If the International Space Station (ISS) is left at a "core complete" state of assembly, it will be an "enormous disappointment," but not a total waste of effort, according to ISS Task Force Chairman A. Thomas Young. The U.S. core complete state, which limits the crew to three persons, omits the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV), Node 3, the Habitation Module and the Propulsion Module, while reducing the research budget by $1 billion. U.S. core complete assembly is scheduled for completion by 2004.
BAE SYSTEMS has developed a mobile satellite system for use in humanitarian operations, providing long-distance medical assistance and to support civil disaster relief. The system, designed by the company's Avionics Communications&Defence Infrastructure Division based at Christchurch, United Kingdom, was originally built for the military communications needs of British forces serving in the Balkans.
The major impediment to developing a space tourism industry in the U.S. is the lack of access to investment capital, representatives of several space tourism-related companies said during a Nov. 7 conference sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Commerce. The obstacle is not the technology, the panelists said, nor is it the size of the space tourism market, which one panelist predicted could be as high as $1 trillion worldwide.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP.'s credit ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications, although they could improve if the company's stock-and-cash bid to acquire Newport News Shipbuilding goes through, ratings service Standard&Poor's said Nov. 6. Northrop Grumman intends to raise about $1.2 billion through offerings of common stock and equity security units to help finance the bid.
General Dynamics Land Systems' (GDLS) attempt to broker a ground-breaking deal to acquire Russia's active defense system for tanks, known as Arena, ended in September when the Russian government ordered the local design bureau to halt negotiations with their American counterparts. An agreement would have been the first commercial deal involving U.S.-Russian defense cooperation.
INTERSPUTNIK has signed a lease agreement with Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corp. for relay capacity on the LMI-1 satellite, for broadcasting Russia's TV-6 information and entertainment channel. LMI-1 is a new satellite operated by Lockheed Martin Intersputnik, a joint venture of the Intersputnik telecommunications system and Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif.
A White House representative and the House Science Committee chairman Nov. 7 endorsed an independent review panel's recommendation that NASA put off considering enhancements to the International Space Station until it gets control of the core program, but several Science Committee members said the U.S. should commit now to expanding the station so it can handle a six or seven-person crew.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft has helped give researchers a clearer picture of the forces that keep sunspots together, NASA reported Nov. 7. Sunspots are planet-sized regions on the sun's surface where magnetic fields become concentrated. Such regions should fly apart as magnetic fields repel each other, but instead they can linger for weeks or more.
Egypt has asked the U.S. to refurbish its 201 M109A2/A3 155 mm self-propelled howitzers, according to a Nov. 6 statement issued by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). "This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country which has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East," says a DSCA statement about the sale.
MISSION PLAN: NASA managers will meet Nov. 15 to assess the agency's readiness for the next mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for Nov. 29. The Shuttle Endeavour will bring the Expedition Four crew to the station and return the Expedition Three crew to Earth.
Although momentum exchange tethers may not be quite as well known as electrodynamic tethers (EDTs), NASA still believes they have an important role to play as a low-cost method of sending spacecraft to explore the solar system. "They often get lost in the shuffle, but as it turns out, for interplanetary missions, these hold a lot of potential," Les Johnson, manager of the in-space transportation investment area of NASA's Advanced Space Transportation Program (ASTP), told The DAILY.
Adding to an already long list of munitions being used in air strikes over Afghanistan, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said U.S. military forces have used two BLU-82 15,000 pound "daisy cutter" bombs over the past week against Taliban troops. Originally designed to clear helicopter landing areas in Vietnam, the daisy cutter bombs, also know as the Commando Vault, are 15,000 pound, unguided "dumb" bombs fitted with four-foot daisy-cutter fuses. Eleven daisy cutters were dropped from C-130s during the Gulf War.
Rolls-Royce plc's AE 3007C1 engine has been certified by the Federal Aviation Administration as the next-generation powerplant for the Cessna Citation X, the engine maker announced Nov. 6. The AE 3007C1 is a more powerful derivative of the AE 3007C turbofan, providing an additional five percent takeoff thrust, according to Rolls-Royce. AE 3007C/C1 engines are the sole powerplant for the Cessna Citation X.
