Nearing the midpoint of its 254-day journey, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has successfully carried out the second of six planned trajectory correction maneuvers, fine-tuning the rover’s course toward an Aug. 6 landing on the red planet within the scientifically promising Gale Crater. All 10 of MSL’s science instruments have been successfully activated and checked out as well.
BAD SIGN: As the Pentagon has sought to rein in out-of-control costs and contracting, it has increasingly used fixed-price contracts. But in just three years, the number of services contracts awarded on a lowest-price technically acceptable (LPTA) basis increased by 40%, a rate one expert calls “disturbing.” The use of LPTA contracts is appropriate, particularly when buying commodities, but the government has leaned too far in their direction, says Ray Bjorklund, vice president of Deltek.
NEW DELHI — India’s defense minister has ordered a departmental inquiry into French firm Dassault’s win of the 126-fighter Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract, after a lawmaker raised the possibility of “manipulation” in the selection process.
SANTIAGO, Chile — Captive flight trials are due to start this year on Brazil’s indigenous guidance kit to increase the precision and standoff range of Mk. 82 bombs. Development work on the FPG-82 began around 18 months ago and could, optimistically, wrap up by late next year, says Alexandre Correa Guimaraes, defense marketing manager for Sao Jose dos Campos-based Friuli.
Lockheed Martin officials acknowledge that they have learned some things from the company’s loss to rival Boeing of a $3.5 billion contract to continue managing the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) anti-ballistic missile system — and they are likely to apply this knowledge to some forthcoming work as the company continues to try to expand its footprint in that market.
The U.S. Navy may have to strip the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyer of combat capability to make room for the service’s proposed Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). “The Navy ... told us that removing combat capability from DDG-51 may be required in an effort to manage weight after adding AMDR, effectively reducing the multimission/functionality of the class,” the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a January report.
In 2003, the U.S. Army began a major restructuring of its ground forces, moving the service away from its traditional division-based structure to a new, brigade-based format. But according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the service has failed to properly report its efforts to Congress.
AIR FORCE ManTech SRS, Technologies Inc., Arlington, Va., is being awarded a $15,329,241 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide systems engineering, product assurance, program safety, systems security, risk management, and launch integration management. This effort supports the Launch and Range Systems Directorates. The location of the performance is El Segundo, Calif. The work is to be completed by March 23, 2013. SMC/LRK, El Segundo, is the contracting activity (FA 8811-20-C-0002, P00011).
ASTRONAUT HEALTH: NASA has granted a five-year, $120 million extension of its long-running cooperative agreement with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) for studies of the health risks associated with long-duration human spaceflight. The pact includes investigations of proposed countermeasures and their wider application to traditional medicine. Announced March 23, the extension brings to $484.2 million the potential value of the initial collaboration forged in March 1997. The latest of four extensions takes effect Oct. 1.
FORT EUSTIS, Va. — Bids are due April 1 for trade studies to define the mission-system capabilities and technologies for the U.S. Army’s planned Joint Multi Role (JMR) rotorcraft. The Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) is planning a two-phase JMR technology demonstration, beginning in fiscal 2013 with air-vehicle development and flight testing.
Controllers are checking out Intelsat 22 after its successful launch on a Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 25. Liftoff was at 8:10 a.m. EDT (6:10 p.m. local time). After a 15-hr., 30-min. mission, the rocket’s Breeze M upper stage released the satellite into a supersynchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) with a 65,000-km (40,400-mi.) apogee. Once operational in May, the spacecraft will replace Intelsat 709 at 72 deg. East and is expected to have an 18-year service life.
The House will take up Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget resolution this week. It is likely to pass in the Republican-controlled House, despite a push by some GOP lawmakers to further reduce the overall amount of spending. The Senate is currently proceeding with levels passed by Congress last August: $1.047 trillion in discretionary spending across the government. Ryan has said the U.S. should spend just $1.028 trillion, level off cuts to defense and buy back the first year of a penalty due to kick in next January without further deficit reduction.
Controllers deorbited a stranded Russian-owned communications satellite March 25, after Russian officials rejected a request to keep it operating from a startup company created to salvage the Astrium-built spacecraft for service to scientists in Antarctica.
NEW DELHI — India’s soon-to-retire army chief, Gen. V.K. Singh, says he was recently offered a bribe of 140 million rupees ($2.7 million) by a defense lobbyist to clear the purchase of military vehicles. In an interview with an Indian newspaper, Singh says the lobbyist offered the bribe in return for approving the purchase of 600 “substandard” vehicles of a “particular make.” He claims that 7,000 such vehicles were already in use in the Indian army and many have been sold at “exorbitant prices with no questions asked.
The U.S. military is starting to show greater appreciation for maritime irregular warfare (MIW), a recent Rand report says, but the nation’s defense planners need to develop a more complete strategy for such operations. “In light of ongoing U.S. involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the concept of irregular warfare has become prevalent in U.S. defense strategy and doctrine,” Rand says in its report, “Characterizing and Exploring the Implications of Maritime Irregular Warfare,” released this month.
The actions of Congress, the government and businesses have yet to stop the flow of counterfeit defense electronics parts from China. Last year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) set up a fictitious company to buy electronic parts online (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 9). GAO purchased 16 different parts from 13 Chinese suppliers. All 16 of those parts, including seven used on aircraft such as Boeing’s F-15 fighter and the Bell-Boeing V-22 tiltrotor, were counterfeit.
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The European Space Agency’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) resupply spacecraft is speeding toward a docking with the International Space Station (ISS), following a smooth countdown and liftoff from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, early March 23.
NEW DELHI — India’s Mars Orbiter Mission is getting a boost, with the government allocating 1.25 billion rupees ($25 million) to the effort for the 2012-13 fiscal year. “The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to launch a Mars orbiter as early as November 2013 with a scientific payload weighing nearly 25 kg [55 lb.],” according to the budget document, which was introduced in parliament March 16.
