LONDON — Airbus Helicopters is carrying out final tests on an upgrade to its real-time monitoring of the EC225’s bevel gear vertical shaft, which caused the type to be grounded for nine months during 2012 and 2013.
Analysis of temperature and other data from more than 1,000 meteorological stations worldwide has found 2013 was the seventh-warmest year since 1880, adding more evidence to the long-term rise in global warming, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Nine of the 10 warmest years in the 134 years covered by the analysis have occurred since 2000, and the 10th was 1998. The latest GISS analysis finds 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 in global temperature averages.
A parachute-deployment test of NASA’s Orion crew capsule Jan. 16 added another level of complexity to the preflight work that must be done before the vehicle’s Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), atop a Delta IV rocket in September.
Space-science units of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences are planning two meetings this year designed to bring young scientists from the two countries together for discussions on space astronomy and solar and space physics. The U.S. Space Studies Board and the Chinese academy’s National Space Science Center set up meetings in Beijing and Los Angeles for space scientists under 40 to “build informal bridges between the space-science communities in China and the United States,” according to a joint announcement.
NAVY Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc., Monroeville, Pa., is being awarded a $593,104,854 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for naval nuclear propulsion components. The work will be performed in Monroeville, Pa. (66%), and Schenectady, N.Y. (34%). No completion date or additional information is provided on naval nuclear propulsion program contracts. Fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-14-C-2101).
NASA is expanding its push for commercial partnerships in space projects, with a call for proposals from private companies that may be able to use the agency’s lunar-landing know-how in exchange for rides to the surface of the Moon.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy needs to explore more ways to use simulation technology to help qualify its officers and sailors, says U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Thomas Copeman, commander of the Naval Surface Force and U.S. Pacific Naval Surface Force. Current simulation technology is helping train the service’s personnel more efficiently and affordably for combat and other operations for ships, such as DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyers, Copeman said Jan. 15 at a media briefing during the 2014 annual Surface Navy Association Symposium.
PARIS — Europe’s nearly one-year delay in finalizing the design of a service module expected to fly on NASA’s Orion multipurpose crew exploration vehicle will not hold up a planned test flight of the capsule slated for 2017, says European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain. “I have promised NASA that the delay in the service module preliminary design review (PDR) will not lead to a delay in delivery,” Dordain told journalists at an annual meeting where he detailed the agency’s €4.1 billion ($5.6 billion) budget for 2014.
LONDON — The cost of damage to U.K. military aircraft caused by a freak hailstorm at Kandahar AB in Afghanistan is likely to top £10 million ($16.3 million), defense ministry officials have revealed. The incident had a major effect on U.K. in-theater air operations.
LONDON — Switzerland will hold a national referendum in May on whether the country should purchase the Saab JAS-39E Gripen fighter. Voters will go to the polls on May 18 to determine if the purchase of 22 Gripens—to replace the country’s aging Northrop F-5 Tigers—should go ahead. The referendum was called after opponents of the deal collected more than 50,000 signatures to force a national vote on the 3.1 billion Swiss franc ($3.3 billion) program.
OMNIBUS PASSED: In overwhelming and unusually rapid fashion, U.S. lawmakers have passed the fiscal 2014 omnibus appropriations bill. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill before Jan. 19, averting another government shutdown and funding the government through September. The almost evenly divided Senate passed the measure late Jan. 16 by 72 to 26, with 17 Republicans joining 55 majority Democrats and Independents in favor. The House of Representatives passed the bill Jan. 15 by 359 to 67, with just 64 majority Republicans and three Democrats voting against it.
With this month’s crash of a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet, the family of F-18 Hornets and Super Hornets continues to lead U.S. Navy aircraft in terms of total Class A mishap costs, an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of service accident data shows.
In observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the U.S., Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish a Jan. 21 issue. The next issue will be dated Jan. 22. Aviation Week Intelligence Network subscribers can visit www.aviationweek.com/awin for updates.
PARIS — European Space Agency (ESA) member states like the idea of extending International Space Station (ISS) operations to 2024, as proposed by the Obama administration during an annual meeting of space agency chiefs in Washington Jan. 9-10. But ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain says the 20-nation space agency can do little more than voice support for the extension until it secures funding from member states for Europe’s continued participation in the ISS through the end of this decade.
Managers at NASA are generally pleased with the level of funding the agency received in the omnibus spending bill Congress adopted this week for the remainder of fiscal 2014, but they aren’t sure it will support the planned 2017 first flights of one or more commercial crew vehicles.
The bipartisan spending bill approved by the U.S. House and Senate — expected to be signed by President Barack Obama over the weekend — will add 20 Airbus Helicopters UH-72As to the U.S. Army’s plans for fiscal 2014, carrying the production line through the middle of next year, according to an Airbus Group official. However, the company still is in a race to secure orders and keep the production line busy.
China’s test of a hypersonic missile last week is only part of a wider trend, says Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command. Separately, officials in Beijing and Washington confirm reports of the test. Although the move foreshadows greater challenges for defense systems of China’s adversaries, Locklear says: “The hypersonic test is just one of the things being looked at [when considering] implications for the future.
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is continuing to raise concerns about the agency’s efforts to re-establish U.S. human launch capabilities — both through commercial ventures and government-led initiatives to resume human deep space exploration — in its most recent annual assessment. The concerns, outlined Jan. 15 in the independent ASAP’s 2013 annual report, are focused on presumed underfunding as the two development initiatives mature.
