SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR returned to Kennedy Space Center yesterday after an 11-day mission plagued by repeated glitches. It touched down at 7:38 a.m. EDT, capping a flight that saw two scientific satellites deployed and recovered, a successful spacesuit shakeout for construction of the International Space Station, and a host of equipment failures that cast the ultimate scientific "take" of the mission in doubt.
The U.S. Army's Airborne Surveillance Testbed (AST) aircraft, a modified Boeing 767, was used to track the test firing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., of a Lance missile in its potential role as a target for the U.S. Navy's shipboard theater missile defense system.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. received two contracts Aug. 29 from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command totaling $58.6 million for ground support equipment for the E-2C aircraft program for the government of France. The efforts are being carried out under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
The General Accounting Office has found that U.S. Army and Navy combat identification efforts are in danger of winding up with "stovepiped" systems that are incompatible. "The two services have been pursuing systems based on different technologies without fully considering how and at what cost those systems will be integrated," GAO said in a report entitled "Combat Identification Systems: Changes Needed in Management Plans and Structure" (GAO/NSAID-95- 153).
U.S. climate researchers have had just about enough micromanagement of the Earth Observing System (EOS) and related Mission to Planet Earth projects. Scientists on the Committee on Earth Studies (CES) of the National Research Council's Space Studies Board last week released a report-"Earth Observations from Space: History, Promise, and Reality"-that doesn't mince words on how well government has realized the scientific promise of long-term climate monitoring from space.
ADM. WILLIAM A. OWENS, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has informed Secretary of Defense William Perry and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili that he intends to retire at the end of his two-year term in February, a JCS spokesman said Friday, confirming a story in the New York Times. He said Owens has received a number of job offers from the private sector, but hasn't decided which one to take. A replacement is likely to be named around December.
AIR FORCE ASSOCIATION'S 49th annual National Convention and Aerospace Technology Exposition will run from today, Sept. 18, to Sept. 20 at the Sheraton Washington Hotel in Washington, D.C. For further information, contact Stephen P. Aubin, AFA director of communications, at 703/247-5850.
Industrial offsets required to allow Hungary to buy Gripen fighters from Sweden are in line for discussion by the two countries following the signing of an agreement last week (DAILY, Sept. 15, page 411B). The agreement, a memorandum of understanding between Hungary and Sweden's Wallenburg group, involves a broad economic program that includes "evaluation and possible procurement" of the fighter for Hungary, according to Saab, a unit of Wallenburg and manufacturer of the Gripen.
British Aerospace reported an 113% increase in before tax profit for the first half of the year. It said Friday that profit for the period ending June 30 leaped from 75 million pounds sterling last year to 160 million pounds, or $248 million. Sales for the first half slipped to 2.9 billion pounds from 1994's 3.6 billion pounds. BAe also said that: -- Defense activities brought in a profit before interest of 240 million pounds, up from 221 million pounds, on sales of 2.05 billion, down from 3.6 billion.
TRW Inc. has been selected to build the Earth Observing System (EOS) Common Spacecraft in a contract worth as much as $668.5 million if all options are exercised, NASA said Friday. TRW won with a new bid submitted after NASA rejected an initial round of bids in May for cost estimates that were "unrealistically" low (DAILY, May 12, page 234). Other bidders at that time were Lockheed and Martin Marietta, since merged, and Hughes.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is drafting a companion bill to the Federal Acquisition Reform Act that cleared the House last week, a committee source said Friday. Sources said work on the bill has been slowed because of changes at the top. With the resignation of Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.) gave up the chairmanship of Governmental Affairs last week to succeed Packwood as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is now taking over as chairman of Governmental Affairs.
The C-17 airlifter would be Rutherford's preferred method of moving troops and supplies to the Bosnia-Herzegovina theater, although he points out TRANSCOM hasn't been asked to plan for troop movement to the area. "I would simply tell you that if I had to put an airlifter in there...I would opt for the C-17," he says. Installation of a defensive suite and fewer number of crew required to operate a C-17 makes its attractive, according to Rutherford.
The fiscal 1996 intelligence bill approved by the House last week reverses a multi-year trend of cuts that have put intelligence spending at just 65% of its 1989 level, in real dollars. But the intelligence community isn't breaking out the champagne bottles. When all is said and done, the House's FY '96 bill ups intelligence spending by just 1.7% over this year-less than inflation. One exception: the CIA, whose funding climbs 5%.
The 5% hike aside, Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch won't rule out the possibility of disbanding the CIA and transferring its missions to other government agencies. "I think that we're in a time where any question is possibly put on the table or sensibly put on the table," he says in response to a question at the National Press Club. "....I am not going to stand here at great length and tell you why I think the CIA is vital, but what I do want you to know is if it's not responsive to its policy customers...then something should be done."
The Defense Dept.'s need for a standoff jamming aircraft isn't going to go away, even with the increase of low observable platforms, says R. Noel Longuemare, DOD's principal deputy under secretary for acquisition and technology. "Stealthy platforms aren't invisible," he points out, adding that DOD is therefore likely to fund a future dedicated standoff platform.
Deutch says he has no plans to reduce investments in high technology, but that the funding may be redirected "to technologies more appropriate for the kind of post-Cold War challenges we face." And fiscal prudence will be paramount, he tells the Press Club audience. "We will not buy expensive new satellites unless there is a significant demand [from] our national security customers."
The Delta II launch of Canada's Radarsat satellite, slipped from Sept. 20 to no earlier than Oct. 4, has been slipped again to no earlier than Oct. 18. NASA, which is handling the launch from the Canadian Space Agency, says the second slip was made to give McDonnell Douglas time to implement modifications to the Delta II in wake of an Aug. 5. failure. McDonnell believes overheating of the rocket's explosive lines caused the mishap, and is planning to install additional protection to shield them during launch.
The House has rejected an amendment to its procurement reform bill that sought to restore a recoupment charge on foreign military sales. The recoupment was established in the 1960s and allows the Defense Dept. to tack a 3-5% surcharge on the gross price of a military contract. Its aim is to recoup some of the more than $30 billion the U.S. invests each year in research and development that benefits private defense contractors.
While the rest of the nation is getting a look at potential presidential candidate Colin Powell, Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.) says that when Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he favored a force of 50 B-2 bombers. A Dicks aide, questioned about the comment which was made on the floor of the House, said Dicks met Powell at the White House in the past year and asked him how many of the stealth bombers he recommended when he was chairman. Powell, according to the aide, told Dicks that "I recommended on the order of 50."
The Defense Dept. is operating Boeing C-135s that "need to be replaced pretty soon," says Gen. Robert Rutherford, commander of U.S. Transportation Command and Air Force Air Mobility Command. He says the planes are getting difficult to operate and maintain. One topic in on-going discussions on the subject is a lease-to-buy option.
