Space Systems/Loral will supply a 6-metric-ton, 12-kw. telecommunications satellite to Asia Broadcast Satellite. The Hong Kong-based operator had inked a preliminary agreement for the spacecraft, ABS-2, in June 2009, but lacked the financing to close the deal until a management buyout in partnership with the Permira private equity fund, which was announced last month.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is being readied for a second glide test following a trouble-free initial unpowered flight at Mojave, Calif., on Oct. 10. The 13-min. glide boosted Virgin Galactic’s hopes of staying on track to become the world’s first commercial space line, and comes as final preparations begin for the runway opening ceremony on Oct. 22 at Spaceport America in New Mexico, where Virgin’s future space operations will be based.
Chinese controllers have achieved a velocity within 1 cm./sec. of prediction in the braking maneuver that brought the Chang’e 2 spacecraft into its 100-km.-altitude (62-mi.) working orbit around the Moon. The lunar probe, China’s second, is now in a position to begin surveying the lunar surface, says the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.
General Dynamics’ $2.2-billion purchase of Jet Aviation in 2008 was costly, sensitive and arguably ill-timed, but those in charge insist the acquisition makes solid strategic sense and that business, which suffered during last year’s recession, is returning. Moreover, they say initial concerns by airframe manufacturer-customers who compete with Gulfstream, another General Dynamics unit, seem to have been assuaged by a clear and continued arm’s length separation of those entities. Finally, the acquisition by a U.S.
Shortly before the National Business Aviation Association’s (NBAA) 2010 convention began, Gulfstream Aerospace President Joe Lombardo met at the company’s Savannah, Ga., headquarters with Aviation Week editors William Garvey and Joseph C. Anselmo. He talked about the industry’s prospects for recovery and why Gulfstream is faring better than most other business jet manufacturers. AW&ST: The business aviation industry is still announcing layoffs and production cuts. Are you disappointed that the market has not rebounded faster?
“Crunch Time” (AW&ST Sept. 13, p. 26) clearly shows that commercially based crew transportation to the International Space Station is dead. Albeit late, large and small companies are forming symbiotic teaming relationships. Smaller companies without the financial foundation to go it alone are teaming with larger companies who need them for strategic name recognition as well as a possible infusion of new thinking.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbit should quit dragging his feet on the pilot time and duty issue (“The Price of Safety,” AW&ST Sept. 20/27, p. 28). Congress mandated action. At the very least, just changing the time the clock starts for Parts 121 and 135 pilots’ rest time (from block in at the gate to arriving at the hotel) should have been enacted. The FAA needs to change this now. Let Congress deal with complaints from the airlines.
Michael J. Paul has been named executive director of Stamford, Conn.-based Passur Aerospace Inc. ’s Technology Advisory Board. He was president of Predictive Business Systems and had been chief information officer and vice president-materials planning at Sikorsky Aircraft .
With a successful operational evaluation in hand, the U.S. Marine Corps is planning to request approval for full-rate production of the new AH-1Z attack helicopter after a years-long shortfall. The Defense Acquisition Board is set to review the program in early November, says Col. Harry Hewson, who manages the Huey and Cobra upgrade programs for the Naval Air Systems Command.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz has an idea for those who keep pushing an alternate to the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine for the Joint Strike Fighter—get General Electric and Rolls-Royce to cut the price.
In “Emerging Conundrum” (AW&ST Sept. 6, p. 46), Rockwell Collins CEO Clay Jones says he is not concerned about Chinese competitors, because his company can stay ahead of them.
Industry consultants at Washington-area Input predict that defense procurements will dominate major U.S. federal contracts next year, a reversal of fortune from 2010. Analysts there said Oct. 6 that more than 80% of the roughly $142 billion in total contract value already identified for 2011 will be associated with defense agencies. But competition among vendors still will be harder because of fewer new opportunities.
Take an industry that has been hit with tens of thousands of layoffs, weak orders, steep production cuts and a cutoff in credit for its customers. Sprinkle in a debt crisis in Europe and top it off with a sputtering U.S. economy. What do you get? A recipe for another dismal year.
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote those words in 1926, but he could have been describing the business jet market of 2010.
Several articles in your magazine regarding hypersonic vehicles continue a trend that confuses me. In one case, “Dissecting Scramjet” (AW&ST Aug. 2, p. 35), the author ends with “ . . . the X-51A reached a maximum speed of Mach 4.88 . . . making the flight 11 times longer than any
Engineers at NASA will base the agency’s next launch vehicle on existing technology, and on a potential 50% funding boost for advanced-technology work to develop hardware for “evolving” its ability to send humans and scientific probes deeper into space. President Barack Obama signed a compromise three-year, $58.4-billion NASA reauthorization bill into law on Oct. 11. Under the two-step legislative process, Congress must now appropriate the funding to carry out the programs authorized in the measure.
The European Space Agency is working with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and national governments to reduce interference that threatens to reduce the usefulness of data from its Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission. Launched in November 2009 and commissioned in May (AW&ST May 31, p.
