The Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office, Patuxent River, Md., is being awarded a $5,866,877 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the non-recurring development effort associated with modifying Operational Test Program Sets (OTPSs) to function on the Remotely Transportable-Consolidated Automated Support System. OTPSs are used to test the avionics on the V-22. Work will be performed in Philadelphia, Pa. (60%), and Fort Worth, Texas (40%), and is expected to be completed by December 2005. Contract funds in the amount of $1,500,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $1,115,000,000 (not-to-exceed) cost-plus-award-fee time and materials contract to provide for reliability enhancement and reengining, systems development and demonstration in support of the C-5 aircraft. At this time, $15,000,000 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be complete June 2008. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-02-C-2000).
SPARTA Inc. is being awarded a $39,891,157 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Ballistic Missile Defense System scientific, engineering and technical assistance to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Work will be performed primarily in Arlington, Va., and is expected to be completed not later than Nov. 23, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is the contracting activity (HQ0006-02-C-0004).
The Czech Republic announced Dec. 10 it will purchase 24 Gripen single-engine, multirole fighters to replace its aging fleet of MiG-21s. The contract, for about $2.7 billion, includes an industrial offset program amounting to 150 percent of the contract value over a 10-year period. Offsets amounting to half of the contract value will be committed within two years after the contract becomes effective, company officials said in a statement.
STATION FLIGHT: MirCorp, the Netherlands-based company that promotes commercial space, has announced two joint ventures to promote commercial space flight. It has joined with Incredible Adventures Inc. of Florida to market zero-gravity aircraft flights, Russian MiG-25 flights to the edge of space and cosmonaut training in Star City. It has also teamed with Image World Media Inc. to produce a prime-time game show at Russia's Star City, with the winning contestant to go to the International Space Station on a Soyuz.
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: One of the foundations of a projected ability to allow all interested U.S. parties to have situational awareness in space is a ready sharing of information, says Air Force Lt. Col. Thomas Simpson. Simpson, assigned to establish the Space Situational Awareness Integration Office (SSAIO) by next March 1, says one requirement is greater synergy between intelligence and surveillance databases so operators can get information quickly and easily. The current approach of independent planning and managing of assets has "got to change," he says.
Senators from states with key NASA research and launch facilities cautioned NASA administrator-nominee Sean O'Keefe against trying to run NASA the way he did the Office of Management and Budget as deputy director. "We are looking to you to be the person who has the capability to implement a program that secures the science and technology and experimentation that secures and enhances the future for NASA," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose state is home to the Johnson Space Flight Center.
AVENGER ROLE: Does the recent fielding of the Avenger near U.S. space launch sites in Florida (DAILY, Dec. 4) represent a one-time deployment or signal the start of a new anti-terrorism role for the air defense system? Defense analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org says he would not be surprised to see the Boeing-made Avenger, a Humvee equipped with Stinger surface-to-air missiles, placed at such high-profile events as the Olympics and the Super Bowl.
THE BOEING CO. has completed an evaluation of a new technology that could lead to lighter, more efficient and more affordable cooling systems for thermal management in aircraft and spacecraft. It looked at the Cool Chips technology developed by Cool Chips plc, a subsidiary of Borealis Exploration Ltd. Cool Chips are a form of vacuum diode that pumps heat from one side of a chip to another to provide localized cooling and refrigeration, according to Boeing. The technology is solid state and operates silently without the use of motors or fluids.
NOMINEES ADVANCE: The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Dec. 6 approved the nomination of former Lockheed Martin executive Peter Teets to be undersecretary of the Air Force. If confirmed by the full Senate, Teets will also serve as director of the National Reconnaissance Office. The SASC also endorsed the nomination of Air Force Maj. Gen. Claude Bolton to be assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, technology and logistics.
A Boeing Delta II rocket placed two scientific spacecraft into orbit Dec. 7, NASA's Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesophere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite and the joint U.S./French oceanography satellite Jason 1. Jason 1 will monitor ocean circulation, study interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean and observe weather events like El Nino during its three-year mission.
BOOST PHASE: A special project office in the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) is examining technologies that could be used to develop boost-phase intercept capabilities for U.S. missile defense, according to Capt. Peter Grant, the U.S. Navy's program manager for Navy Theater Wide Defense. BDMDO is focusing on the target warheads and how they operate, says Grant, who spoke at the Association of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Symposium in El Paso, Texas.
