The long-awaited launch of the first of three next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-N) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA has been postponed from May to late June to allow technicians time to replace potentially faulty pressure vessels onboard the Delta IV rocket.
Federal government information technology (IT) spending will grow from $71 billion in fiscal 2005 to $92 billion in FY '10, driven by homeland security and defense spending as well as cyber security concerns, according to Reston, Va., consulting firm Input. "Homeland security initiatives will continue to be the primary driver behind significant growth for another one to two years," Payton Smith, Input's director of public sector market analysis, said in a statement.
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are set to launch the latest Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES), NOAA-N, on the morning of May 11 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. NOAA maintains a constellation of two primary polar-orbiting satellites, which provide data for NOAA's weather and climate forecasting. To be renamed NOAA-18 once in orbit, NOAA-N will replace NOAA-16 and join NOAA-17, which was launched in 2002.
COUNTDOWN REHEARSAL: The crew of STS-114 conducted a countdown rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center in Florida May 4. Known as a Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT), the exercise is held before every flight. The test ended with a mock countdown culminating in a simulated main engine cutoff. Following the engine cutoff, the crew performed an emergency escape in which they exited the orbiter and practiced getting into baskets that would carry them away from the launch pad on a slidewire. Discovery is scheduled to launch during a window in July.
NOAA CHANGES: The House Science Committee intended to mark up its authorization bill for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on May 4, but the panel delayed the move due to squabbling over the measure's language. "Both we and the Democrats have brought up significant additional changes to the bill," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), the committee chairman. He said the NOAA markup could be rescheduled for as soon as next week.
The once-lauded bomb dud rate goal of 5% now is far too high for U.S. military forces to accept, and industry and the Defense Department must work to cut that failure rate, the U.S. Navy program executive officer for strike weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles said May 3. Rear Adm. Timothy L. Heely told the 2005 Navy Opportunity Forum in Reston, Va., that with the use of fewer but dramatically more precise weapons, the 5% level is "unacceptable" in modern warfighting. Every weapon strike must be effective when it is needed, he said.
The U.S. Army is considering developing a smaller, more deployable variant of its Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL), the sprawling chemical-laser demonstrator that has shot down rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds in tests, an industry official said May 4.
Eric Anderson, Takafumi Horie and J. Craig Venter have been elected to the board of trustees. Anderson is president and CEO of Space Adventures Ltd. Horie is CEO and president of Livedoor Co. Ltd. Venter is founder and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute and the J. Craig Venter Science Foundation.
Lockheed Martin has reported successful completion of a "jitter" test of the Space-Based Infrared System High (SBIRS High) satellite. The test, which ran from Feb. 21 to April 8 at the company's Sunnyvale, Calif., facility, focused on the Pointing and Control Assembly (PCA) of the geosynchronous orbit satellite. Lockheed Martin said this "allows the satellite's two optical systems to be positioned to scan and stare at designated areas, enabling operators to modify areas of surveillance according to national priorities."
International Launch Services (ILS) has announced upcoming launches for the Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB) Sirius 4 satellite and a classified National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) spacecraft, both to take place in 2007.
The Air Force and NASA are calling for proposals to improve liquid lines and ducts in rocket engines as part of the Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology (IHPRPT) program.
LONDON - Although Lockheed Martin Space Systems recently was awarded an $11 million contract to support the British Royal Navy's Trident D5 nuclear submarine-launched ballistic missile (DAILY, April 29), the debate over the future of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent has intensified. British citizens will go to the polls May 5, and it is likely that the next government will have to decide what happens to the U.K. nuclear deterrent before the next general election in 2010.
Col. Ishmon F. Burks (USA-Ret.) has been appointed executive vice president - communications (investor and media relations). Gen. Larry R. Ellis (USA-Ret.) has been named president of the firm. Ellis will also continue to serve on the board of directors.
Congressional negotiators working out the $82 billion supplemental measure decided against Senate provisions for $213 million toward additional up-armored Humvee manufacturing and $32 million to buy defense systems to protect commercial aircraft against shoulder-fired missiles.
The U.S. Army is expected to launch a competition by the end of calendar 2005 to develop a mobile, solid-state laser defense against airborne threats, an industry official said May 4. The ground-based, electrically-driven laser system, which likely will have at least 100 kilowatts of power, is intended mainly to destroy rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds, said Art Stephenson, vice president of directed energy systems at Northrop Grumman Space Technology.
The U.S. Navy's EA-18G electronic-attack aircraft program has completed a key design review, according to industry officials. Although the Navy has not announced the results of the critical design review (CDR), which concluded April 28, officials at the Boeing Co., the EA-18G's prime contractor, said May 2 that the Navy seems pleased with the outcome.
