NASA BIRTHDAY: NASA celebrates its 45th anniversary Oct. 1. The aerospace agency was formed in 1958 as a reaction to Russia's launch of Sputnik, and incorporated the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government organizations.
General Dynamics plans to acquire Steyr Spezialfahrzeug and its parent company, SSF-Holding GmbH of Austria, on Oct. 2, the company said Sept. 30. The company acquired 25 percent of SSF-Holding in 1999. Steyr Spezialfahrzeug, which builds the Pandur family of wheeled combat vehicles and Ulan tracked infantry fighting vehicles, will become part of General Dynamics' Combat Systems Group.
United Defense Industries' EX-57 Mk 3 naval gun, selected by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Coast Guard's first National Security Cutter (NSC), can fire 200 rounds a minute and is ideal for small-boat defense, company officials said. Under a contract from Northrop Grumman, United Defense will produce one EX-57 Mk 3 naval gun for each NSC and provide engineering support services (see related story on Page 7).
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Lockheed Martin Corp.'s new Hi-Vision Air-Space Integration Lab, unveiled here Sept. 29, will be a node in a network of 40 company centers that will be linked to government facilities and the centers of other companies to collaborate on the architecture questions of net-centric operations, according to a company executive.
Lockheed Martin and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., have successfully concluded the last of three demonstrations to show that satellites can significantly extend the range of the Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) system for anti-aircraft warfare and missile defense.
JTT WORK: Japan Turbine Technologies (JTT), a joint venture of Pratt & Whitney and Japan Airlines, will maintain and repair high-pressure turbine airfoils for V2500 engines under a three-year contract from Jaapan Air System. The agreement covers 32 engines and six spares that power 16 Boeing-McDonnell Douglas MD90 aircraft flown by Japan Air System, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines System Corp. JTT will perform the work at its facility near New Tokyo International Airport in Narita.
Arianespace successfully launched the e-Bird and INSAT-3E communications satellites, as well as Europe's first lunar probe, during a flight from the company's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana Sept. 27. Liftoff took place at 8:14 p.m. local time in Kourou (23:14 GMT). The triple launch by the company's Ariane 5G ("generic") rocket marked the third successful Ariane mission this year.
DISPLAYS: Rockwell Collins will manage, support and repair tactical cockpit displays in U.S. Navy F/A-18B/C/Ds and F-14Ds under a $130 million contract from the Naval Inventory Control Point, the company said Sept. 29. The company will be one of three depots that will perform repairs on the equipment under the five-year contract and will provide logistics support to the other depots, the company said.
AIRSHIP WINNER: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has chosen Lockheed Martin to be the prime contractor for the High Altitude Airship (HAA) program, the Defense Department announced late Sept. 29. Lockheed Martin, which beat out teams led by the Boeing Co. and Worldwide Aeros Corp., is being awarded an eight-month, $40 million contract for the surveillance and communications platform, with options for additional work worth $59 million.
MOSCOW - Russia's Space Forces launched six small satellites on Sept. 27 on a Cosmos 3M light launch vehicle from Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The launch, which was delayed a day because of technical problems, included a Russian military radar calibration spacecraft, an educational satellite for the Space Forces' Mozhaiskiy Academy and the first Nigerian satellite. The Larets ("Chest") satellite is a passive reflecting spacecraft intended to reflect beams from ground-based laser rangefinders.
Congress has shifted tens of millions of dollars in the Pentagon's fiscal 2004 budget to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's F136 alternate engine to help keep that effort on track.
Congressional appropriators have more than doubled the amount of money available in the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) fiscal 2004 budget for quickly fielding new capabilities.
NASA is preparing to launch another two-persion crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct. 18, while debating when a third crewmember might be added following the space shuttle's return to flight. Expedition 8 Commander Michael Foale, Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) and Pedro Duque of the European Space Agency will launch to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz TMA-3 vehicle.
Four hybrid-electric drive Humvees built by an Integrated Defense Technologies (IDT) subsidiary have successfully passed a series of tests conducted by the U.S. Army, company officials said Sept. 29. The tests, conducted over a 14-month period, mark the first time the Army has conducted controlled and autonomous tests on multiple hybrid-electric vehicles without industry involvement, officials said.
NEW DELHI - India has requested an unspecified number of Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transport aircraft from the United States, two months after Washington agreed to supply six of the aircraft to Pakistan. An official with the Indian Ministry of Defence told The DAILY that talks with U.S. officials have begun over a proposed buy under the Foreign Military Sales program.
