NAVY Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Conn., is being awarded a $91,151,493 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00012) to previously awarded contract (N00024-10-C-2118) for lead yard services efforts related to Virginia-class submarines. The work will be performed in Groton (91.1%); Newport News, Va. (4%); Quonset. R.I. (3.5%); and Newport, R.I. (1.4%). The work is expected to be completed by September 2012. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, is the contracting activity.
BEIJING — Chinese technicians have fueled the Long March 2F launcher that is due on Nov. 1 local time to loft Shenzhou 8, the second of two spacecraft that will be used in the country’s crucial space docking exercise. The other, the Tiangong 1 laboratory, has been lowered to the altitude planned for rendezvous, 343 km (213 mi.), and turned 180 deg. to mate with Shenzhou 8, a human transportation capsule that will be launched without a crew. Tiangong 1 is also unmanned. China has not launched a Shenzhou capsule since 2008.
EXTENDED REACH: General Dynamics on Oct. 31 completed its acquisition of Metro Machine Corp., extending its reach into U.S. Navy ship repair on the East Coast. Metro Machine Corp. now becomes part of the shipbuilding and repair operations of General Dynamics Nassco (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 23). Metro Machine employs about 400 workers and has been conducting U.S. Navy ship repair and conversions since 1972. The company is a prime contractor in Norfolk for the maintenance, repair and modernization of frigates, dock landing ships and amphibious transport ships.
Boeing will receive $40-50 million in incentives from the State of Florida to build and refurbish its proposed CST-100 commercial crew capsule inside surplus space shuttle facilities at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), as the NASA field center begins to accommodate the mix of public and private spacecraft that will follow the winged spaceplane.
The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) commander has signed off on a first-ever detailed guide for certifying companies seeking to compete for U.S. government launches.
The U.S. Air Force is continuing work to reduce the cost of buying United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV and Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles, which will remain the only vehicles for orbiting certain payload classes until new launch entrants are certified.
LONDON — Hundreds of billions of dollars are earmarked to be spent around the world on nuclear weapons over the next decade, according to the British American Security Information Council (Basic).
PARIS — When China attempts a remotely controlled docking this week between its new Tiangong-1 space lab and the unmanned Shenzhou 8 crew vehicle, it will mark the first international bilateral cooperation to make use of Beijing’s Shenzhou program. Slated to launch Nov. 1 aboard a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia, Shenzhou-8 will carry 17 biology and medical experiments to be conducted by German and Chinese researchers.
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ARMY Lockheed Martin Corp., Grand Prairie, Texas, was awarded a $33,336,156 firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to produce 12 launcher mod kits. The work will be performed in Grand Prairie; Camden, Ark.; Lufkin, Texas; Chelmsford, Mass.; and Ocala, Fla., with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-11-C-0001). NAVY
HOUSTON — Russia’s Progress 45 cargo capsule raced toward a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct. 31, a day after a closely watched launch aboard a Soyuz-U booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan eased concerns of a possible evacuation of the six-person orbiting science laboratory. Launches of the Soyuz-U and FG crew version of the booster were suspended following the Aug. 24 loss of the Progress 44 due to a premature shutdown of the third stage that sent the space freighter plummeting back to Earth.
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Paris – German aerospace center DLR expects France to uphold the two countries’ commitment to upgrade Europe’s current Ariane 5 launch vehicle before starting development of a successor, despite recent statements by a top French official that cast doubt on available funding for both.
After a five-year wait, a United Launch Alliance Delta II successfully placed NPP, a weather and climate monitoring satellite built by Ball Aerospace, into orbit Friday from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Formally known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, NPP and the Raytheon Common Ground System that comes online with its launch will speed up weather data distribution for civil and military users while also monitoring the Earth’s climate.
The Pentagon is reducing the next buy of Lockheed Martin F-35s to 30 from 35 aircraft in order cover cost overruns incurred in earlier production lots, according to the Joint Program Office (JPO). The Navy and Air Force have agreed to reduce their quantities in low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 5 to “pay for the bills,” says Joe Dellavedova, JPO spokesman. “Controlling costs is an absolute must.”
While much of Washington is consumed with a glass-half-empty debate about impending reductions to defense spending, a new report takes the optimist’s approach: detailing the $1 trillion spent on military modernization during the last decade. “It is clear the military successfully modernized its capabilities, especially in building on existing systems and incorporating those not even anticipated,” says Russell Rumbaugh in the report, “What We Bought: Defense Procurement from FY01 to FY10.”
The top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee plans to introduce a bill Oct. 31 that would allow the president to remove satellites and their components from the U.S. munitions list, according to congressional aides. The export of satellites and their components have been restricted since 1998, in response to concerns about the transfer of sensitive technology to China.
When it comes to funding the U.S. Army’s ground vehicles, House and Senate appropriators agree the Abrams tank upgrade should receive more than double the fiscal 2012 request. For the rest, the House trimmed very little overall, but the Senate cut nearly one-third. The Abrams request was $181 million. House appropriators added $272 million; the Senate added $240 million.
The U.S. Air Force’s new Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (Chirp) has been turned on and is operating as expected, says Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, who oversees the service’s Space and Missiles Center.