Outgoing NASA Administrator Dan Goldin expressed support for the recommendations of the recently released International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation (IMCE) Task Force report, while emphasizing that science, rather than engineering, must drive the future of the program. "I'm hoping that the NAC will put those recommendations into perspective so we will be able to have maximum acceptance by the NASA team in as short a period as possible so we can carry it out," Goldin said at a NASA Advisory Council (NAC) meeting Nov. 6.
The European Space Agency has completed its latest round of microgravity parabolic flights, using an Airbus A300 to briefly create weightlessness for 10 physical and life sciences experiments. The flights were conducted Oct. 16-18 over the Gulf of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea. The experiments, most proposed by international teams of investigators included ones examining liquid diffusion and aerosol particle motion in low gravity.
Engineers at Germany's Aerospace Research Establishment are conducting ignition tests on the Ariane 5 booster's Aestus upper stage in an effort to return the launch vehicle to flight early next year. Acting on the recommendations of a board that reviewed a failed July Ariane 5 launch, the engineers are testing a new ignition sequence for the Aestus this month.
A House-Senate conference committee agreed Nov. 6 to add language to the fiscal 2002 VA-HUD-NASA appropriations bill directing NASA to spend at least $40 million to develop the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station. The provision came as an amendment by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who expressed concern that the station's research capability would be limited without the CRV. DeLay's congressional district is near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, which is home to the ISS program office.
A BAE Systems-led industry team will research technologies to extend the guidance of rockets and shells up to 80 nautical miles or more under a $13 million assessment phase (AP) contract awarded by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. BAE Systems' Future Systems will seek to extend the munitions guidance range up to five times beyond that of existing systems, which is one of the goals of the MOD's $1.2 billion Indirect Fire Precision Attack (IFPA) project.
The Air Force plans to release a request for proposals this month for Have Gold 3A, a program to help the Air Force intelligence community validate potential threats. The service's National Air Intelligence Center (NAIC) plans to award a five-year, $95 million contract to support its own efforts and those of missile defense programs in the collection and analysis of data on ballistic missile threats.
Raytheon Co. will not be seriously affected by the loss of potential revenue as a result of being on the losing team for the Joint Strike Fighter, Raytheon President and CEO Daniel Burnham said Nov. 6. Speaking to a group of investors at the Goldman Sachs Global Capital Goods Conference 2001 in New York, Burnham acknowledged that the volume of work for Raytheon would have been heavier if the team led by The Boeing Co. had won the competition.
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) has awarded systems design contracts to two industry teams for work on an experimental satellite seeking to generate power in space. A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries/NEC-Toshisha team and a team made up of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, IHI Aerospace, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries and Shimizu Construction were awarded the NASDA contracts.
CAE of Toronto has sold simulation equipment to Airbus Industrie and has joined with United Arab Emirates airline Emirates to open a Gulfstream business jet training center. The company announced Nov. 6 that it will update the image generators in the Airbus simulators used to evaluate and test its A318, A319, A320, A321, A330 and A340 aircraft. It will install its Tropos image generator, which the company said incorporates the latest three-dimensional technology in a small package.
ENGINE WORK: Rolls-Royce plc has won new engine work potentially worth $475 million from Emirates, the airline of the United Arab Emirates. Emirates signed a letter of intent for eight Airbus Industrie A340-600s at the Dubai air show. Each A340-600 is powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines. Emirates also ordered three A330-200 twinjets, which are powered by Trent 700 engines.
The Boeing Co. is not involved in any efforts to reopen the Czech government's fighter modernization program in order secure export orders of the Czech-made L-159 jet trainer, according to a company spokesperson. Recent Czech press reports have said Aero Vodochody and Boeing Ceska were attempting to strike a deal whereby the Czech government would lease used F-16s from the U.S. in exchange for the U.S. buying L-159s.
FIRST JET: Boeing has delivered its first Next-Generation 737-700 Convertible jet with the Quick Change option. The Quick Change option includes pallet-mounted seats, allowing the conversion from passenger to freighter configuration to take place in less than an hour, according to Boeing.
