Google has acquired solar-powered high-altitude unmanned aircraft develo er Titan Aerospace, just weeks after Facebook revealed it is working on using stratospheric long-endurance UAVs to provide Internet connectivity to remote regions. “We’re thrilled to announce that Titan Aerospace is joining Google,” says the Moriarty, N.M.-based startup’s website. The company is working on the Solara series of “atmospheric satellites,” designed to stay aloft for one to five years.
HOUSTON — U.S. astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson are prepping for a 2-3-hr. contingency spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS), potentially on April 22, to replace a failed backup electronics box responsible for the operations of outstretched solar arrays, thermal control system components and the station’s mobile transporter.
To help streamline its acquisition processes, U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) has created an Acquisition and Commonality directorate to focus on lowering acquisition costs and reducing the number of unique components such as valves in Navy ships and systems. Led by Rear Adm. Thomas Kearney, the new directorate also will increase the “sea service’s ability to incorporate and update new capabilities when considered as part of an item’s lifecycle strategy,” Navsea says.
LONDON — Ukrainian transport aircraft manufacturer Antonov says it has completed state trials of its long-troubled An-70 airlifter. The trials, run jointly between the manufacturer and the Ukrainian defense ministry’s State Scientific and Test Center (SSTC) agency, have concluded the aircraft should now be made ready for serial production and entry into service with the country’s armed services, the company said April 14.
Textron is hoping to send its Scorpion prototype light attack, reconnaissance aircraft to an international coming-out at the U.K.’s Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough Air Show in July. RIAT is set for July 11-13. Farnborough is the following week.
MOSCOW — Russia’s fifth-generation fighter, the Sukhoi T-50, soon will receive a new engine. The first demonstration prototype of this powerplant, dubbed Item 30, will be assembled in early 2015, said Vyacheslav Masalov, CEO of United Engine Corporation, a merger of Russia’s engine design and manufacturing facilities. The first assembly parts and components of Item 30, such as its compressor, will begin testing at the end of this year, he added.
LONDON — The French defense procurement agency DGA has carried out a second qualification firing of the MdCN naval cruise missile, in preparation for the system’s entry into service later this year. Firing of the MdCN, (Missile de Croisière Naval) a variant of the MBDA-produced Scalp air-launched cruise missile, took place April 8 at the DGA’s Biscarrosse missile test center in southwest France. The weapon successfully struck a representative target on the weapon range. The first firing took place in July 2012.
Since 2002, DOD has spent more than $98 billion developing a ballistic missile defense system to protect the U.S., its forces and allies against inbound threat missiles, according to estimates in a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that questions the nation’s plan to implement its European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA).
NASA’s first robotic attempt to gather samples of an asteroid completed its critical design review (CDR) last week, clearing the $1.07 billion Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (Osiris-Rex) mission team to begin assembly of the spacecraft for an October 2016 launch.
KOBE, Japan — Work in China, Japan, Europe and the U.S. on the technologies needed to collect solar energy in space and plug it into terrestrial power grids is making progress across the board, while the trend toward more entrepreneurial space commercialization has given advocates meeting in Japan reason to believe prototype space power systems (SPS) could be flying in low Earth orbit (LEO) within a decade.
TAMPA, Fla. — The U.S. Intelligence Community has “reached a consensus” on a recommendation to lift a restriction that forbids U.S. commercial satellite imagery manufacturers from releasing imagery with resolution of less than 0.5 meters. The proposal “bodes well for industry,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told an audience at the 10th annual Geoint conference here. Clapper says the intelligence community has forwarded the recommendations to an interagency group for review.
HOUSTON — U.S. astronauts could be returning to Earth very close to home after lengthy stays aboard the International Space Station — if Sierra Nevada Corp. becomes a NASA commercial crew services contract provider and the city of Houston earns an FAA spaceport designation for Ellington Airport, which lies within 10 mi. of their NASA Johnson Space Center training base.
Saab AB and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding covering Saab’s purchase of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems’ Swedish shipbuilding operations, formerly known as Kockums. Detailed and final terms are being negotiated. The move follows last month’s announcement by the Swedish government that Saab would carry out a study of undersea warfare options. It is the latest step in Sweden’s plan to revitalize its submarine industry under Saab’s leadership, effectively reversing the 2005 sale of Kockums to TKMS.
It will cost the U.S. about $95.1 billion to build and develop a dozen ballistic-missile submarines to replace the Ohio-class boats now completing the strategic mission, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. That amount includes about $83.4 billion for procurement and about $11.7 billion for research and development, according to GAO.
NASA’s Lockheed Martin-built EFT-1 Orion test capsule is scheduled to begin vibration testing at Kennedy Space Center this week, followed by heat shield installation in May after successful verifications of power and command path routing throughout the spacecraft’s avionics.
TEL AVIV — The Israeli Ofeq 1 reconnaissance satellite is undergoing checkout following its April 9 launch from the Palmachim air base on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.
