II-VI INC. of Pittsburgh said its eV PRODUCTS division has completed delivery of radiation detectors for NASA's Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer. The company has delivered 40,000 cadmium zinc telluride radiation detectors for the program. The goal of Swift is to explore the cause of gamma ray bursts, the largest explosions in the universe. The detectors supplied by eV PRODUCTS will be placed in the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the gamma burst observatory of the Swift mission, which is scheduled for launch in the fall of 2003.
DEFENSE BILL: The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center and the more recent anthrax scare on Capitol Hill have repeatedly delayed congressional action on the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill. Barring any more unexpected developments, the House Appropriations Committee plans to consider the House version of the bill on Oct. 24. The committee's defense panel approved the bill Oct. 10 but is withholding details until the full committee acts (DAILY, Oct. 12).
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. has extended its offer for all outstanding shares of Newport News Shipbuilding common stock to Oct. 25, the company announced. About 7.6 million shares of Newport News stock had been tendered to Northrop Grumman as of 5 p.m. Oct. 18. The company is competing with General Dynamics to acquire the shipbuilder. General Dynamics' offer was set to expire Oct. 19 but is expected to be extended. The company reported that about 13.6 million shares had been tendered to it as of Oct. 12.
WAITING FOR REFORMS: In spite of a number of reforms to the export control system introduced at the end of the Clinton Administration, the process still prompts complaints, according to Robert Bell, the NATO assistant secretary general for defense support. "There [have] been complaints ... that at the working level - at some mid-levels of key bureaucracies - that they don't get it yet," Bell says. Items falling under NATO's Defense Capabilities Initiative have been a particular problem, Bell adds.
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA scientists have developed an ultra-lightweight demonstration space mirror, which could lead to new mirrors for satellites or giant space telescopes. David Baiocchi, Jim Burge and Brian Cuerden have adapted space mirror technology originally developed at the Optical Sciences Center and Steward Observatory for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST). The 21-inch, 2.2 pound mirror was developed with funds from the National Reconnaissance Office.
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Republican John Warner (Va.) has formally asked the Defense Department to consider whether the military should play a greater role in homeland defense in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
STATION REVIEW: Outgoing NASA Administrator Dan Goldin says he won't make any predictions about the future of the International Space Station until an outside review panel, led by former Lockheed Martin executive Thomas Young, reports Nov. 1. That panel will recommend ways NASA can handle the estimated $4.8 billion shortfall in ISS funding, a shortfall that threatens the construction of key station elements, including a habitation module. "I think it would be very improper for me to try and second-guess what I view as one of the strongest teams," Goldin says.
Volvo Aero has signed an agreement with Pratt&Whitney to overhaul about 25 Pratt&Whitney JT9D engines for Boeing 747s and other aircraft. The Stockholm, Sweden-based company estimates the work will be worth 500 Swedish krona ($10 million). Work will be done in 2001 and 2002. Volvo Aero said it is the largest overhaul contract the company has received since 1998.
The Defense Department is insisting the Joint Strike Fighter is ready to enter the engineering and manufacturing development phase despite a recommendation by the General Accounting Office that the contract award be delayed.
TAXI CREW: A Russian "taxi flight" to swap out the Soyuz crew return vehicle is slated to arrive at the International Space Station Oct. 23. The Soyuz crew includes flight engineer Claudie Haignere of the European Space Agency, the first European woman to visit the station.
While President Bush's trip to Shanghai for the APEC meeting offers the prospect of better relations with China, military sanctions imposed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre remain in place, U.S. officials say. Defense and State Department officials said a recent newspaper report that Bush was set to allow sale of military helicopter parts to China was wrong. The Administration is not deliberating any waiver of the Tiananmen sanctions to sell the spare parts, a Pentagon spokesperson said Oct. 19.
NASA says wind turbines designed to make electricity at the South Pole and in remote regions of Alaska may someday lead to similar wind machines for Mars bases. Scientists are looking at using wind power on Mars because such machines could generate electricity during lengthy Martian dust storms, such as the one that is currently encircling the entire planet. "Wind power and solar power may complement each other on Mars," said David Bubenheim, of NASA's Ames Research Center in California.
