Allied Research Corp. of Vienna, Va., has acquired SeaSpace Corp. of Poway, Calif., in a cash and stock transaction, the company announced July 31. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. SeaSpace, founded in 1982, supplies environmental satellite ground reception systems and has military, commercial and academic customers, according to Allied Research.
BARNES AEROSPACE, Windsor, Conn. Lawrencce M. Falco has been appointed as division manager, Barnes Aerospace Apex Manufacturing division. COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP, Falls Church, Va. Tim Sheahan has been named president of CSC's new Enforcement, Security and Intelligence division. Pat Ways has been named president, Business Development for CSC's federal Sector business unit. MEADS, Orlando, Fla. Klaus Riedel has been appointed president. David Seckinger joins the company as executive
FIRST FLIGHT: Boeing's new 747-400ER (extended range) aircraft made its first flight July 31, the company said. The aircraft is one of two that will be tested over the next three months, before being delivered to launch customer Qantas Airways. The second 747-400ER is in the final stages of assembly.
Lockheed Martin hopes to reschedule the delayed debut of its new Atlas V rocket for Aug. 21, according to company officials. On July 26, Lockheed Martin joint venture International Launch Services (ILS) announced the rocket would not make its Aug. 12 date, due to payload processing delays (DAILY, July 29). The company has asked range officials at Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a launch window starting Aug. 21, and is waiting to hear back, according to ILS spokeswoman Fran Slimmer.
The Navy released its proposal July 30 for basing 10 East Coast Super Hornet F/A-18E/F fleet squadrons, consisting of 130 aircraft, plus one fleet replacement squadron of 32 aircraft. The preferred alternatives for basing, the Navy said, are: six fleet squadrons and the Super Hornet fleet replacement squadron at Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana, and four squadrons at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point; or eight squadrons and the Super Hornet fleet replacement squadron at NAS Oceana, and two squadrons at MCAS Cherry Point.
MOSCOW - An investigative commission confirmed July 30 that the Sukhoi Su-27UB fighter that crashed at the Lviv airshow in Ukraine was in good operational condition. Both of the aircraft's engines were functioning properly before the crash, a commission representative confirmed. Sukhoi general designer Mikhail Simonov and public relations director Yuri Chervakov cited human error as the most likely cause of the deadly crash, which killed 83 air show spectators and injured more than 150.
The House has approved a fiscal 2003 intelligence authorization bill that adds money to the Bush Administration's budget request for modernizing the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and for acquiring airborne imagery capabilities, according to Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.). Bishop is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which wrote the legislation.
Naval Air Systems Command intends to give a sole-source contract to Raytheon to perform work on the requirements document for the Dragon Warrior unmanned aerial vehicle, according to a July 29 notice published in Federal Business Opportunities.
Embraer has become a contributor to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's new facility, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is being built at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The addition is scheduled to open in December 2003. The company contributed $500,000 to museum director Gen. J.R. "Jack" Dailey last week at the Farnborough International Air Show.
Concerns about a possible default on bond notes and an ongoing cash crunch led credit analysts with Standard & Poor's to downgrade the ratings for Orbital Sciences Corp. Analysts lowered Orbital's corporate credit rating from "B" to "CCC+" and placed the company on CreditWatch with developing implications. Analysts also lowered the rating on Orbital subordinated convertible notes from "CCC+" to "CCC-" and placed the notes on CreditWatch with developing implications.
The Senate Armed Services Committee on July 31 approved the nominations of Lt. Gen. James Hill to be commander-in-chief (CINC) of U.S. Southern Command, and Vice Adm. Edmund Giambastiani to be the CINC of U.S. Joint Forces Command. The nominations were favorably reported to the Senate. Hill is the commanding general, I Corps and Fort Lewis, Wash., and Giambastiani is senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The success of the U.S. Coast Guard's homeland security role depends on the success of the agency's ambitious Deepwater program, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins said. Under Deepwater, the Coast Guard plans to buy 35 new fixed-wing aircraft, 34 helicopters, 76 unmanned aerial vehicles, 91 ships, and upgrade 93 helicopters and 49 cutters. The Coast Guard plans to spend $500 million a year on the program.
Navy F-14 crews and Army Special Forces troops in Afghanistan are trading imagery and intelligence via four laptops on loan to the Army from Naval Air Systems Command.
With an eye to the Army's future lift requirements, the Boeing Co. has started preliminary work on a seaplane that could lift up to six million pounds, flying just 2,000-3,000 feet above sea level. Capitalizing on the physics of "ground effect," Boeing is investigating a seaplane that would have the load capability of a ship, but be able to transport Army equipment from port to port more rapidly, according to Chris Raymond, a business development manager at Boeing Aircraft and Missiles.
Weak demand in the commercial satellite-manufacturing sector has prompted Loral Space & Communications to explore opportunities related to defense, company officials said July 31. In a second-quarter conference call with investors and analysts, company Chairman and CEO Bernard Schwartz said Loral is exploring possibilities to help the Defense Department meet its communications needs.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of San Diego, Calif. is pitching the idea of using their unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a means of protecting high-level U.S. executives, such as the president. The company manufactures the Predator, Predator B, and I-GNAT UAVs, which are remotely piloted via ground control stations. The Predators communicate with controllers via satellite, while the less expensive I-GNAT uses line-of-sight communications.
SEAWIFS ANNIVERSARY: NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) has marked five years in orbit, on the OrbView-2 satellite, NASA said July 31. SeaWiFS data has helped scientists make a more accurate assessment of the oceans' role in the global carbon cycle, NASA said.
The Bush Administration announced July 31 that it opposes a provision in the Senate's fiscal 2003 defense appropriations bill that would guarantee loans to private firms to encourage the production of unmanned, reusable spacecraft that can fix satellites.
The Boeing Co. and Germany's CargoLifter AG signed a contract to jointly explore stratospheric airship concepts, Boeing said July 30. The companies will undertake a detailed study of lighter-than-air stratospheric platforms, which Boeing said would allow them to coordinate efforts to bid as airship system suppliers for current and future programs.
The Defense Department's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress July 26 of a possible sale to Pakistan of an Aerostat radar system. Pakistan has requested six Aerostat L-88 Radar Systems and associated equipment, according to DSCA. Lockheed Martin of Akron, Ohio, or TCOM of Columbia, Md., or both, would be the prime contractor for the sale, which would be worth about $155 million. The radars would be the first major foreign military sale to Pakistan since sanctions were lifted against the country last year.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved legislation that could help steer spacecraft testing work to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., but the Florida congressman who represents NASA's Kennedy Space Center is strongly protesting the proposal.
Efforts to protect Global Positioning System satellite signals against jamming will suffer if Congress approves proposed funding cuts in the Air Force's fiscal 2003 budget request for GPS, according to the Department of Defense.
The maiden flight of the upgraded Soyuz TMA launch vehicle would not the best time for the Russians to send up pop star Lance Bass as their next space tourist, according to space analyst James Oberg. The first upgraded version of the vehicle in 15 years, the Soyuz TMA features bigger seats, replaced and rearranged displays, new flight computers, and new software. In a break with 35 years of tradition, the first mission of the vehicle will not be preceded by a test flight, according to Oberg (DAILY, July 30).
