NASA will have to switch to Plan B and begin building contingency hardware if the Russian government doesn't get its stalled International Space Station effort moving again within a month or six weeks at the most, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin told Congress yesterday.
DAVID PACKARD, 83, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co., died Tuesday of pneumonia at Stanford University Hospital. Deputy secretary of defense during the first Nixon Administration and head of President Reagan's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, commonly known as the Packard Commission, Packard and William Hewlett founded the company that became the largest employer in California's Silicon Valley in 1938.
Space Systems/Loral will build two pay television satellites for Asian markets under a contract with Thailand's Asia Broadcasting and Communications Network PLC announced yesterday. Total cost of the two "L-Star" satellites, plus launches on Ariane boosters in late 1997 and late 1998, will be $480 million, according to news reports from Hong Kong. The satellites will be placed in a geostationary orbital slot reserved for Laos, which will hold a 20% interest in the Lao-Star consortium set up to operate the system.
GROUND TEST ARTICLE for first production V-22 tiltrotor aircraft has begun operations at Bell Helicopter Textron's Flight Research Facility in Arlington, Tex., the Bell Boeing team reported. About 400 hours of rotor whirl tests with the GTV, a fully functional wing, engine and rotor system, will be logged during the next year, the team said. Data will be used to predict operational test performance of the initial production V-22, aircraft No. 7, when it flies at NAS Patuxent River, Md. First flight of the plane is slated in December at Bell's Texas facility.
The chairman of the House National Security Committee has asked the House Budget Committee for the maximum ceiling in defense funding, and Senate Armed Services sources indicated yesterday that the SASC would also seek funding for fiscal year 1997 at a ceiling of $267.3 billion in budget authority - a $13 billion increase over the Clinton Admini- stration's request.
The U.S. Air Force plans to participate later this year in low-cost NATO electronic warfare trials in Canada that are aimed at testing the effectiveness of countermeasures against advanced infrared threats, an AF official said. Maj. Scott Coale, who heads up the USAF participation, told The DAILY during an interview in his Pentagon office that the Air Force "will be flying some advanced [IR] flares and modifications to them." The service will take a close look at different flare frequencies and chemicals, he said.
Russian, American and German companies have signed an agreement which may eventually lead to deployment of a space system for global earthquake warning. The agreement setting up the "Predvestnik" (Precursor) project was signed by the Arsenal Design Bureau; the Russian Space Agency (to which Arsenal DB reports); the U.S. company Galaxy Aerospace Management headed by former astronaut Gordon Cooper, and Germany's Dornier Satellitsystem, a subsidiary of Daimler Benz Aerospace.
Robert Wolfe, president of Pratt&Whitney Large Commercial Engines, sees consolidation ahead for the three major engine manufacturers - P&W, GE Aircraft Engines and Rolls Royce - but not as a result of company decisions to sell or merge. "I see consolidation eventually," but more in joint ventures such as the High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) program on which Pratt and GE are teaming, he said yesterday at the Aerospace Finance '96 conference in Arlington, Va., sponsored by The McGraw-Hill Companies' Aviation Week Group.
NASA is about two years away from a new start for a small commercial radar Earth remote sensing satellite that would use advanced technology developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to generate data for the agency's Mission to Planet Earth. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin told the Senate Commerce space subcommittee yesterday that NASA wants industry to commercialize the government-developed technology and then sell data from the new radarsats to the U.S. space agency.
Rockwell International Corporation, Duluth, Georgia, was awarded a $33,112,916 firm fixed price contract on March 19 for upgrade of 214 AGM- 130 missiles and associated spare parts, data and warranty. Contract is expected to be completed November 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was one firms solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began July 1995 and negotiations were complete March 1996. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (F08626-95/C-0236).
Harris Corporation, Melbourne, Florida, is being awarded an $11,166,828 modification to a firm fixed price and time and materials contract for upgrading and refurbishing the antenna at each heavy terminal/medium terminal, worldwide, used in the Defense Satellite Communications System. This acquisition is for the exercise of various spares (contract line options) under option year III in support of the heavy terminal/medium terminal modernization program. Work will be performed in Melbourne, Florida, and is expected to be completed by December 30, 1999.
