The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said it successfully conducted a flight test of a two-stage Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) once eyed for European deployment, launching from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., at 3:25 p.m. PDT on June 6. Still, a target missile was not launched for an intercept test in this exercise. “After performing flyout maneuvers, the two-stage booster delivered an exoatmospheric kill vehicle to a designated point in space,” MDA said in a statement.
While supportive of FAA’s move to a satellite-based air traffic management system, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association thinks the “out” element of ADS-B delivers little or no benefit to general aviation aircraft operators. Heidi Williams, AOPA’s senior director of airspace and modernization, says ADS-B Out “really doesn’t get the general aviation aircraft operator anything more than what he gets today” from the ground-based ATC system.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says its Hayabusa asteroid sample return spacecraft will now definitely land in the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia around midnight June 13, following successful completion of the third and fourth trajectory correction maneuvers on June 5 and 9. The return will complete the seven-year mission, which launched on an M-V rocket in May 2003. When it reaches Earth, Hayabusa will release its 17-kg. (37-lb.) asteroid recovery sample capsule. The main spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere, leaving the 40-cm.-dia.
An article in the issue of June 7 (p. 34) incorrectly listed the Boeing unit that will have a role in the Iridium Next contract awarded to Thales Alenia. Boeing’s Intelligence and Security Systems Mission Operations group will do the work.
CIT Leasing has canceled orders for four Airbus A319s and four A320s, marking the first cancellations Airbus has incurred this year. As part of the transaction, CIT Leasing placed an order for four A330-200s. In addition the airframe manufacturer has had orders for two A330-220F aircraft canceled by Guggenheim Aviation Partners, which instead is increasing its order for A330-300s to three passenger transports from one.
Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov shot this view of Tibet from orbit while he was commander of Expedition 23 to the International Space Station, before returning to Earth on June 1 after 163 days in space. A medical doctor and avid photographer who also logged more than 196 days on the ISS in 2007 as a flight engineer on Expedition 15, Kotov is now back at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow recovering from his most recent long-duration exposure to microgravity.
Indian airlines are cautiously looking at growth plans again as they recover from a recession that produced combined losses of $2 billion in the last financial year. The downturn has strengthened the low-cost model, with one of the three largest carriers moving more capacity into a new no-frills division. Budget airlines have emerged from the recession with a bigger share of traffic. The biggest of them, IndiGo, says it wants to buy 150 aircraft.
The German military’s appetite for new military rotorcraft is creating a stir throughout the U.S. and European helicopter industry, with an unusual number of critical decisions looming.
The Defense Department’s planning, programming, budget and execution system is out of sync with warfighting operations and the Pentagon knows it, according to a survey of inside officials and top executives. The American Society of Military Comptrollers had consultancy Grant Thornton survey 1,014 civilian and uniformed and civilian defense bean counters. Among their concerns is the rise of off-book, ad hoc supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Development strategies are crystallizing for a new heavy-lift helicopter with the European Defense Agency release of a request for information and NATO working on turning an alliance staff target for such a rotorcraft into an actual requirement.
Malaysian long-haul budget airline AirAsia X is planning an initial public offering in the second half of next year to support expansion. Parent AirAsia plans to restructure its business and create independent entities for the different carriers operating under its umbrella.
Recently the U.S. Air Force stated that its future shortfall of fighter aircraft is reduced to about 185 from 800 because the upcoming fifth-generation fighters are superior to the legacy fourth-generation ones. This assumes enough F-35 Joint Strike Fighters can be produced and at reasonable cost.
A 520-day simulated mission to Mars is underway in Moscow, where six men will remain isolated in a mock spacecraft at the Institute of Biomedical Problems for the time it would take to reach the red planet and return. Three Russians, two Europeans and a Chinese will pretend to spend 250 days flying to Mars, a month exploring an imitation Martian surface in modified Russian Orlan spacesuits, and another 230 days returning to Earth for a “landing” in November 2011 (AW&ST May 17, p. 16). Hatches closed at 5:49 a.m. EDT June 3.
Emirates’ huge order for more Airbus A380s is leaving competitors puzzled about how to react to the ever-increasing market presence of carriers in the Middle East.
Paul Stein has been named chief scientific officer of U.K.-based Rolls-Royce plc . He was science and technology director at the country’s Defense Ministry. Honors and Elections
Obama’s nomination of Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence James Clapper to be director of national intelligence (DNI) encounters choppy seas on Capitol Hill. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), and its top Republican, Christopher “Kit” Bond (Mo.), both criticize Clapper as too close to Pentagon interests.
Grob Aerospace is considering development of a tandem-seat version of the G120TP trainer and has revived its G850 high-altitude observation program owing to interest from a Middle East customer. The company will not identify the customer, but Grob CEO Johann Heitzmann says the aircraft would be used for Earth observation and be able to fly at around 78,000 ft.
There is no joy in the U.S. space industry as the Obama administration and Congress skirmish over the proposal to kill NASA’s Constellation program and follow the space shuttle with a fleet of commercial “space taxis” to take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). After conceding that the $2.5 billion in the Fiscal 2011 budget request for its own Constellation termination costs is “oversubscribed,” NASA has been warning contractors that they will have to tighten their belts, too. “Most of these reductions will be implemented via reductions in workforce . . .
David Mandel has become vice president-membership and business development of the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Association . He was chief of staff to AIA President Marion Blakey when she was FAA administrator, and a former counsel to the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Spairliners, a joint MRO venture between Air France and Lufthansa Technik, will provide component support for Lufthansa’s future fleet of Airbus A380s that will eventually total 15 aircraft. The company will overhaul and repair components, and manage spare parts inventory as well as associated logistics. In addition to Lufthansa, Spairliners already supports 10 A380s operated by Qantas Airways and Air France, and has 47 of the airplanes under long-term contract.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healey, a state-of-the-art icebreaker, departs Dutch Harbor, Alaska, June 15 for a five-week Arctic Ocean cruise to provide in-situ data that will improve the accuracy of NASA satellite measurements of the delicate polar region. Some 40 scientists will take part in what will be NASA’s first dedicated oceanographic field campaign. It is designed to help researchers better characterize the effects of global warming on the Arctic Ocean, and how changes in that ocean affect its ability to absorb atmospheric carbon.
