LOS ANGELES — Anxious to avoid the problems that bedeviled Boeing’s 787 and other recent development programs, systems supplier Parker Aerospace is funneling extra resources into controlling its supply chain as production ramps up on several key air transport, business jet and engine programs.
FOUL WEATHER: The looming arrival of Tropical Storm Debby has prompted United Launch Alliance and the U.S. Air Force to delay the launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite by 24 hr. The launch of NROL-15 is now set for June 29 at 6:13 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral. The protective Mobile Service Tower will remain around the Delta IV launch vehicle and is scheduled to be moved for launch on June 28.
SATCOM MARKET: The worldwide commercial communications satellite market will be worth $52.7 billion from 2012-2021, according to a new study from consultancy Forecast International. Demand will be especially strong in developing markets such as Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, the study says, driven by a lack of terrestrial networks and rapid growth in demand for communications in these areas. The top manufacturers over the next decade will be Space Systems/Loral, Thales Alenia Space, EADS Astrium, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The most powerful version of Space Exploration Technologies' Merlin rocket engine yet developed has completed its first full-duration mission firing test
LOS ANGELES — NASA is completing fabrication of the first Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration capsule due to be tested in space, while at the same time starting key vacuum tests on the Alliant Techsystems (ATK)-built composite module that could form the basis for future crew transport to Earth orbit. Following final structural work, the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) Orion will be shipped from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it will undergo final assembly and checkout.
While the House overwhelmingly overturned the U.S. Air Force’s request to end funding for Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk Block 30, the company’s bid to protect the high-altitude UAV faces a much tougher fight in the Senate. The Air Force wants to place 18 of the Block 30s in storage and says it can save $2.5 billion over several years by continuing to operate the manned U-2 spy aircraft. The House Appropriations Committee rejected that, keeping funding to operate the UAVs and adding funding for an additional three.
With a year or so to go before the closure of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana, the focus is now on how the company will absorb the cost of ending operations there. “The company’s No. 1 risk is the Avondale closure, with closing costs still to be negotiated with the Navy,” Citi says in a recent note to investors. “Until the closure is complete, HII management is unwilling to discuss specific cash deployment plans.”
STEVENAGE, England — Having completed key development flight tests for the Meteor ramjet-powered beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, MBDA is now preparing the final performance statement for customers on the weapon. The move comes as the company is also about to wrap up development of the program and begin first missile deliveries to the U.K. before year’s end; ground-handling test vehicles have already been delivered to the U.K.
U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND L-3 Global Communications Solutions, Victor, N.Y., was awarded a single-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the special operation forces deployable node family of terminals. The contract minimum guarantee is $7,551,735 and maximum ceiling is $500,000,000. The anticipated period of performance is not to exceed five years. The place of performance is Victor, N.Y. U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (H92222-12-D-0020). NAVY
BEIJING — Chinese astronauts who manually docked their spacecraft with an orbital laboratory on June 24 have proven a technology crucial for the nation’s proposed space station program. Astronaut Liu Wang, helped by his two colleagues on board Shenzhou 9, took 7 min. to bring the spacecraft into contact with the laboratory, Tiangong 1, from a range of 400 meters (1,300 ft.). That was 3 min. faster than the performance of the automatic system that Shenzhou 9 had used on June 18 and Shenzhou 8 had used last year in China’s first space docking exercise.
Congress has a number of issues to consider as it ponders the U.S. Coast Guard’s proposed shipbuilding plan for its National Security Cutters, according to the Congressional Research Service. “One potential oversight issue for Congress for FY2013 concerns the absence of funding in the Coast Guard’s fiscal 2013 five-year (fiscal 2013-2017) capital investment plan for the seventh and eighth National Security Cutters,” CRS says in a report released earlier this month.
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Commercial remote sensing provider GeoEye says it has no plans to delay the launch of its upcoming GeoEye-2 imagery satellite, despite recent moves by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to cut funding support for the company.
The U.S. Army failed to implement cost-control procedures on a cost-reimbursable service contract with General Dynamics Land Systems for logistic support for the Stryker vehicle family, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.
It’s House appropriators who are leaving the biggest mark on the 2013 Pentagon budget request so far this year, changing more lines than House or Senate authorizers, and plussing programs that authorizers in both chambers left unchanged.
Continued flaws with a program designed to track the cost of the military’s largest weapon system are eating into Lockheed Martin’s bottom line. Late last week, Lockheed learned the military is halting an ongoing review of its internal audit program, the earned value management system (EVMS). Along with that decision, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) will withhold 5% of the price of the fifth lot of fighter jets — the maximum penalty.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is eyeing technology that could reduce wear and increase the performance of certain towed-array components through the development of shape-changing polymers being referred to as “metal rubber” by their manufacturer. NanoSonic, a Virginia-based company, is spearheading the effort through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding. The morph-on-demand towed array outer hosewall for sonar arrays can temporarily and repeatedly change its shape, the company says.
