A400M UNDER FIRE: While Italy has yet to confirm its withdrawal from the European A400M military transporter program, the Italian defense minister has made it clear that Italy is unlikely to participate. "I have many, deep doubts about the A-400M," Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino says. "The point is whether this specific project pursues the goal [of European defense] economically and effectively.
EOS INCREASE: NASA will need a revolution in on-board data processing in order to continue expanding the Earth Observing System, which studies the Earth's environment, outgoing aerospace agency administrator Dan Goldin says. The Earth Observing System will go from 10 spacecraft now to "perhaps 50" in the next generation, "and the third generation will probably go to 300-500 spacecraft in orbit," Goldin says. "We're going to have to go to onboard processing because we can't afford the links. This is another area that requires unbelievable ...
The House voted late Nov. 1 to limit The Boeing Co.'s liability for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to the amount of the aircraft manufacturer's insurance coverage. The provision, approved as part of an airport/airline security bill, is intended to give Boeing the same kind of protection from lawsuits that Congress approved for the airlines in September. An industry source has warned that Boeing could suffer a "big financial bath" without the lawsuit protection (DAILY, Nov. 1).
ATK Thiokol Propulsion Co. successfully conducted a static test-firing of a space shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) at its Promontory, Utah, facility, on Nov. 1, the company announced Nov. 2. The test was part of the engineering test motor program, which is part of the shuttle's ongoing safety program to verify materials and manufacturing processes. It ran for two minutes, the same duration as the motors fire when launching the space shuttle.
The top priority for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program now is ensuring that the government team and the prime contractor team share a common vision of how to proceed in the 10-year System Development and Demonstration phase, the government's new JSF program director said in an interview. "The first priority is to get off to a good start with the prime contractor," said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Jack Hudson, who moved up from deputy director to director Oct. 26, succeeding U. S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Mike Hough. "We've already begun that process."
Satellite service providers and satellite operators can still obtain investment capital, even in the slow telecommunications market, but they must have a solid business plan and a tangible consumer market, financial analysts said at the recent International Space Symposium in Washington.
SDS International will provide software models for use by the F-22 Air Combat Simulations (ACS) Integrated Product Team under a contract from aircraft builder Lockheed Martin, the company announced Nov. 1. Under the contract, SDS will provide visual models of the F-22 and other aircraft and weapons models in the OpenFlight format. The F-22 models include a highly detailed external view and an internal cockpit view, with articulated flight surfaces.
Following several weeks of speculation over the possible deployment of the Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) and the Global Hawk for use in Afghanistan, the Pentagon confirmed that it is planning on using both systems for current operations. First deployed in Operation Desert Storm, JSTARS provides ground situation data through surveillance aircraft, a target acquisition radar and a command and control ground station. Global Hawk is the Air Force's high-altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle.
Eurockot Launch Services of Bremen, Germany, will launch a spacecraft for Japan's Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), the company announced Nov. 2. Launch of the Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System-1 (SERVIS-1) is planned for 2003 and will take place from Eurockot's facilities at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The experiment is intended to develop technologies to allow the use of commercial off-the-shelf electronic components in the harsh environment of space.
As the Expedition Three crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) heads into the last month of its four-month mission, preparations are heating up for a third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) Nov. 12. During the five-hour, 45-minute spacewalk, Commander Frank Culbertson and Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov will hook up a set of cables between the docking compartment and the Service Module, as well as test the Russian-built Strela crane that will be used on future assembly missions.
TANKER PUSH: Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is leading a Senate effort to include a provision in the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill to allow the Air Force to lease up to 100 Boeing 767s to replace its 136 KC-135E refueling tankers, a Senate aide says. The aide says the KC-135Es, which are 707-derivatives with an average age of 41 years, need to be replaced, and that leasing the planes would be cheaper than buying them.
NOMINATIONS: The Senate Armed Services Committee announced it will hold a nomination hearing Nov. 8 for Peter Teets to be undersecretary of the Air Force, Les Brownlee to be undersecretary of the Army, and Dale Klein to be assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs.
LASM APPEAL: The Defense Department is urging the House-Senate conference committee on the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill to reject a Senate-passed provision that would deny the Bush Administration's $34.5 million request to develop the Land Attack Standard Missile (LASM) for the Marine Corps. In a written "appeal" to the committee, DOD says the Marine Corps needs the missile in the near term to provide forces going ashore with ship-based fire support. The Senate opposed the request due to concerns about development delays and cost increases.
