FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (FCC) has ordered Comsat Corp. to file an application to seek authorization to participate in any satellite procurement for the proposed Inmarsat-P satellite communications project. The Jan. 10 order came in response to a petition by TRW Inc., which along with Canada's Teleglobe Inc. is planning Odyssey, a mid-Earth orbit communications constellation that will compete with Inmarsat-P.
Communications satellites will make up 68% of the 949 spacecraft projected to be launched over the next decade, according to a new Teal Group study. Most of the communications spacecraft will be small, $1 million-$15 million satellites that will be part of various low-Earth orbit (LEO) systems planned for orbit later this decade, said the study, "The Worldwide Mission Model: 1995-2004."
Lockheed Sanders, Incorporated/AEL Industries, Incorporated, Nashua, New Hampshire, was awarded on January 5, 1995, a delivery order amount of $12,492,172 as part of a potential cumulative total $16,949,835 firm fixed price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for spare parts to support six AN/MSR-3 subsystems. AN/MSR-3 (TACJAM-A) is a communications intercept and direction finding electronic hardware. The spares are primarily a variety of circuit card assemblies.
PRATT&WHITNEY'S newest RL10 rocket engine logged its first mission on Jan. 10 during the launch of Intelsat 704 on a Martin Marietta Atlas IIAS rocket. A pair of P&W RL10A-4-1 rocket engines powered the rocket's Centaur upper stage. The RL10A-4-1 produces more than 22,000 pounds of thrust and is the highest performing RL10 developed to date.
SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT (STM), Irvine, Calif., has received a $1.6 million contract to provide the first private very small aperture terminal (VSAT) network in India. The contract comes from the National Radio and Electronics Co., Bombay, a subsidiary of the TATA Group, India's largest conglomerate.
Honeywell, Inc., Clearwater, Florida, is being awarded a $7,711,571 modification to previously awarded contract N00030-94-C-0069 for Trident Mk.-6 guidance system accelerometers. Work will be performed in Clearwater, Florida, and is expected to be completed by December 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Navy's Strategic Systems Program, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
The U.S. Air Force, which yesterday told Congress that it will cancel its AGM-137 Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) contract with Northrop Grumman, is meeting this week with the contractor to discuss the termination strategy. Ending the $2.9 billion development contract, which Northrop won in April 1986, will cost about $464 million, according to a letter from the Air Force's legislative liaison office to Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
THIOKOL CORP. has been awarded a production contract by Lockheed Missiles&Space Co. for three Castor 120 solid rocket motors for the new Lockheed Launch Vehicle-1 (LLV-1). The motors will be delivered in 1996. Financial details were not disclosed. The first LLV-1 flight, a test mission that will use a Castor 120 first stage motor, is scheduled for no earlier than March of this year.
Loral Systems Manufacturing Company, Yonkers, New York, is being awarded a $6,785,706 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract for a software modification to integrate the ALR-56M Advanced Radar Warning Receiver and the AN/ALE-47 Chaff/Flare Dispenser into the F-16 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is in support of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Taiwan.
Textron Defense Systems, Wilmington, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $106,424,352 face value increase to a fixed-price-incentive contract for low rate initial production of 260 CBU-97A/B Sensor Fused Weapons, 28 Seek Eagle Units, and related containers, warranty and data. Contract is expected to be completed May 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida is the contracting activity (F08626-94-C-0006, P00039).
NASA has named longtime Space Shuttle Launch Director Robert B. Sieck to be the new director, Shuttle Management and Operations, at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and has moved veteran NASA engineer James F. Harrington III into the slot created by Sieck's promotion.
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California, is being awarded a $1,151,177,330 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract for manufacture of Milstar Development Flight Satellite 5 and 6. The work will be performed at Sunnyvale, California (36%), Los Angeles, California (31%) and Redondo Beach, California (33%). Contract is expected to be completed August 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Sunday's launch of the German-Japanese Express satellite from the Kagoshima Space Center in Japan ended in failure when the satellite apparently fell into the Pacific Ocean, according to press reports from Tokyo.
India is upgrading its air force with the first purchase of Russian fighters in a decade, according to reports from New Delhi last week. The Business Standard newspaper reported Jan. 11 that the air force has paid $220 million for eight MiG-29 fighters to be delivered in March, and is negotiating a price for another 30 Su-30 fighters to be delivered later. According to the Associated Press, India is also negotiating with Russia and Britain for military training jets that could cost more than $2 billion
Hughes Aircraft Co. yesterday announced that it has received an order to build one communications satellite for the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES). The agreement calls on Hughes to deliver an HS-601 model satellite, which will be called Astra 1G, and contains an option for a second spacecraft.
Requirements developers for Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) aircraft will be looking to fill a range of characteristics from Marine Corps close air support and Air Force and Navy first-day-of-the-war strike. "The difference between an A-10 and a [F]-117-that's the range of characteristics we're looking for," JAST program manager Brig. Gen. George Muellner told The DAILY.
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S technology research arm, ESTEC, has awarded a feasibility contract to Sira Ltd., of Kent, England, to design a low-cost fiber-optic spacecraft monitoring system.
TRW Inc. said it has received a $299 million Unified Local Area Network Architecture II (ULANA II) contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide government customers with computer networking products and services. GTE Government Systems Corp. will team up with TRW on the work. ULANA II networks will support a wide range of users in areas such as command and control, office automation, finance, inventory, engineering, and training.
Raytheon merged its three government divisions into a single $4 billion entity to be called Raytheon Electronic Systems Div., in a move the company said yesterday was designed to "significantly strengthen" its ability to cut costs. The new division pulls together the Bedford, Mass.-based Missile Systems Div., the Equipment Div. in Marlborough, Mass., and the Electromagnetic Systems Div. in Goleta, Calif., and its creation is part of an overall restructuring unveiled nearly a year ago.
As companies begin reporting the latest quarterly financial results this week, acquisitions and downsizing will get much of the credit for gains-and some financial analysts are starting to wonder when industry will run out of one-time measures for boosting profits. "For now, it all looks good," one investment banker who advises aerospace industry clients said yesterday. "But at some point, someone has to start making some money the real way."
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS said the first squadron of 12 C-17 transports was declared operational yesterday at Charleston AFB, S.C. The Globemaster III's prime contractor said the C-17 is now part of the Air Force's operational inventory, and that 12 aircraft and 48 flight crews from the first unit-the 17th Squadron of the 437th Airlift Wing-are ready for military or humanitarian missions. The 12th C-17 was delivered to the AF on Dec. 22.
PANAMSAT announced $1.3 billion in agreements with customers that will use its PAS-1, PAS-2, PAS-3 and PAS-4 satellites. The first two are on orbit. PAS-4 is slated to be launched this summer, and a replacement for PAS-3, which was lost during a Dec. 1 Ariane launch failure, is scheduled to be orbited before the end of the year.
Development of three key technologies-in electronics, avionics and subsystems integration-will suffer as a result of the congressionally mandated but unfunded merger of the Advanced Short Take-off and Vertical Lift (ASTOVL) program into the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program, JAST program manager Brig. Gen. George Muellner said Friday.
NASA and Boeing Defense and Space Group Friday signed a $5.63 billion prime contract for the design, development, construction and integration of the International Space Station, concluding more than 16 months of negotiations.
