If shuttle Discovery's scheduled May 22 launch is delayed further, NASA could consider launching the orbiter up to a few days after the nominal cutoff date of June 3, according to shuttle managers. The June 3 deadline was dictated by the safety requirement that the shuttle lift off in adequate daylight to ensure high-quality pictures of the launch and external tank (ET) separation.
FCS WORK: General Dynamics C4 Systems will expand its command and control systems integration work for the Army's Future Combat Systems under a $75 million contract from FCS leads Boeing and SAIC, the company said April 21. The new work includes delivering the largest battle command software package for FCS.
Singapore has dropped the Eurofighter Typhoon from consideration in its next fighter aircraft program, leaving the French Dassault-built Rafale and the U.S. Boeing F-15 in the $2 billion, 20-plane competition. The same two jets were finalists in South Korea's recent competition for a new fighter, which the F-15 won. Singapore, which has slipped its final decision several times, now is expected to choose a winner in the second quarter of this year. The new planes will replace aging A-4s and F-5s.
Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAIC) delivered the first batch of wings and forward fuselages to Boeing for South Korea's F-15K fighters on April 18. The work is being done under a contract that KAIC signed with Boeing in May 2002.
The Michoud external tank production facility in New Orleans hopes it will be able to avoid shutting its doors following the retirement of the space shuttle by winning work on projects such as NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and the Air Force's FALCON program.
The U.S. Air Force is putting the finishing touches on an analysis of alternatives (AOA) for America's land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that will explore possible new applications including missile defense, global strike with conventional warheads and responsive space launch.
Tony Bauckham has been appointed managing director of Volga-Dnepr UK Ltd. Stan Wraight has been named vice president of the Volga-Dnepr Group of Companies. Walt Blackwell has been appointed president and CEO.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has formally endorsed an effort to keep the U.S. Navy from mothballing the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier and has cosponsored a provision to temporarily maintain all 12 current flattops. Introduced on the chamber floor April 18, the provision - first pushed last week by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), whose state homeports the JFK (DAILY, April 18) - was offered by six cosponsors as an amendment to the fiscal 2005 supplemental spending bill under consideration in the Senate.
U.S. Air Force officials continue to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to convince them to sign off on the service's restructured Space Radar program and its plan to launch two demonstration spacecraft in 2008. "We've been on the Hill talking to demonstrate what we think is the military utility of Space Radar and why it's important to move on with the demo program," Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) head Gen. Lance Lord told reporters in Washington April 20. The program is requesting $206 million for fiscal year 2006.
Two U.S.-led stealthy cruise missile programs are gearing up to begin flight-testing new capabilities, officials said April 20. Starting in June, a horizontally launched version of the Raytheon-built Tactical Tomahawk (TacTom) will be fired from a British submarine, said Capt. Bob Novak, the U.S. Navy's Tomahawk program manager. A U.S. vessel is slated to take its first shot of the new missile variant in January.
Kwatsi Alibaruho, Robert Dempsey, Richard Jones, Ginger Kerrick, Michael Moses, Holly Ridings, Michael Sarafin, Brian Smith, and Dana Weigel have been named flight directors. D. Lee Forsgren, assistant administrator for legislative affairs, and Glenn Mahone, assistant administrator for public affairs and acting chief of strategic communications, are leaving NASA to pursue other opportunities, effective immediately.
Thomas G. Cornwell has been appointed president of Systems & Electronics Inc. Dan D. Jura has been appointed executive vice president-business development. Allan K. Kaste has been named senior vice president of human resources. Robert L. Klautzer has been appointed chief information officer. Daniel E. Kreher has been named senior vice president, acquistions and investor relations. Steven J. Landmann has been appointed senior vice president, controller and chief accounting officer.
SUPERSONIC SUPPORT: New York-based EDO Corp. said it was awarded a $3.2 million, five-year contract to support the Office of Naval Research (ONR) on a number of programs that will demonstrate high-speed flight capabilities and the performance of expendable supersonic vehicles. Programs to be supported under this contract include the RATTLRS (Revolutionary Approach to Time-Critical Long Range Strike) flight-demonstration program. ONR coordinates the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
NASA is reassessing the International Space Station's (ISS) final configuration and hopes soon to have a better grasp of how many space shuttle flights will be necessary to complete the half-finished facility. At the last ISS heads of agency (HOA) meeting in Montreal, the partner countries agreed on a baseline final configuration that would require 28 shuttle flights and would accommodate all of the international partner modules. Eighteen would be assembly flights, with five for logistics and five for science utilization.
NASA has postponed the return-to-flight mission of the shuttle Discovery from May 15 to May 22 to ensure the program will have enough time to complete all remaining preflight reviews. "The 15th was always just a target," Shuttle Program Manager Bill Parsons told reporters during a teleconference April 20. "We always knew we were going to re-evaluate that when we got a little bit closer." The launch window will remain open until June 3.
Dan Bannister and Rear Adm. David Nash (USN-Ret.) have been named to the board of advisers. Bannister is a former chairman, president and CEO of DynCorp. Nash served as director of the program management office for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
The Pentagon's top acquisition official has ruled that a Navy proposal to compete the DD(X) destroyer program between Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. for a so-called winner-take-all award was "premature." However, the Navy is authorized to issue a draft request for proposals (RFP) to the shipbuilding industry for more input on the debate, according to a Defense Department information sheet.