LITTLE LAUNCHERS: As the satellite launch industry continues to mature, and large contracts from major telecom companies constitute a bigger and bigger percentage of the market, the business will become even tougher for small launch providers trying to gain a foothold, Albrecht says. "Large, concentrated telecom operators are going to make it harder for newcomers because they are not significant risk takers," he says. "They're very established businesses, and by concentrating they're going to become even larger.
The Boeing Co. and El Al Israel Airlines are studying the feasibility of a joint venture to establish a security and safety business for airlines, airports and governments worldwide. The joint venture could include developing technology, manufacturing products, designing systems and procedures and training personnel, according to Boeing. A memorandum of understanding signed by the companies will be in effect for 60 days while they study the idea.
An Australian attempt to achieve hypersonic combustion flight fizzled Oct. 30 when a booster carrying a scramjet engine went off course before the scramjet could be tested. "Although we didn't achieve all we set out to achieve, we succeeded in gathering valuable data, and we're encouraged by the fact the payload survived one hell of a wild ride," Allan Paull of the University of Queensland said in an Oct. 31 statement released by the university.
An article in The DAILY of Oct. 31 misstated an order Hainan Airlines of China has placed with Pratt&Whitney. Hainan Airlines ordered PW4056 engines for three twin-engined 767-300s.
Raytheon Co. will create a modeling and simulation capability to analyze new-technology Air Traffic Management tools under a $9.5 million task order from NASA's Ames Research Center. The task order was awarded under NASA's Air Traffic Management System Development and Integration (ATMSDI) contract. Raytheon will provide models to evaluate concepts NASA is developing to increase capacity and efficiency in the nation's air traffic management system.
Derco Aerospace of Milwaukee will provide logistics support for six C-130 Hercules aircraft owned by the Venezuelan air force. The delivery of products and services under the one-year, $8.5 million contract began last month. The contract calls for Derco to provide spare parts, repair services and maintenance kits for the aircraft. Spares include ground support equipment, major components from the original manufacturers and special equipment for engines, propeller parts, hydraulic systems and avionics test equipment.
THE OPEN CHANNEL FOUNDATION, the non-profit arm of Open Channel Software, is selling "NASA classic" software applications, some of which date back to the Apollo program. The software could provide industry with solutions to a wide range of engineering and analysis problems in the fields of medicine, chemistry, aerodynamics and others, according to the foundation. The foundation has entered into an agreement with the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center to market individual programs from the collection at prices ranging from $20 to $8,000 each.
Engineers at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. have been taking a trip down aviation memory lane recently, in an effort to more fully document and understand the discoveries of the Wright Brothers. A life-size reproduction of the 1901 Wright Glider has undergone wind tunnel tests at Langley's Full Scale Tunnel, in which experimenters took a number of different measurements to determine how the glider performed.
CAE of Toronto has added two full flight simulators, a Fairchild Dornier 328Jet and a Boeing 737NG, to its Dallas aviation training center, the company announced Nov. 1. The center, located near the Dallas /Fort Worth airport, already operates two full flight simulators, a Dornier 328Jet and a Dornier 328 Turboprop.
CARRIER HOME: The Navy has decided to homeport the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego, rejecting attempts to steer the new aircraft carrier to Naval Station Bremerton in Washington state, U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) announced Oct. 31. The USS Reagan, now under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va., is scheduled for commissioning in 2003 and will replace the USS Constellation.
The Defense Department says it may not be able to start any new Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTDs) if a House-passed cut in the program's funding makes it into the final version of the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill. The House bill reduces the Bush Administration's $148.9 million request for the program by $20 million, to $128.9 million. The Senate bill leaves the request intact. A House-Senate conference committee is ironing out differences between the two bills.
REALITY CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES INC. (RCT) of San Jose, Calif., has received a license from NASA for further development of a software platform that could allow contractors on Earth to construct "virtual" complex industrial facilities before actually breaking ground. The software was developed by NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., to help explore Mars. The Mars Map 3-D imaging software creates a photographic-quality rendering system, allowing researchers to better understand the surface of Mars.
