Greece is showing fresh interest in the U.S.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Greek representatives received a briefing on the stealthy jet the week of April 25-29, after they requested such a session, program spokeswoman Kathy Crawford said May 2. The briefing was provided by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
NEW DELHI - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch its latest remote sensing satellite, Cartosat-1, and piggyback satellite Hamsat, on May 5. The satellites are to be launched on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center's Sriharikota range in South India. This is the first time a launch vehicle will blast off from the newly built second launch pad at Sriharikota.
SUB WORK: General Dynamics Electric Boat has been awarded a $5.2 million contract modification by the U.S. Navy to perform engineering and technical services on the USS Connecticut attack submarine, the company said May 2. The contract covers additional repairs, maintenance work, and alterations on the sub. Initially awarded in March, the contract has a total value of $80.7 million. The work is being done at Electric Boat's shipyard in Groton, Conn. It is expected to be finished by December 2005.
Armor Holdings Inc. will provide additional up-armored Humvees, Gunner Protection Kits and armor component spare parts under contract modifications from the U.S. Army totaling $19.7 million, the company said April 29. The new orders are for the U.S. Army, Air Force and the Iraqi military. The work will be performed by the company's Aerospace & Defense Group at its Fairfield, Ohio, facilities, and deliveries are to be completed this year. The order is the first to include equipment for Iraq's military, the company said.
Net income soared 83% and sales climbed 10% for Ducommun Inc. in the first quarter of 2005, the company said May 2. Net income for the first quarter of 2005 was $4.1 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with $2.2 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same period last year. Increased sales in Ducommun's military and commercial sectors upped overall sales to $63.8 million, compared with $58.2 million for the first quarter of 2004, the company said.
ARMY PCL Construction Services Inc., Denver, Colo., was awarded on April 22, 2005, a $31,524,000 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of an Army Aviation Support Facility. Work will be performed in Aurora, Colo., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on Jan. 21, 2005, and three bids were received. The U.S. Property & Fiscal Office, Aurora, Colo., is the contracting activity (W912LC-05-C-0001).
The Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has selected 11 new Ship Production Panel projects, totaling $756,000 and designed to lower the costs of U.S. Navy shipbuilding and ship repair, the Naval Sea Systems Command announced April 29. Under a joint funding agreement established in 1998, half of NSRP programs are funded by NAVSEA, with the other half funded by various project teams. The NSRP is a collaboration of NAVSEA and U.S. shipyards.
In approving the fiscal 2006 budget resolution, Congress last week also agreed to nonbinding language that disapproved of a potential U.S. Navy competition between Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. to build the DD(X) destroyer.
NEW DELHI - India plans to set up a Strategic Aerospace Command to use space for network-centric warfare in the future, Indian air force (IAF) Chief Air Marshal S.P. Tyagi said. "The vision document already exists," Tyagi told The DAILY. He added that the command for futuristic warfare has to be developed with the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation. He did not give a timeline or say how the air force planned to move forward on the concept.
Spacehab Inc. has sold the Spacehab Payload Processing Facility (SPPF) to Tamir Silvers LLC for $4.8 million, while at the same time inking an agreement to lease the facility back for at least the next five years. Located just south of Cape Canaveral, Fla., the 58,000-square foot facility is where all of Spacehab's cargo modules are integrated and tested before delivery to NASA's nearby Kennedy Space Center for integration with the space shuttle.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin announced late May 2 that they have agreed to create a joint venture to combine the production, engineering, test and launch operations of U.S. government launches of Boeing Delta and Lockheed Martin Atlas rockets. The venture, named United Launch Alliance, will cut the cost of meeting national security and NASA needs for expendable launch vehicles, saving $100-150 million a year, the companies said.
NASA is considering several alternative methods for preventing ice from forming on the space shuttle's external tank that could break loose and threaten the orbiter during launch, in addition to the current favored method of installing heaters.
NATO AGS: NATO and an industry team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) on April 28 signed a contract worth about $30 million (23 million euros) to conduct "definition" work for the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program. The contract, the first major one for the program, is to be followed by early 2006 by a $642 million (500 million euros) award for the design and development phase.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition John J. Young Jr. approved the AN/AQS-20A sonar mine detecting set for low-rate initial production (LRIP) on April 28. The approval followed a successful Milestone C review. The Navy's Program Executive Office, Littoral and Mine Warfare, said the LRIP marks a "significant milestone" in the development and acquisition of a new generation of Navy mine warfare capabilities.
Two sets of activities just getting under way would lead to a technology development program for a Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) aircraft, according to Bruce Tenney, associate director for technology at the U.S. Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), Fort Eustis, Va. "The last four or five years have seen a real resurgence of interest in developing the concept of a heavy vertical lifter," Tenney said in a May 2 telephone interview.
Several key aspects of the U.S. Air Force's Personnel Recovery Vehicle (PRV) program have changed, and another new twist could be on the horizon. The Air Force said it has increased the number of PRVs it plans to buy from 132 to 141, based on additional analysis it recently conducted. The Air Force also has delayed releasing a draft request for proposals (RFP) from March to May, saying "acquisition strategy approval took longer than originally expected."
LONG DURATION: European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany is set to become the first European to live and work on the International Space Station (ISS) on a long-duration mission. ESA and Russia's Federal Space Agency recently signed a deal to put Reiter in a crew position originally scheduled for a Russian cosmonaut. He is to fly to the station later this year, although that could change as the shuttle's return to flight schedule is altered.
POSTPONED: The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group, which is assessing NASA's response to the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, has postponed its May 6 meeting and news conference to give NASA more time to assess potential debris hazards and to give the task group the information it needs to complete its work. NASA said April 29 that it is postponing the shuttle's return to flight from May to July to give itself more time to study potential problems.
Steadicopter Ltd. of Haifa, Israel, is seeking investors for a new unmanned aerial vehicle that could be used for homeland security, the company said April 28. The company combined a patented computer program and Global Positioning System capability with an existing minihelicopter capable of autonomous takeoff, hovering and landing. "There are miniature helicopters that can be flown with remote control or from a ground-control station, but none that are completely autonomous like ours," Amir Rochman, the company CEO, said in a statement.
FLYING GLORY: NASA is continuing to develop the instruments for its Glory mission despite "uncertainty" about what satellite the instruments ultimately will fly on, according to Al Diaz, the agency's associate administrator for science. Glory is designed to measure and characterize atmospheric aerosols and solar irradiance, providing insight into climate change.
PRAGUE - The European Commission has given the green light to the creation of two joint space-related ventures resulting from French electronics company Alcatel merging its space activities with those of Alenia Spazio and Telespazio, part of Italian defense and engineering company Finmeccanica.
