BIRD UP: A Boeing Delta II rocket launched the Quickbird imaging satellite Oct. 18 for DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colo. Slated to be operational by early 2002, Quickbird will have the highest resolution commercially available - color imagery with a resolution of eight feet, black and white with a resolution of two feet.
Battlespace Publications and Fairs&Exhibitions Ltd. announced that the Middle East ISTAR [intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance] conference, scheduled for Nov. 3 in Dubai, has been postponed until next year. "We very much regret having to delay this key issue conference," said Julian Nettlefold of Battlespace. "Given the sensitivities of the subject and the gravity of the international situation, key industry speakers felt that they should present their subjects at a more appropriate time."
Rockwell Collins has developed its first military survey system for handheld Collins Precision Lightweight Global Positioning System Receivers (PLGR), which will allow users to map locations down to centimeter-level accuracy, the company announced. The company said the lightweight, portable survey system can be used with currently fielded Collins PLGRS, including those used by the U.S. Department of Defense.
House Science space subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) urged the Bush Administration Oct. 18 to quickly appoint a successor to NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, saying the agency needs someone at the helm to make key decisions in the coming months on the future of the International Space Station.
Groen Brothers Aviation is offering its Hawk 4 gyroplane in a homeland defense role. The Salt Lake City company, which has commercial deposits for 140 of the four-place aircraft, says they could help monitor pipelines, bridges, nuclear power plants, borders, skyscrapers, drinking water sources and government facilities. "Hundreds of government decision makers have been invited to examine our plan and our aircraft," one executive said.
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.
The launch table for the Boeing Delta IV rocket arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Boeing announced Oct. 18. The table is a key element in the conversion of a former space shuttle launch pad into a facility for the Delta IV, Boeing's entry for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
Tom Ridge, the director of the White House's new Office of Homeland Security, says he has all the authority and access to the president he needs to do his job. The former Pennsylvania governor's comments were in response to reporters' questions Oct. 18 at his first press conference, which was designed to reassure a nation unsettled by fear of anthrax.
Wall Street investors and analysts may be overestimating the affects of the Sept. 11 attacks on military aerospace and defense companies, according to one financial analyst. Jon Kutler, chairman and CEO of Quarterdeck Investment Partners LLC., said during a session of the Aerospace Expo conference here Oct. 17 that investors responded in a "knee-jerk fashion" by buying defense stocks immediately after the attacks.
MICROVISION INC. of Bothell, Wash., will supply retinal scanning display technology to Concurrent Technologies Corp. for the Office of Naval Research's Battlespace Information Display Technology program. The BIDT program is developing display technologies for delivering wireless tactical information to warfighters. The contract is worth $1.5 million. CTC will integrate Microvision's technology into display devices that will be used in command, control, communications and intelligence (C4I) operations, according to the company.
The Boeing Co. is forming a Security and Safety Services organization to enhance the security and efficiency of airplanes and the air transport system, the company announced Oct. 16. The organization will be under Boeing's Commercial Airplanes business, and will be headed by industry safety veteran Charlie Higgins, who most recently was vice president of safety and airworthiness for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The Bush Administration asked Congress Oct. 17 to approve an additional $7.4 billion in supplemental spending for the Defense Department to help the military respond to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
COMSAT MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS, a business unit of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, has received authority from the Federal Communications Commission to provide domestic land mobile, maritime and aeronautical mobile satellite communications through the Inmarsat satellite system. The services can be provided throughout the United States and its territories, the company announced. The FCC noted that the change will give U.S. consumers more communications options.
CROSSBOW TECHNOLOGY INC. has introduced new inertial systems designed for the guidance of unmanned aircraft and remotely piloted vehicles. The San Jose-based company's VG400CB, AHRS400CD and AHRS500CB systems are attitude and heading reference systems that combine the functionality of an inertial measurement unit with vertical and directional gyro capabilities. The AHRS500CB provides the full feature set required for an FAA-approved system, according to the company.
The Department of Defense recently has expressed interest in several new Boeing Co. military aviation programs, a Boeing official said Oct. 17. George Muellner, president of Boeing Phantom Works, said during a session of the Aerospace Expo conference here that the company has received "considerable interest" in programs relating to military and commercial satellites.
NASA and Stanford University have teamed up to conduct research into computational biology, an emerging interdisciplinary field that uses computers and specialized software to solve biological problems. NASA's Center for Computational Astrobiology and Fundamental Biology (NCCAFB), based at the Ames Research Center, and Stanford's Center for Biomedical Computation will seek to develop new methods of computational biology and use them to explain how cells function, evolve and are affected by disease, both on Earth and in space.
PURDUE UNIVERSITY engineers are using "genetic algorithms" that mimic the evolutionary survival-of-the-fittest model to design innovative constellations of satellites. The algorithms are helpful in designing low-cost constellations that save money by placing a small number of satellites around the Earth at relatively low altitudes, said William Crossley, a faculty member of Purdue's Center for Satellite Engineering.
As the Defense Department nears the Oct. 26 selection of a prime contractor for the Joint Strike Fighter, DOD is considering long-term decisions on how international participation and sales will be handled for what is expected to the largest-ever U.S. defense program. One of the these decisions would involve restricting sales of the JSF to the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process, which could limit industry's ability to negotiate directly with foreign customers.
The Defense Department is not doing enough long-term planning to ensure its maintenance depots will be equipped to handle future weapon systems, according to a new report by the General Accounting Office.
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS CORP. announced that 3931179 Canada Inc., a company owned by L-3, has mailed its previously announced offer to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Spar Aerospace Ltd., for $15.50 in cash per share. The offer will expire at 7 p.m. on Nov. 22, unless withdrawn or extended.
Raytheon Co. and Hughes Electronics Corp. have settled a $1 billion 1997 merger dispute, with Hughes agreeing to pay Raytheon $635.5 million. Under terms of the price adjustment agreement relating to Raytheon's merger with Hughes Defense, Hughes Electronics will reimburse Raytheon $635.5 million of the $9.5 billion purchase price, Raytheon said Oct. 17. Raytheon received $500 million on Oct. 16, with the rest due within six months. Raytheon said it expects to use the amount to pay down debt.
Northrop Grumman Corp. received a $64.8 million test support delivery order from the U.S. Air Force for the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), the company announced Oct. 17. The four-year, fixed-price delivery order for the Joint STARS Extended Test Support (JETS) program was awarded to the company's Integrated Systems Sector (ISS).
E-TENNA CORP., a subsidiary of the Titan Corp., has unveiled its AccuWave G100 groundplane, designed to make global positioning system antennas lighter, cheaper and smaller. The AccuWave G100 is designed to minimize GPS position errors, which can happen when radio frequency signals bounce from the Earth or other surfaces and interfere with GPS transmission. The AccuWave G100 uses artificial magnetic conductor technology to reduce these bounced signals.
