Harvey Baker has been named vice president of enterprise systems. Vernon Anderson has been named vice president of operations for contract electronics manufacturing.
TRW Inc.'s board of directors again has rejected Northrop Grumman Corporation's $5.9 billion buyout offer, calling it "financially inadequate and not in the best interests of TRW's shareholders," the company announced March 13.
LORAL CYBERSTAR of Rockville, Md., has signed an agreement with Net4India to provide Internet services. Net4India has become a value-added reseller of Cyberstar's WorldCast Fast Internet service, which provides high-speed Internet connections and other web-based services to local area networks throughout India. WorldCast Fast Internet allows a range of connection speeds and satellite links.
PANAMSAT Corp. of Wilton, Conn., has reached a 10-year, multi-transponder sales agreement with Television&Radio Broadcasting Services (TARBS), an Australian broadcaster, to launch a new direct-to-home television platform in the United States. Under the agreement, TARBS will use PanAmSat satellites for direct-to-home and other services in the Asia Pacific region, and will broadcast more than 50 channels of multicultural television programming in the U.S. over the Galaxy XR North American satellite.
LOCKHEED MARTIN and IMAX CORP. will host the premiere of IMAX Corp.'s first three-dimensional space film, "Space Station," on April 17 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The movie, narrated by actor Tom Cruise, includes footage of astronauts floating through the interior of the International Space Station, and conducting spacewalks outside it.
The Defense Department is considering several alternatives to the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey in case the tiltrotor transport aircraft program has to be canceled, but it has no intention of restarting production of the B-2 bomber, the Pentagon's acquisition chief said March 13.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) could develop a satellite to aid with telemedicine, depending on how a new telemedicine project progresses, according to ISRO Chairman K. Kasturirangan. Kasturirangan made his remarks at the inauguration of the Apollo-Sriharikota telemedicine project, which connects India's Apollo hospitals and the ISRO Hospital at Sriharikota using an INSAT satellite.
Jim O'Neill has been appointed president of the TASC business unit. Dr. Kerry D. Rines has been named vice president and director of TASC's radio frequency systems operating unit. Dr. Lorenzo J. Abella has been named vice president and director of TASC's strategic security operating unit. Corey S. Moore has been appointed vice president and manager of F/A-18 programs.
The next flight test for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense Segment (GMDS), formerly known as the National Missile Defense program, is expected to take place as scheduled on March 15, said a spokesperson for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The March 15 test - designated Integrated Flight Test 8 (IFT 8) - will incorporate two smaller balloon decoys in addition to the large balloon decoy used in previous tests.
Louis Mancini has been named vice president, maintenance operations services. Pedro Salaverria has been named vice president of International Relations of Boeing-Spain. Bonnie Soodik has been named president of shared services, senior vice president of the company and a member of the Boeing executive council.
On the day he was to have appeared before a Senate committee for his confirmation hearing to be NASA's deputy administrator, NASA announced that Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden's name was withdrawn by the White House. "We are disappointed that Gen. Bolden isn't able to join NASA at this time. His impeccable credentials as an astronaut and military aviator made him an excellent selection," NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said in a statement.
VIASAT SATELLITE GROUND SYSTEMS of Norcross, Ga., will provide four mobile S-band tracking and telemetry/UHF-band command destruct integrated antenna systems under a contract from Honeywell Space Systems of Clearwater, Fla., worth more than $3 million. The antennas are for the Range Safety System for the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp.'s Kodiak Launch Complex, which launches commercial and military vehicles.
ASTRIUM GMBH of Bremen, Germany, said Europe's first research facility, the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG), has been integrated into the transport module Leonardo for delivery to the International Space Station during shuttle mission STS-111, slated to launch in May. The MSG will be installed in the U.S. research laboratory Destiny and will offer both manual and automatic controls and a permanent data exchange link to the ground. Astrium built the MSG under contract to the European Space Agency.
Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) said late March 12 that he will try to overcome the House Armed Services Committee's (HASC) recent rejection of his legislation to transfer licensing of commercial satellite exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department.
The market for consolidations among second- and third-tier defense contractors has not reached its peak and may involve non-defense related companies, according to several industry leaders. "I don't think we've had the level of consolidation, particularly in the second and third tiers, that we need to have," said Lucy Fitch, vice president of acquisitions and strategies for BAE Systems North America Inc.
Researchers plan to integrate miniaturized camera payloads into the solar-powered Pathfinder-Plus unmanned aerial vehicle later this month, in preparation for flights this fall to test how digital imagery from the UAV can aid coffee growers in Hawaii. NASA-funded researchers plan three 12-hour flights in September at 20,000 feet to provide digital imagery of a coffee plantation, so crop managers can tell which fields are the ripest.
The U.S. Army's fiscal 2003 unfunded requirements list contains hundreds of millions of dollars for aerospace systems, including helicopters, missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles. The list includes $109.4 million to develop and modify the Patriot missile defense system; $76.2 million for moving target indicator improvements and other upgrades to UAVs; $62.3 million for aircrew integrated systems, such as production of crash-activated inflatable airbags to protect helicopter crews; and $124.2 million to develop new defenses for rotorcraft.
A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher recently fired an Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block IA missile for the first time, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control announced March 12. HIMARS is a wheeled system capable of firing all rockets and missiles in the Multiple Launch Rocket System family of munitions. It can be transported by a C-130.
While the Air Force has been at work for several years on new weapons to defeat deeply buried and so-called "hard" targets, the events of Sept. 11 accelerated several of the programs, according to an Air Force official.
Efforts to streamline the Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office's space programs have resulted in a number of "best practices" being adopted by both organizations, according to an Air Force official involved in the effort. Over the past several months, industry and government officials involved in NRO and Air Force space programs have conducted a series of working group meetings to examine how the two organizations run their space programs. The goal is to identify new procedures that can be adopted in contracting, budgeting and planning.
