Space Systems/Loral (SSL) says it has been selected to build a commercial communications satellite for Latin American satellite operator Star One, a subsidiary of Brazilian telecom company Embratel. SSL announced the contract July 18, though the customer was not disclosed.
Science managers have conceded failure in attempting to restore the Kepler Space Telescope to full functionality, and will focus on what the telescope can do with only two of its four reaction wheels working. Designed to find extra-solar planets by detecting the faint flicker in light from distant stars when planets pass in front of them, Kepler lost the pointing accuracy it needs for the task when a second wheel failed in May.
COMMERCIAL CREW: NASA says it will spend $55 million in fiscal 2014 to fund new milestone payments to the three companies developing commercial crew transport vehicles under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) effort. Boeing is due to receive a $20 million payment for a spacecraft safety review in July 2014, while SpaceX will receive the same amount for a Dragon parachute test in November of this year.
MOSCOW — Russian Helicopters has begun work on a high-speed testbed to prove technologies for its Rachel advanced, high-speed helicopter program. The testbed, which is being built at the holding company’s facilities in the Tomilino District of Moscow, is based on an Mil Mi-35 “Hind” attack helicopter. According to CEO Dmitry Petrov, the testbed will be used to evaluate configurations and technologies that will later be integrated into a Rachel prototype due to fly before 2020.
The U.S. Transportation Department is working to designate permanent areas of the Arctic where small unmanned aircraft can operate 24/7 for research and commercial purposes, with the first approved operations coming this summer.
NASA’s budget-constrained approach to the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) faces an array of obstacles that could jeopardize key flight test plans and leave the U.S. unable to place astronauts on the surface of planetary bodies well into the next decade at best, according to a new assessment from the agency’s inspector general.
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Engineers at Rostvertol have developed an escape system to boost crew survivability on its Mi-28 attack helicopter. Like most helicopters in its class, the Mi-28’s two crewmembers, the pilot and the weapons operator, are given crashworthy seats, while the aircraft’s main landing gear has been designed with large, shock-absorbing oleos that have been designed to “break” and absorb energy in the event of a high-sink-rate landing, a likely scenario given that the aircraft has been designed for nap-of-the-Earth, low-level flying.
The RQ-21A Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS) being developed for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps is still on track to achieve initial operational capability (IOC) with a Marine Expeditionary Unit on a Navy amphibious ship in mid-2014, the program manager said at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference this week.
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Russian helicopter manufacturing company Rostvertol is planning to transfer production to a new site by 2020. Managers at the company are studying options to begin the move later this year by first transferring flight test operations to a new location at Bataysk, about 20 km south of Rostov.
The U.S. Navy has issued $15 million contracts to four companies to conduct preliminary design reviews in advance of selecting a final design for a new unmanned combat air vehicle capable of operating on an aircraft carrier. Nearly $5 million of the award has been obligated to each of the companies competing for the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike aircraft program, based on the Pentagon’s Aug. 14 announcement. The contenders are Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics.
NEW DELHI — Amid an increasing number of helicopter crashes, India’s air safety regulator has issued several stringent measures, including instituting a mandatory breathalyzer test for pilots before takeoff. “It will be ensured that doctors are available at the helipads prior to commencement of operations of helicopter services and the doctors shall be fully conversant with the breath analyzer equipment and procedures to be followed,” an official of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) says.
The Aerospace States Association (ASA) has joined with two national state government organizations to create guidelines for states crafting legislation to protect citizens’ privacy from UAVs without endangering the nascent industry.
USAF BOOST: The U.S. Army and Navy military departments saw drops in their so-called investment spending outlays from May through July, according to Washington analyst Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners, but the Air Force saw a significant jump. Air Force investment was $7.5 billion versus $4.8 billion in July 2012, up 55%, while the overall Air Force “market” — including 25% of operations and maintenance spending — was $8.5 billion versus $6 billion for the same period in the prior year.
Lockheed Martin has assembled a company-wide team to offer a mission-equipment package for the U.S. Defense Department’s planned Future Vertical Lift (FVL) family of advanced rotorcraft and its precursor, the Army’s Joint Multi Role (JMR) technology demonstration. Development of the universal mission-equipment package (MEP) brings together Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems & Training (MST), Missiles & Fire Control (MFC) and Aeronautics sectors.
NEW DELHI — A Russian-made Kilo class submarine operated by the Indian navy caught fire after a massive explosion and sank in the dockyard in Mumbai, marking one of the worst-ever disasters for the country’s submarine program. The explosion and fire took place aboard the INS Sindhurakshak with about 18 people on board shortly after midnight Aug. 14, a defense ministry spokesman says.
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In its quest for greater operational interoperability for its unmanned systems, the U.S. Navy is ramping up its effort to develop and use standardized interfaces for all of those platforms and related equipment and move away from proprietary systems, says Capt. Don Zwick, of the service’s program executive office for unmanned aviation and strike weapons.
The U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) effort may get lots of headlines for the innovative technology that it represents, but the armed service is trying to use the program to prod the acquisition world toward thinking of unmanned systems in terms of mission capability rather than units purchased.
LOS ANGELES — NASA has unveiled a new “strategic vision” for aeronautics that focuses civil-aviation research into six themes. But there is no new money, so work that does not align with the main thrusts will be reduced.
