South African Internet tycoon Mark Shuttleworth has signed a contract with Russia for a seat aboard a Soyuz that will launch in April to the International Space Station - a flight that would make him the world's second tourist in space. Shuttleworth, 28, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, signed the agreement with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency Dec. 3 in order to secure a seat on the three-member crew, his agents said Dec. 5.
Several military aeronautic engineering programs should be emphasized in the next few years to bolster aeronautics research and technology development, a senior Department of Defense official said Dec. 5. Paul Piscopo, director of strategy and analysis in the DOD's Office of Aerospace Technology, spoke at a Washington conference sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles will be the most important platform on the future battlefield for the U.S. military, but U.S. adversaries will also take advantage of UAV technology, according to senior Army officials. "The enemy's strategy is maximum payoff for investment," Col. John M.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. will supply three Gulfstream V business jets to the Israeli Ministry of Defense for use as Special Electronic Mission aircraft, company owner General Dynamics Corp. announced Dec. 5. The contract for the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft could be worth up to $206 million. The contract includes a firm, fixed-price agreement valued at about $174 million, with an option for a second 10-year customer logistics support program valued at $32 million, according to General Dynamics.
The $1 million included in the final version of the fiscal 2002 transportation appropriations bill for anti-corrosion coatings (DAILY, Dec. 5) will allow the Coast Guard to expand the use of the glass-like substance to its C-130 Hercules turboprops and HH-65 Dolphin and HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters, according to the head of the company that expects do the work.
After a weather delay Dec. 4, Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 5:19 p.m. EST Dec. 5, carrying the Expedition Four crew and the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the International Space Station. Endeavour will bring back the Expedition Three crew when it returns to Earth.
In addition to being one of the most technologically advanced ships to go to sea, the DD(X) destroyer program, formerly known as the DD-21, is crucial for helping sustain the military industrial base of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Ship Systems sector, a senior company official said Dec. 4.
Officials with Northrop Grumman Corp. will examine the operations of Newport News Shipbuilding over the next 18 to 24 months before attempting to integrate the company into Northrop's Ship Systems business, the head of Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems sector said Dec. 4. Speaking to a group of defense reporters in Washington, Rear Adm.
The Air Force Space Battlelab at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., is pursuing several promising technology for warfighters, according to the lab's Col. Ronald Oholendt. In addition to working on an ultra-short pulse laser that can see through dense clouds or battlefield obscurants (DAILY, Dec. 4), Oholendt said the lab is also working on a program called Infrared Cloud Monitor.
The fiscal 2002 transportation appropriations bill that a House-Senate conference committee approved last week includes $1 million to expand the use of an anti-corrosion coating for Coast Guard aircraft. The funding originated in the House version of the bill and made it into the final version, which the conference committee approved Nov. 29 (DAILY, Dec. 3).
NASA's Genesis mission has extended its solar arrays to begin collecting atoms from the solar wind, the aerospace agency announced Dec. 3. The spacecraft will collect ion particles flowing from the outer layer of the sun, material believed to be from the original solar nebula from which the sun and the planets formed. Scientists say such material could provide insight into how the solar system evolved (DAILY, July 12).
Space Shuttle Endeavour's planned Dec. 4 launch to the International Space Station has been bumped to Dec. 5. The shuttle will carry the station's Expedition Four crew and the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. It will also return the Expedition Three crew to Earth.
A prototype kill vehicle scored a direct hit on a missile carrying a mock warhead during Integrated Flight Test 7 of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Segment on Dec. 3. Pentagon officials described the hit as "a major step in our aggressive test program" and said they will "continue to pursue this testing regime to achieve a layered approach to missile defense, using different architectures to deter the growing threat of ballistic missiles carrying weapons of mass destruction."
First combat use of the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser, in Afghanistan, has won the praise of U.S. military officials, Col. Ken Merchant, director of the Area Attack Systems Program Office at Eglin AFB, Fla., said Dec. 4. Merchant declined during a telephone interview to say when the WCMD was used or against what specific targets, but he did say the B-52 was the launch platform, and that the WCMD dispensed the CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition (CEM).
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control will sell more than 400 Extended-Range Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) rocket pods to Egypt and 111 Army Tactical Missile System (Army TACMS) Block IA missiles to the Republic of Korea, the company announced Dec. 4. The $72.2 million sale of MLRS rockets is the first such purchase by Egypt, and will be followed by a contract for MLRS launcher and training and support equipment, according to Lockheed Martin.
The U.S. has dropped about 8,000 bombs over Afghanistan to date, according to the Pentagon. Of this number, about 60 percent have been precision-guided weapons. During the Yugoslav air strikes in 1999, U.S. and NATO forces dropped approximately 23,000 bombs, of which 35 percent were guided. In the Gulf War, 250,000 bombs were dropped, of which only 8 percent were guided.
The Army's network-centric Future Combat System (FCS) will be the "cornerstone" of the transformed Army, according to President Bush's nominee for assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, technology, and logistics (ATL). Answering questions before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington Dec. 4, Claude Bolton, an Air Force major general with over 32 years of active duty experience, said FCS will help make the Army "lighter, faster, and at least as lethal, if not more so," than it is today.
Cubic Defense Systems has introduced a next-generation personnel recovery system called Survivor Tracking and Recovery (STAR). The system is a smaller, lighter version of the company's Personnel Locator System, the standard search-and-rescue avionics system for the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and NATO. STAR is designed for installation aboard search-and-rescue helicopters with no system calibration or alignment needed on the aircraft, the company announced Dec. 4.
The Bush Administration announced the release Dec. 3 of an additional $345 million in emergency funds for the Defense Department to pay for increased situational awareness and improved command and control. The Administration released a total of $699 million to several agencies to pay for a variety of costs arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Senate Appropriations Committee Dec. 4 approved a fiscal 2002 defense spending bill that would allow the Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767-derivative tankers for 10 years to replace aging KC-135s.
Boeing plans to build between 350 and 400 commercial aircraft next year, down from 522 in 2001, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Alan Mulally told Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily during a visit here. The manufacturer is reducing its monthly production rate from the current 48 aircraft to 24 by the middle of next year, aiming to achieve the new rate in June.
Satelites Mexicanos announced Dec. 3 it has secured $300 million in financing for the launching of its Satmex 6 communications satellite early in 2003. Satmex 7 and 8 are to follow it into orbit, but their launches have been postponed to around 2006 in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. In making the financing announcement, CEO Lauro Gonzalez explained that the money increases to $l.2 billion the total investments made since the company was privatized in 1997.
MAGELLAN AEROSPACE CORP. of Toronto will supply components and sealing rings for small and medium-sized jet engines to Pratt&Whitney Canada (P&WC) under a $75.6 million, 10-year agreement. The agreement includes P&WC's newest engines, the PW 625 and the PW 307A.
Russia is continuing to replenish its ailing Glonass satellite navigation system, its version of the U.S. Global Positioning System. On Dec. 1, a Proton booster launched three 3,200 pound Uragan satellites from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (DAILY, Nov. 28). Later that day, the satellites were inserted in their target 11,900-mile circular orbit, bringing the Glonass total to nine operational spacecraft.
Lockheed Martin Logistics Management Inc., Greenville, S.C., is being awarded a $5,268,705 fixed-price-incentive-fee with award-fee contract to provide for aircraft maintenance services in support of the F-15 and F-22 aircraft (when it comes on-line during the second quarter of fiscal year 2003) for the 325th Fighter Wing, Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. Aircraft maintenance includes all unit assigned aircraft and associated ground support equipment for the 325th Fighter Wing. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated.
