Wing, which has operated KC-135s, has been flying missions in Iraq from cockpits at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The 163rd has sent 13 crews, each comprising a pilot and a senior operator, through MQ-1 Predator training at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. They are now flying combat for the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron.
SHUTTLE COUNTDOWN: The countdown for the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis will begin at 6 p.m. Aug. 24, NASA says. The countdown at NASA Kennedy Space Center includes 27 hours and 24 minutes of built-in hold time. The preferred launch time is about 4:30 p.m. Aug. 27. It will be held at the newly renovated firing room 4 of the Launch Control Center.
DEFENSE GAINS: The Congressional Budget Office says defense outlays will total $522 billion in 2006, up 5.8 percent from last year. Such outlays grew at an average annual rate of 12.7 percent from 2002 through 2005. Budget authority - what Congress allows agencies to enter into obligations - for defense programs is up by 11.4 percent this year, largely because of $124 billion in supplemental appropriations for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the CBO says.
STATION OPS: As NASA launches its final push in orbit to complete the International Space Station, it is also gearing up changes on the ground to see the ISS through its remaining service life. In Houston, the station program has outgrown the control room originally set up for it, with spacewalk controllers having to "hot bunk" by sharing work consoles with robotics engineers and Russian interpreters.
'STOP THE BLEEDING:' Aeronautics advocates, who will work for the House's smaller NASA funding cuts when Congress returns in September, are concerned that the administration is slashing budgets and redirecting programs before completing the national aeronautics policy ordered in last year's NASA appropriation. The interagency review, co-chaired by NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, is being developed in a "very closed environment," says Dr. Michael Romanowski, Aerospace Industries Association vice president of civil aviation.
BATTLE BREWING: With the Pentagon and U.S. Air Force zeroing in on developing counter-insurgency airborne capability, a battle is brewing between those who want to deploy new aircraft and those who want to tweak existing frames to make them more suited to the task. For example, in recent briefings about upgraded A-10Cs, U.S. Air Force Col. Jim Ratti, the plane's program system manager, said it would make more sense to use a tried and tested airframe like the Thunderbolt for the job. "Building new aircraft is expensive," he said.
MORPHING AIRCRAFT: Lockheed Martin expects to conduct the first flight of its small morphing unmanned aerial vehicle for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in October or November. DARPA's Morphing Aircraft Structures (MAS) program is aimed at enabling future multirole aircraft that can change their shape to perform different missions. Lockheed's demonstrator has a wingspan of about six feet. Future phases of the MAS program will develop a 10,000-pound demonstrator, after which DARPA plans to hand the technology over to the U.S. Air Force or U.S. Navy.
MAKING MAKIN ISLAND: The Makin Island, the U.S. Navy's first amphibious assault ship to incorporate "all-electric" auxiliary systems and a hybrid gas turbine-electric propulsion system, was set to be christened Aug. 19 during a ceremony at shipbuilder Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Miss. Steam will not be used onboard the Makin Island (LHD 8), the newest and last ship in the Wasp class, for heating or water production as in previous LHD classes.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Rocketplane-Kistler (RPK) made the final cut in NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program Aug. 18, signing funded Space Act agreements with the agency to demonstrate their schemes for autonomously resupplying the International Space Station (ISS). RPK is receiving $207 million from NASA and SpaceX is getting $278 million. Both companies proposed two-stage rockets powered by liquid oxygen/kerosene engines.
Lockheed Martin is embarking on the development of a new vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned demonstrator, with an eye toward the U.S. Marine Corps' VUAV program. The demonstrator, dubbed VARIOUS (VTOL Advanced Reconnaissance Insertion Organic Unmanned System), would use three shaft-driven lift fans to take off and land vertically from ships. Current conceptual designs somewhat resemble a smaller version of the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter.
VOLUME SEARCH RADAR: Lockheed Martin Corp. said Aug. 17 that it successfully completed an on-time demonstration of the new Volume Search Radar (VSR) antenna for the U.S. Navy's DDG-1000 destroyer program. "This marks a critical milestone for naval radar, as well as for the DDG-1000 program," said Capt. Sheila Patterson, the Navy's Program Manager for Above Water Sensors. "The Navy made a change from L-band to S-band for the DDG-1000 VSR early in the program with a very challenging schedule.