JSF MYSTERY: The Senate version of the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill remains something of a mystery when it comes to funding for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter development. A report by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which approved the bill Dec. 4, contains language that seems to say the legislation reduces the Bush Administration's $1.54 billion request by $187 million, but accompanying charts suggest the cut is $242 million. A committee source insists the reduction is more like $270 million. Others put the cut at $247 million or $302 million.
SNAP TO IT: Sean O'Keefe, the current deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget who was nominated by the president to be NASA's next administrator, says he intends to take office immediately after being confirmed by the Senate, if he is confirmed. In response to a question posed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) during his senate confirmation hearing Dec. 7, O'Keefe said he intends to take office "soon after the new year.
Lockheed Martin's announcement Dec. 7 that it is getting out of the telecommunications business was greeted as good news by an industry analyst, even though the company will take a $1.7 billion fourth-quarter charge and cut 650 jobs. Paul Nisbet of JSA Research said the company's decision to abandon its Global Telecommunications services business is seen as moving Lockheed Martin back to its core competencies and helping to clear the decks to handle challenges of its newly won Joint Strike Fighter contract.
SEEKING ADVICE: NASA administrator-nominee O'Keefe says he will seek the advice of Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in fashioning a response to European and Canadian concerns about U.S. commitments to the International Space Station. "My intention will be to work very closely with Secretary Powell ... and Deputy Secretary Armitage to ensure that we very carefully respond to those international alliance commitments, that we work together mutually," he says.
SPACEDEV of Poway, Calif., has delivered its SpaceDev BD-II CHIPSat microsatellite to the Space Science Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley. The satellite is for NASA's Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) program. "SpaceDev is introducing the 'microcomputer' way of thinking into the $100 billion space industry, which has been bogged down for decades in the old 'mainframe' way of thinking - that bigger is better," said SpaceDev founder and CEO Jim Benson.
A House-Senate conference committee has approved a fiscal 2002 intelligence authorization bill that "further enhances" the "substantial increase" the Bush Administration included in its budget request for the National Foreign Intelligence Program (NFIP), according to a committee report released Dec. 7. The NFIP includes activities in the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Security Agency and several other agencies.
I/NET Inc. of Kalamazoo, Mich., will work on developing a "conversational" interface for NASA under a $70,000 contract. The company's conversational interface software is similar to voice recognition software, but allows for extended dialogues. As an example, the company said if an astronaut wanted to ask about an oxygen tank, he or she could ask a spacecraft computer "how much air is in the tank?" and it would either ask "which tank?" or infer the astronaut meant the oxygen tank.
STATION DOCK: Space Shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station Dec. 7 after a 46-hour chase. Endeavour brings tons of supplies and the station's Expedition Four crew to the orbiting laboratory. Endeavour launched Dec. 5 and is slated to return Dec. 16.
EUROCKOT LAUNCH SERVICES GmbH of Bremen, Germany, will launch Canada's Microvariability&Oscillations of Stars (MOST) satellite and the Czech MicroMeasurements of Satellite Acceleration (MIMOSA) satellite in the fourth quarter of 2002, the company announced. Both satellites will perform scientific missions in low earth orbit and will be launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
XM SATELLITE RADIO HOLDINGS of Washington, D.C. has raised $112.5 million in equity by offering 10 million shares of its common stock. The company also closed a $66 million funding package with the Boeing Co., which included $35 million in new debt financing with Boeing Capital Services Corp. and $31 million in restructured obligations with Boeing Satellite Systems International Inc. "With these financings ... XM is well positioned to operate its business into the fourth quarter of 2002," said XM President and CEO Hugh Panero.
Lockheed Martin Corp. will begin the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of the Air Force's C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Reengining Program (RERP) under a $1.1 billion contract awarded by the Air Force. The C-5 RERP is the second phase of an Air Force plan for modernizing the C-5 Galaxy fleet. It focuses on upgrading the aircraft with commercial engines and systems and making minor structural enhancements to keep the fleet flying through at least 2040.
FOOT-STOMP: While space situational awareness involves the use of intelligence, Simpson says, that's not its main focus. "I'd like to do a foot-stomp here," he says: "SSA doesn't do intel. That's a very sensitive issue. That's salt in a wound to the intel folks." Intelligence, he says, "brings color to a black-and-white picture.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) urged his Senate colleagues Dec. 7 to remove a provision in the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill that would allow the Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767s to begin to replace its aging KC-135 tankers.
