GLOBESAT CORP., Reston, Va., has unveiled a new compact version of its executive briefcase telephone. The GlobeSat Backpack Telephone transmits and receives unrestricted from any point on Earth on Inmarsat frequencies.
IRAN'S PARLIAMENT has endorsed a bill outlawing private satellite dishes, the Associated Press reported. The ban allows only government broadcasting and telecommunications authorities to monitor satellite programming.
Orbital Science Corp. is set to launch a Pegasus XL air-launched space booster with an Air Force payload in April, using new flight control software prepared in the wake of last summer's failure on the first attempt to fly the uprated Pegasus launch vehicle.
Full-scale models of at least two, and probably all three, JAST competitors will be wind-tunnel tested at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., and NASA expects the tests to start sometime in the late summer. An exact start date isn't known because noise from the tests-thanks to the inclusion of full-up, running engines in the aircraft models in addition to the wind tunnel's own fans-means Ames has to prepare an environmental impact statement, or EIS, for the tests.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said yesterday that the Clinton Administration is delaying sending to Congress the $2.6 billion defense supplemental in part because of "controversial rescissions" of earlier funding, "particularly in theater missile defense."
Lockheed Sanders Incorporated/AEL Industries, Incorporated, a joint venture, Nashua, New Hampshire, was awarded on January 5, 1995, a delivery order amount of $24,893,0000 as part of a $55,449,649 (potential cumulative total) firm fixed price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for six communications, intercept and direction finding TACJAM-A (AN/MSR- 3). Work will be performed in Nashua, New Hampshire (74%) and Lansdale, Pennsylvania (26%), and delivery order 1 is expected to be completed by March 31, 1996.
All three variants of Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) aircraft-most likely to be single-seat, single-engine vehicles-will be built on the same production line by one industry team, according to JAST program manager Brig. Gen. George Muellner.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (FCC) has ordered Comsat Corp. to file an application to seek authorization to participate in any satellite procurement for the proposed Inmarsat-P satellite communications project. The Jan. 10 order came in response to a petition by TRW Inc., which along with Canada's Teleglobe Inc. is planning Odyssey, a mid-Earth orbit communications constellation that will compete with Inmarsat-P.
Communications satellites will make up 68% of the 949 spacecraft projected to be launched over the next decade, according to a new Teal Group study. Most of the communications spacecraft will be small, $1 million-$15 million satellites that will be part of various low-Earth orbit (LEO) systems planned for orbit later this decade, said the study, "The Worldwide Mission Model: 1995-2004."
Lockheed Sanders, Incorporated/AEL Industries, Incorporated, Nashua, New Hampshire, was awarded on January 5, 1995, a delivery order amount of $12,492,172 as part of a potential cumulative total $16,949,835 firm fixed price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for spare parts to support six AN/MSR-3 subsystems. AN/MSR-3 (TACJAM-A) is a communications intercept and direction finding electronic hardware. The spares are primarily a variety of circuit card assemblies.
PRATT&WHITNEY'S newest RL10 rocket engine logged its first mission on Jan. 10 during the launch of Intelsat 704 on a Martin Marietta Atlas IIAS rocket. A pair of P&W RL10A-4-1 rocket engines powered the rocket's Centaur upper stage. The RL10A-4-1 produces more than 22,000 pounds of thrust and is the highest performing RL10 developed to date.
SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT (STM), Irvine, Calif., has received a $1.6 million contract to provide the first private very small aperture terminal (VSAT) network in India. The contract comes from the National Radio and Electronics Co., Bombay, a subsidiary of the TATA Group, India's largest conglomerate.
Honeywell, Inc., Clearwater, Florida, is being awarded a $7,711,571 modification to previously awarded contract N00030-94-C-0069 for Trident Mk.-6 guidance system accelerometers. Work will be performed in Clearwater, Florida, and is expected to be completed by December 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Navy's Strategic Systems Program, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
The U.S. Air Force, which yesterday told Congress that it will cancel its AGM-137 Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) contract with Northrop Grumman, is meeting this week with the contractor to discuss the termination strategy. Ending the $2.9 billion development contract, which Northrop won in April 1986, will cost about $464 million, according to a letter from the Air Force's legislative liaison office to Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
THIOKOL CORP. has been awarded a production contract by Lockheed Missiles&Space Co. for three Castor 120 solid rocket motors for the new Lockheed Launch Vehicle-1 (LLV-1). The motors will be delivered in 1996. Financial details were not disclosed. The first LLV-1 flight, a test mission that will use a Castor 120 first stage motor, is scheduled for no earlier than March of this year.
Loral Systems Manufacturing Company, Yonkers, New York, is being awarded a $6,785,706 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract for a software modification to integrate the ALR-56M Advanced Radar Warning Receiver and the AN/ALE-47 Chaff/Flare Dispenser into the F-16 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is in support of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Taiwan.
Textron Defense Systems, Wilmington, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $106,424,352 face value increase to a fixed-price-incentive contract for low rate initial production of 260 CBU-97A/B Sensor Fused Weapons, 28 Seek Eagle Units, and related containers, warranty and data. Contract is expected to be completed May 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida is the contracting activity (F08626-94-C-0006, P00039).
NASA has named longtime Space Shuttle Launch Director Robert B. Sieck to be the new director, Shuttle Management and Operations, at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and has moved veteran NASA engineer James F. Harrington III into the slot created by Sieck's promotion.
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California, is being awarded a $1,151,177,330 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract for manufacture of Milstar Development Flight Satellite 5 and 6. The work will be performed at Sunnyvale, California (36%), Los Angeles, California (31%) and Redondo Beach, California (33%). Contract is expected to be completed August 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Sunday's launch of the German-Japanese Express satellite from the Kagoshima Space Center in Japan ended in failure when the satellite apparently fell into the Pacific Ocean, according to press reports from Tokyo.
India is upgrading its air force with the first purchase of Russian fighters in a decade, according to reports from New Delhi last week. The Business Standard newspaper reported Jan. 11 that the air force has paid $220 million for eight MiG-29 fighters to be delivered in March, and is negotiating a price for another 30 Su-30 fighters to be delivered later. According to the Associated Press, India is also negotiating with Russia and Britain for military training jets that could cost more than $2 billion
Hughes Aircraft Co. yesterday announced that it has received an order to build one communications satellite for the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES). The agreement calls on Hughes to deliver an HS-601 model satellite, which will be called Astra 1G, and contains an option for a second spacecraft.
Development of three key technologies-in electronics, avionics and subsystems integration-will suffer as a result of the congressionally mandated but unfunded merger of the Advanced Short Take-off and Vertical Lift (ASTOVL) program into the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program, JAST program manager Brig. Gen. George Muellner said Friday.
NASA and Boeing Defense and Space Group Friday signed a $5.63 billion prime contract for the design, development, construction and integration of the International Space Station, concluding more than 16 months of negotiations.
