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Intelsat has warned of a possible increase in launch costs because it might have to switch one or more missions from Sea Launch to another provider because of Sea Launch’s Chapter 11 filing. Intelsat said one satellite, IS 15, is scheduled to lift off on Sea Launch’s land-based derivative in the fourth quarter, and it has contracted and paid deposits for three Sea Launch missions in all.
Mission controllers suspended the launch of South Korea’s first space rocket 8 min. before liftoff on Aug. 19 after a problem ws detected in the automatic launch sequence. No new date for the KSLV-1 flight has been set.
It is naive at best for you to point out in your editorial “Aerospace’s Perfect Storm” (AW&ST Aug. 10, p. 70) that the aerospace industry is in decline and should be impervious to market forces.
The European Space Agency and its Italian counterpart, ASI, will hold a three-day international workshop in November to discuss puzzling data related to the presence of methane on Mars and plan possible strategies for more in-depth study of Martian methane mechanisms. The presence of the gas, which on Earth is typically generated by organic matter, was first detected by ground-based telescopes in 2003 and confirmed by ESA’s Mars Express probe.
Col. Bob Becklund, commander of the Air National Guard’s 119th Wing in Fargo, N.D., said in his role as the chairman of the service’s UAS weapons system council that the ANG should remain in the unmanned aircraft systems business now and in the future. He remarked that his attendance at the Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Unmanned System North America 2009 Convention last week reinforced this opinion. The ANG hosts four MQ-Predator units: the 119th in Fargo, and at Tucson, Ariz.; Houston; and March Air Reserve Base, Calif.
Michelle A. Scarpella (see photo) has been promoted to vice president-F/A-18 programs from deputy program manager for the El Segundo, Calif.-based Strike and Surveillance Systems Div. of the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s Aerospace Systems Sector.
Thomas Flanagan (see photos) has been promoted to vice president from manager of quality and metallurgy, Curt Haga to vice president from director of supply chain management and Douglas Roberts to vice president from general manager of sales and marketing, all for Ladish Forging , Cudahy, Wis.
Perhaps it is possible to trick the space-borne body into behaving as though it was in 1g by continuously wearing an elastic garment that compresses the body longitudinally to the same extent it would be compressed if standing on Earth’s surface. Think full-body suspenders. If your height is 72 in. on Earth and 73 in. in orbit, the tension on the garment would keep your height at 72 in. The garment may not have to be a full-body model, including the head, but would have to be tolerable to the crewmember.
Coping with yet another downturn in the U.S. aerospace and defense sector and the need to manage the size of their workforce, companies are matching short-term solutions to what their executives hope are temporary problems (see p. 44). Results of the 2009 AVIATION WEEK Workforce Study suggest total job losses during this cycle might be limited to 10% with the use of salary freezes, furloughs, temporary shutdowns and other measures, far below the 40% of positions eliminated during the massive consolidation of the industry in the 1990s.
Boeing is flight testing new engine plug and nozzle configurations on a Continental Airlines 737-900ER testbed YH122 ahead of planned flights next year of CFM International’s CFM56-7BE “Evolution” upgrade.
Portuguese private jet operator Jet Republic abruptly shut down Aug. 20 after it failed to secure promised capital, according to communication director Lysbeth Fox. As a result, Bombardier Aerospace announced it had terminated firm and conditional orders for 110 Learjet 60 XR aircraft originally announced June 20.
French air accident investigation office BEA has formally terminated the second phase of the search into debris associated with the June 1 crash of Air France Flight 447 and is looking at how those efforts should be continued. The latest phase, which used surface and subsurface search tools, failed to locate wreckage of the Airbus A330-200 that crashed off Brazil.
Former U.S. national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley has been named to the board of directors of the Raytheon Co. , Waltham, Mass. He is a senior adviser for international affairs at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
How long will the epic fiction of the “2000 Surprise Requirements” myth persist for the VH-71? How does a company win a bid in January 2005 and announce two months later that it had not been aware of 2000 Defense Dept. and White House Military Office requirements? Are we really to believe NavAir kept all this from the design teams throughout a year-plus classified bidding process, expecting the aircraft would perform to its expectations? Let’s kill this fallacy.