Rockwell International Corporation, Anaheim, California, is being awarded a $9,000,000 cost plus fixed fee contract to provide for engineering services in support of the guidance and control systems on the Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles. This effort will include hardware and software depot engineering, project engineering, and logistics, test, and troubleshooting support. The work will be performed at Rockwell International Corporation, Anaheim, California (60%) and Rockwell International Autonetics Electronic Systems division, Hill Air Force Base, Utah (36%).
One day after charging that the Clinton Administration is supporting addition of another B-2 bomber to the active fleet only to win California votes in an election year, GOP presidential contender Sen. Bob Dole (R- Kan.) visited the state and vowed his support for more of the Northrop Grumman planes. During his visit to the company's plant at Pico Rivera, Calif., on Friday, Dole took President Clinton's promise to add another bomber to the planned 20-plane fleet a step further by supporting production of 19 more.
Lockheed Martin, Orlando, Florida, is being awarded a $3,192,133 increment as part of a $6,384,266 firm fixed price contract for special repair activity on the Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS) for the country of Egypt. Work will be performed in Cairo, Egypt, and is expected to be completed by March 31, 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on January 19, 1996. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command, St.
WHITTAKER CORP., Simi Valley, Calif., said Richard E. Tierney has joined the company as president of its electronics business unit. Tierney has been president of Smiths Industries' North American Defense Div. in Grand Rapids, Mich., since 1987.
Nichols Research Corporation, Huntsville, Alabama, is being awarded a $27,393,614 increment as part of a $42,271,353 firm fixed price and cost plus award fee contract with a projected cumulative total of $155,376,897 (if all options are exercised) for integration of a High Performance Computing (HPC) capability, including delivery of an HPC computational and programming environment, associated system integration and support infrastructure services, and training. Work will be performed in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and is expected to be completed by March 18, 2004.
Rockwell International Corporation, Duluth, Georgia, is being awarded a $30,500,000 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for 100 AGM-130 missiles, 60 tactical and 40 training altimeters applicable thereto, and associated spare parts, data, and warranty. Contract is expected to be completed November 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (F08626-95/C-0236, P00001).
Hughes Space and Communications Co. will install Ka-band payloads on the final three UHF Follow-On satellites it is building for the U.S. Navy under a $150 million increase to its $1.9 billion contract to build 10 of the satellites.
U.S. astronauts Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford are scheduled to undertake the first space walk between a U.S. Space Shuttle and Russia's Mir space station late tonight as the third Shuttle/Mir docking mission continues following a shaky start last Friday.
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Seattle, Washington, is being awarded a $12,350,000 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for conversion of 100 AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise missiles into AGM-86C Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missiles. The work will be performed at Boeing Defense and Space, Oak Ridge Tennessee. Contract is expected to be completed October 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The cost of buying C-17 airlifters could be reduced to $212 million per aircraft for the next 80 planes, U.S. Transportation Command Chief Gen. Ronald Fogleman told senators. "The $212 million per aircraft...is an average unit flyaway cost estimate for the remaining 80 aircraft (FY '97 and beyond) in 1995 constant year dollars," Fogleman said. "Flyaway cost reflects the cost of the actual aircraft but does not include such items as support costs."
Kaman Aerospace Corporation, Bloomfield, Connecticut, is being awarded a $15,000,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-95-C-0127 for long lead materials and services for SH-2G(E) helicopters for the Egyptian Government (100%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program (FMS). Work will be performed in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and is expected to be completed by July 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
ROBERT F. OVERMYER, commander of the Space Shuttle Challenger on the third Spacelab mission in 1985, was killed Friday in a flight test accident near Duluth, Minn. The 60-year-old retired Marine colonel was testing a VK-30 prototype built by Cirrus Design Corp. when the aircraft crashed near the Duluth International Airport. Overmyer was pilot on STS-5 in November 1982 and commanded STS-51B in April 1985, and later worked for Martin Marietta Astronautics in Denver.
The U.S. Air Force last week accepted the first production E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft during ceremonies at Northrop Grumman facilities in Melbourne, Fla. Current Air Force plans call for 20 operational Joint STARS. However, Pentagon officials have identified a requirement for additional systems, and NATO is evaluating Joint STARS to meet its airborne ground surveillance requirements. Boeing 707-300 cargo aircraft are remanufactured for the Joint STARS mission.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Sunnyvale, California, is being awarded a $7,539,754 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide Trident Cost of Ownership Reduction Initiatives. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, California, and is expected to be completed by February 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Navy's Strategic Systems Program, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00030-96-C-0043).
