The team behind NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) mission, which apparently was lost after an engine burn Aug. 15, already is considering proposing a replacement mission that could launch as early as 2006. CONTOUR was to have flown by two comets - Encke and Schwassman-Wachmann 3 - in unprecedented proximity, with enough mission flexibility to allow a rendezvous with another comet if the opportunity presented itself.
August 19, 2002 ARMY General Electric Company, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a delivery order amount of $7,976,667 as part of a $53,955,720.84 firm-fixed-price contract for twelve 701C complete install engines for the Army Reserve. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on June 20, 1997. The U. S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., (DAAJ09-97-D-0196).
Lockheed Martin Corp. announced Aug. 26 it has entered into a joint venture with several Japanese companies to provide engineering and lifecycle support services to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces (JMSDF). The joint venture company, to be called MLS Corp., consists of Lockheed Martin, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., SAMPA Kogyo K.K. and Mitsubishi Corp.
AEA FLIGHT: Boeing has completed two more flight demonstrations of its EA-18G Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) concept aircraft, the company said Aug. 26. The EA-18G, an F/A-18F Super Hornet equipped with jamming pods, is one of the aircraft being considered to replace the EA-6B Prowler fleet (DAILY, June 7). The latest flights took place Aug. 20 and 22, Boeing said. Other flights took place earlier this year and late last year.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Pentagon acquisition chief E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr. is expressing confidence about the recent restructuring of the Space Based Infrared System-Low (SBIRS-Low) and SBIRS-High, saying both satellite programs now are "back on track." "We put them back on track," Aldridge told The DAILY at a recent conference here on missile defense. "The issue now is to make sure they stay on track. That's the challenge, and we got the management system in place to try to make that happen."
The first step in Defense Department plans to use the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle for chemical point detection was completed earlier this month when a mini-UAV was successfully launched from the Predator, according to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. The first Predator demonstration was designed to test the ability to launch a single mini-UAV off an airborne UAV, although future plans include a "near-simultaneous" launch of mini-UAVs off both wings of the Predator.
Now that TRW Inc. has won the contract to build the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), the next key event in the program will be the critical design review (CDR) in late 2004, a company spokeswoman said Aug. 26. The CDR is the final design review before TRW begins building the satellite system, which will replace the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) system and the Defense Department's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP).
Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev completed a five-hour, 21-minute spacewalk on Aug. 26 from the International Space Station, NASA said. During the spacewalk, Korzun and Treschev swapped out Japanese space exposure experiments and a Russian experiment that measures jet thruster residue on the exterior of the station's Zvezda service module. The next station spacewalk is planned for October, according to NASA.
After losing recent bids to sell aerial tankers and patrol planes to the U.S. military, European defense giant EADS may see new hope for a U.S. market breakthrough in helicopters, aerospace analysts say. Eurocopter, an EADS subsidiary, confirmed Aug. 26 in press reports that it is in talks with Boeing to obtain the rights to sell the CH-47 Chinook in Europe. Boeing, in turn, would be offered the chance to manufacture and sell the NH-90 to the U.S. military.
The Navy and Raytheon Co. marked the first flight of the Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile on Aug. 23. The flight, at Naval Air Systems Command's Western Test Range Complex in California, was part of the contractor test and evaluation phase.
NEW DELHI - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage visited Sri Lanka's war-ravaged northern Jaffna area Aug. 22, signaling Washington's interest in ending the country's long-running civil war. Armitage is the most senior U.S. official to visit Jaffna since the war began between Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan forces. According to Agence France Presse, peace talks between the warring factions are slated for mid-September, and Armitage said the U.S. strongly supports an end to the violence.
WEALTH OF INFORMATION: The Defense Department has reconsidered its practice of posting its science and technology plans on the web, according to a senior official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The plans, which include the Joint Warfighting Science and Technology Plan and the Defense Technology Objectives plan, generated considerable interest from computer users in China soon after the DOD began putting them online, OSD Deputy Director of Plans and Programs Robert Baker says. "We got over 1,000 hits in one week, and they all came from China," Baker says.
NASA has selected Spectrum Astro of Gilbert, Ariz., to build the Gamma ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), NASA said Aug. 23. GLAST will observe thousands of black holes, magnetized pulsars, gamma ray bursts, and other gamma ray sources, according to NASA. Under the $107 million contract, Spectrum Astro will be responsible for the design and fabrication of the GLAST observatory, integration of its instruments, testing and on-orbit checkout.
RAYTHEON CO. has dedicated a new $14 million facility designed to promote hands-on customer involvement in jointly developing new satellite communications systems, and in improving existing systems, the company said. The 70,000-square-foot Satellite Communications, Integration and Operations Center in Marlborough, Mass., features diagnostic equipment, environmental test labs, modeling and simulation systems and roof-mounted SATCOM antennas. It also has high-bay test areas that can accommodate nine communications systems vehicles at once.
RATINGS REVISION: As it had predicted, the ratings service Standard & Poor's revised its ratings of Orbital Science Corp. after that company said it would apply the proceeds of a recent transaction to repay $100 million in convertible bonds coming due Oct. 1 (DAILY, Aug. 23). Standard & Poor's revised the CreditWatch implications of Orbital's ratings to positive from developing.
NEW DELHI - India and the United States are close to establishing a "new security regime," according to an official with the Indian ministry of external affairs. Visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage discussed military cooperation with India in talks with Indian national security adviser Brijesh Mishra and defense minister George Fernandes on Aug. 23. "The two countries are entering a new relationship," the official said.
Aug. 27 - 29 -- Hannover Fairs USA will host the International Satellite & Communications Exchange Conference and Expo - Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, Calif. For more information call (609) 987-1202 or visit www.satcomexchange.com. Aug. 31 - Sept. 2 -- The Cleveland National Air Show, 1501 North Marginal Road, Burke Lakefront Airport, Cleveland, Ohio. For more information call Kim Dell at (216) 781-0747 or visit www.clevelandairshow.com.
MTHEL BOOST: The Army is expected to add tens of millions of dollars to the $118 million it already has budgeted over the next five years to develop the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL). The extra funding is intended to speed up the system's development. Israel, which jointly developed the fixed-site THEL with the U.S., is expected to match the American contribution to MTHEL (DAILY, Aug. 23).
Defense Department officials are wrapping up the first round of negotiations with Australia's ministry of defense for participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, according to a program spokeswoman. "They are in round one negotiations," Kathy Crawford, JSF spokeswoman told The DAILY Aug. 23. "There is a second round of negotiations scheduled for the 9th of September."
As the Defense Department prepares to go forward with the next constellation of the Global Positioning System, GPS III, the Department of Transportation is looking ahead to some key budgetary and programmatic requirements for civilian users.
SPACEWALK: The second spacewalk to be conducted by the International Space Station's Expedition Five crew is scheduled for Aug. 26, beginning at 12:30 a.m. EDT. During the six-hour spacewalk, Commander Valery Korzun and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev will update experiments mounted on the outside of the station and install hardware to facilitate future spacewalks.
ANTI-MISSILE SHIPS: Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, says he supports developing sea-based missile defenses but believes the Navy will have trouble carrying out a "serious deployment" unless it gets more ships. "Simply adding this mission to an already strained Navy stretches resources if you're talking about a crisis more than a couple weeks in duration," Aderholt says. "As a member of Congress, I'm prepared to vote for additional funds necessary to provide for that mission."