Static fatigue tests are underway in Moscow on a Sukhoi T-50 airframe, according to Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, the chief of the Russian air force. The T-50 is being developed by Sukhoi to meet the air force’s fifth-generation fighter requirement, known as PAK-FA. The Russian air force commander says a first flight is due in November. Zelin, speaking at an Aug. 20 press conference at MAKS 2009, also confirmed that proposals for a two-seat variant of the aircraft are in development.
Israeli Gen. (ret.) Uzi Rubin, an acknowledged missile defense expert, says one alternative to a long-range X-band radar proposed by the U.S. for tracking ballistic missiles heading to Europe is the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense sensor being fielded now in the U.S. Army. The proposed site is now the Czech Republic. But Rubin says two AN-TPY-2s could be put in Turkey. With each facing in different directions, the coverage would be significant, he told the Space and Missile Defense Conference 2009 in Huntsville, Ala., last week.
The head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization has prohibited the country’s airlines from leasing or buying Russian-manufactured aircraft, according to a report by The Moscow Times.com. The move follows two incidents last month that involved Russian-built aircraft and killed a total of 184 people on board.
Stephen Clyne has become vice president-aircraft management and Rita Berlin regional sales director for aircraft charter, management and acquisition services for Volo Aviation , Stratford, Conn. Clyne was vice president-client services for JetDirect Aviation/TAG Aviation USA Inc., White Plains, N.Y. Berlin held similar positions with Virgin Charter, Flight Options and Jet Aviation.
The likelihood of the U.S. establishing a fixed Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) missile interceptor site in Poland appears to be waning as the Pentagon is more sharply focused on the quick fielding of a land-based SM-3 system to protect Europe from an Iranian ballistic missile threat.
Pilatus Aviation is cutting work hours and scaling back PC-12 output. The company says the measure will result in a 15% reduction in work and affect 350 employees, but avoid layoffs. The move has become necessary because of the cancellation rate for the PC-12NG as well as a lack of orders for training aircraft. Company CEO Oscar J. Schwenk says he sees the measure as a short-term step. The production system is sufficiently flexible to quickly ramp up output when necessary, Schwenk indicates.
The death of the Russian Knights Su-27 display team leader, Col. Igor Tkachenko, in a crash while practicing for the MAKS 2009 air show cast a pall over the early days of the event. The Aug. 16 crash also reminded attendees of the inherent risks that display pilots accept. The show, held at Zhukovsky, near Moscow, from Aug.18-23, remains overwhelmingly Russian in terms of exhibitors and visitors, with some representation of European and U.S. companies.
Douglas Barrie (Zhukovsky, Russia), Alexey Komarov (Zhukovsky, Russia)
Russian air force ambitions stretch far beyond the $2.65-billion Sukhoi fighter order at the MAKS 2009 show. Aspirations include fielding an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) alongside its fifth-generation fighter and developing a next-generation strategic bomber.
Qantas has posted its first half-year loss in six years—although the deficit was moderate by the standards of airlines elsewhere, and the carrier says it can see early signs of a recovery in demand. The Australian airline group lost A$93 million ($77 million) in the first six months of 2009, 1.4% of its revenue of A$6.7 billion for the period. A year earlier it made a profit of A$351 million. Profit before tax for the financial year to June 30 was A$181 million. Budget subsidiary Jetstar Airways outperformed the much larger mainline Qantas-branded operation.
Don’t look for wild new ideas from the blue-ribbon panel reviewing human spaceflight plans. Bound by federal open meeting law, the panel has already sketched publicly what will be in its report. The devil, as usual, will be in the details. Under an Aug. 31 deadline, the panel is still hammering those out. It will organize the various scenarios already discussed into four or five options—ranging from the current Moon-first program to a straight shot at Mars—with sub-options based on funding and launch vehicles (AW&ST Aug. 10, p. 29).