REVIVE DC-X: Henry Cooper, chairman of High Frontier and former director of the Strategic Defense Initiative, believes the defunct DC-X reusable launch vehicle program could have yielded benefits if it had received greater political support. The DC-X "Clipper Graham" was an attempt by the SDI organization to create a viable, reusable single-stage-to-orbit capability. "It should be understood that the foundation of the Clipper Graham was soundly laid and still can be built open," says Cooper.
B-1 TOO VULNERABLE: Retired Air Force General Richard Hawley thinks that although the B-1 bomber can survive today through the use of towed decoys, "against modern threats, like the SA-10 [surface-to-air missile], it will quickly die, because an SA-10 is going to be smart enough to lead turn the decoy and shoot the airplane. Current sensors can't do that, but anybody who tells you decoys are the answer to [our] prayers, is flat wrong.
Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia are preparing for the world's first test flight of a hypersonic "scramjet" engine they believe could one day allow commercial airline passengers to fly at a speed of Mach 8. In the Oct. 25 test from the Woomera launch range, two of the prototype engines called "Hyshot" will be launched as conventional rockets - riding on Terrier-Orion Mk70 boosters to an altitude of 196 miles before falling back to Earth, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
BASE SAVINGS: Eight former defense secretaries say another round of base closings would free up money the Defense Department could use to buy new technology. In an Oct. 15 letter to Congress, the former DOD heads write that "money spent on a redundant facility is money not spent on the latest technology we'll need to win" the war against terrorism. The letter is signed by Harold Brown, Frank Carlucci, William Cohen, Melvin Laird, Robert McNamara, William Perry, James Schlesinger and Casper Weinberger.
Scientists at NASA Ames Research Center in California are looking for a few good men and women, age 25 to 55, who are prepared to support human space flight by lying in bed for 30 straight days. Lying at a six-degree incline with their heads pointing down, to simulate the effects of microgravity on the body, the volunteers will help evaluate various exercises designed to counter the bone and muscle loss experienced by astronauts spending extended periods in orbit.
TRUE TEST: Though Russian cooperation in the U.S. war on terrorism is a welcome development, Russian President Vladimir Putin must gain the backing of the Russian military, according to a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Sarah Mendelson, senior fellow in the CSIS Russia and Eurasia program, says the Russian military may not be supportive of Putin's efforts to join the U.S. anti-terrorism effort. "This is not surprising," according to Mendelson. "The military relationship between the United States and Russia prior to Sept.
GROWING SUPPORT: Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's recent crackdown on Islamic fundamentalists will be welcomed by Pakistan's middle class. But he will have to show the restless urban poor that the policy will bring tangible economic benefits, according to the director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' South Asia Project.
In a move aimed at bolstering counter-terrorism cooperation, India and the United States signed a new bilateral treaty calling for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. India's Home Minister L. K. Advani and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who visited India and Pakistan this week, signed the treaty. As Powell's visit to New Delhi began, Indian officials disagreed with a statement Powell made in Pakistan when he described the embattled Kashmir region as the "central issue" in the relationship between India and Pakistan.
The Bush Administration has told Congress it wants to give part of a supplemental spending package to the Defense Department to buy munitions for the war against terrorism, procure "high-priority" spare parts, rebuild major combat systems to fill active and reserve unit shortages, and improve U.S. intelligence and targeting capabilities against terrorist groups, according to documents released by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
President Bush will nominate Dale Klein to be assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, the White House announced. Klein is currently the vice chancellor for special engineering programs and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas. He has served with the University of Texas system since 1977, holding various positions, including head of nuclear programs at the Center for Energy Studies.
The United Kingdom has expressed interesting in buying 48 Tomahawk Block IIIC Land Attack Missiles (TLAM) from the United States, according to an Oct. 17 statement from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). The Block III upgrade to the Tomahawk has achieved better accuracy and longer range than its predecessors by incorporating a lighter warhead and a jam-resistant Global Positioning System (GPS) system. The Block IIIC has a unitary warhead, as opposed to the Block IIID, which disperses bomblets.
Congress Oct. 17 appointed members of a conference committee charged with working out differences between the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill.
