Gen. Lance W. Lord said he will stress three main points in his new job as commander of Air Force Space Command. Answering reporters' questions shortly after taking the position April 19 in a ceremony at Peterson Air Force Base here, Lord, formerly assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force and a career space officer, said he will first make sure "that we fully flex our muscles as an independent major command."
LIQUID BOOSTER: TRW Inc.'s work on a liquid-fueled booster target for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is worth $29 million over five years, the company announced April 22. The MDA recently selected TRW to proceed with the work, which is intended to better represent the threat of incoming missiles (DAILY, April 4).
A comprehensive business case must be made before NASA or private contractors can move ahead with plans to develop commercial reusable launch vehicles, according to the Futron Corp. Futron, a Bethesda, Md.-based technology management consulting firm, is studying potential markets for NASA as part of the agency's Second-Generation RLV program. The study will be released in mid to late 2002, Futron officials said. Those markets include public space travel, space manufacturing, space product promotion and space solar power, according to the firm.
As the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) looks for ways to increase air surveillance over U.S. territory, high-altitude airships eventually could become part of the U.S. air defense system. Under a proposed advanced concept technology demonstration, or ACTD, the Army and NORAD are requesting funds for a single airship to serve as a demonstration vehicle, according to NORAD officials. If successful, the new program could lead to a network of airships used to monitor possible air and maritime threats to U.S. territory.
The recently restructured Space Based Infrared System-Low (SBIRS-Low) program intends to have Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co. fly their sensor designs in a competition at least once, according to the Missile Defense Agency. The flight tests are part of MDA's plan "to maintain at least two payload contractors well into the development phase so as to have production options in the long term," the agency wrote in a statement responding to questions.
Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine has named its laureates for 2001. Each winner received a Laureate Trophy at April 16 ceremonies at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. The laureates are: * Commercial Air Transport: American Airlines Chairman Donald Carty and Vice Chairman Robert Baker, for their response in the wake of the Sept. 11 hijackings.
As the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) looks for ways to increase air surveillance over U.S. territory, high-altitude airships eventually could become part of the U.S. air defense system. Under a proposed advanced concept technology demonstration, or ACTD, the Army and NORAD are requesting funds for a single airship to serve as a demonstration vehicle, according to NORAD officials. If successful, the new program could lead to a network of airships used to monitor possible air and maritime threats to U.S. territory.
LIQUID BOOSTER: TRW Inc.'s work on a liquid-fueled booster target for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is worth $29 million over five years, the company announced April 22. The MDA recently selected TRW to proceed with the work, which is intended to better represent the threat of incoming missiles (DAILY, April 4).
By 2007, the Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) will operate 251 transponders, a senior Indian Department of Space official told Aerospace Daily. The official added that the INSAT-4 series would have seven satellites, INSAT-4A to INSAT-4G, with INSAT-4D as a spare. INSAT is one of the largest domestic communication satellite systems in the Asia Pacific region. Currently, INSAT-2C, INSAT-2dT, INSAT-2-3E, INSAT-3B and INSAT-3C are in operation.
April 19, 2002 Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan., is being awarded a $29,904,000 contract option to increase the quantity of the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System T-6A production aircraft for Pensacola Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla., to seven. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. This work will be complete March 2005. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-01-C-0022, P00003).
Deployment of a second battery for Israel's Arrow missile defense system could be delayed by up to a year due to environmental concerns, according to Arieh Herzog, the director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization.
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH: Having won several important missile defense contracts in Europe over the last five years, MBDA's sales revenues will nearly double by 2005, according to CEO Fabrice BrEgier. In an interview with The DAILY last week, Bregier said his company, created through a consolidation of several British, Italian and French missile manufacturers, will grow from a 2 billion euro company ($1.78 billion) at the end of 2001 to a 4 billion euro company ($3.56 billion) by the end of 2005. "We are, in all of our programs, still in the development phase," Bregier says.
CR/W CONSORTIUM?: As Canard Rotor/Wing (CRW) technology matures, the Boeing Co. might form a consortium to further its commercial advancement, according to Steve Bass, program manager for Boeing's Dragonfly CR/W unmanned aerial vehicle (DAILY, April 13). "I would say that that [a consortium] would certainly not be out of the question for the future," Bass says.
BUDGET BOOST?: Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, says he expects the panel will add money to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2003 defense budget request for aircraft and ships. Weldon also says committee Chairman Bob Stump (R-Ariz.) and ranking Democrat Ike Skelton (Mo.) are trying to reach a compromise on missile defense funding to avoid a major public fight over the issue. The panel is scheduled to finish consideration of the FY '03 defense authorization bill by early May.
In a report released last week, Standard&Poor's raised the long-term credit and senior unsecured debt ratings of Lockheed Martin Corp. Citing the company's improved financial condition, aerospace and defense analyst Martin Knoblowitz raised the company's rating from "BBB-" to "BBB" and its commercial paper rating from "A-3" to "A-2." The rating outlook for the company is stable.
The T-50 Gold Eagle, a supersonic trainer being developed by Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin, has completed the readiness review for its first flight, which is slated for June. Verification tests of some systems remain before that flight, but company officials said April 19 they are confident it will stay on schedule.
COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS: Even though the military has not activated the Civilian Reserve Aircraft Fleet (CRAF) for years, the Air Force has issued contracts to participating commercial carriers to supplement military airlift capabilities, according to Air Force Gen. John Handy, the commander-in-chief of Transportation Command and the commander of Air Mobility Command. Commercial carriers participating in the CRAF program are required to support Department of Defense airlift requirements during times of war or in the case of emergencies.
INTELSAT has signed a 10-year contract with Katelco, the authorized provider of direct-to-home services in Kazakhstan, to deliver television and high-speed Internet services to businesses and households in the country. Intelsat will provide the capacity to provide access to between 10 and 20 pay-TV channels, Internet, distance education, pay-per-view, corporate TV and satellite cable stations, as well as the six channels of local video programming already available. The services are being provided using the Intelsat 904 satellite, which became operational March 27.
SIX D INC., of Honolulu, has been licensed by NASA to market an image compression technology developed by the aerospace agency. NASA's DCTune technology allows still images to be compressed without a perceptible loss of image quality.
PANAMSAT CORP. has signed a 15-year transponder lease agreement with the Eternal Word Television Network, the world's largest religious media network. The agreement consists of one 36 MHz C-band transponder on the G1-RR satellite, for U.S. domestic distribution of the network's programming. PanAmSat operates a network of 21 satellites with 870 transponders.
BITMICRO NETWORKS INC. of Fremont, Calif., will provide its E-Disk solid-state storage for a French instrument that will observe the interactions between radiation, clouds and aerosols, and their impact on Earth's greenhouse effect. The instrument was first developed by Laboratoire d'Optique Atmospherique as an airborne experiment, and was modified for use on the International Space Station by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency. E-Disk drives provide reliable high-speed, high-capacity data storage, according to the company.
