JPSS MARK: Key U.S. Senate appropriators are recommending the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration get $920 million in fiscal 2012 for the Joint Polar Satellite System, $438 million more than it received this fiscal year and close to the House’s proposal of $901.3 million. JPSS is the civil successor to the canceled civil-military National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. The appropriators’ language must be approved by the full Senate before being reconciled with the House bill.
HOUSTON – Russia will aim for a Nov. 12 launch of its next piloted Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS), its first since the Aug. 24 loss of a Progress cargo capsule that investigators are blaming on a third-stage propulsion system failure, according to a statement from Roscosmos and Russian press reports. The loss of Progress 44 delayed plans to launch the Soyuz TMA-03M mission with Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin and NASA astronaut Dan Burbank on Sept. 21.
LONDON — BBN Technologies is providing the U.K. Defense Ministry with a version of its vehicle-mounted Boomerang gunshot detection system, which has been in use by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004. BBN’s David Schmitt says no “major changes” have been made to the system, adding that a new software release is due in the fall, following several upgrades over the past few years. New software is uploaded either by using a USB stick, or with a laptop and an Ethernet interface, and takes less than 5 min., he says.
Many of China’s military exports to Africa – usually paid for with energy exports – are actually products that help the nations involved and are approved of by the U.S.
White House Budget Director Jacob Lew has cleared NASA’s plan for building a heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit – with a stop at the International Space Station if commercial spacecraft cannot do the job – after a final round of senatorial arm-squeezing on Sept. 13. Administrator Charles Bolden said at a hastily called news conference on Capitol Hill Sept. 14 that his agency will go ahead with plans he selected in June to build a big new rocket based on old technology dating back to the Apollo era.
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An elite U.S. Coast Guard unit has joined the visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team on amphibious dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) to conduct counter-piracy and maritime security operations in the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Navy officials say. The Coast Guard formed the eight-man unit by combining members of a maritime safety and security team, based out of Seattle, with an advanced interdiction team from San Diego.
LONDON — Turkey has begun flight trials of its SOM air-launched cruise missile program, with plans to prepare the weapon for a production contract in 2013.
LONDON – With two flagship programs in the balance, EADS is awaiting formal government endorsement of both its Eurofighter Typhoon active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and Talarion unmanned aircraft endeavors.
James Albaugh, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and former head of the company’s defense unit, fears the U.S. could lose its competitive edge in aerospace if the federal government abandons investment in next-generation platforms and technologies in defense and space.
Key U.S. Senate appropriators are recommending a $695 million reduction to the Defense Department’s fiscal 2012 request for the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter – a move coordinated or checked with the Pentagon, to some degree – saying the funds are not needed with the program slowed as it is.
HOUSTON — NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will join forces to accelerate the availability of commercial crew launch services to the International Space Station using the Liberty rocket, a U.S. and European hybrid unveiled earlier this year, officials from the agency and the Minneapolis-based defense and aerospace contractor announced Sept. 13.
CAPE CANAVERAL – The Florida-based Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) has signed a $15 million-per-year, 10-year agreement with NASA to manage the U.S. portion of the International Space Station (ISS) not needed by the U.S. space agency, officials announced last week.
LONDON — Thales expects the first Watchkeeper unmanned aircraft to be shipped in December to Afghanistan for British army use in operational capability integration, concurrent with the start of live training at Boscome Down. The initial standup activity in Afghanistan for one task line will be run by an operational conversion unit.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GAASI) has embarked on a company-funded program to develop a radar-based airborne sense-and-avoid system for its Predator/Reaper/Avenger family of unmanned aircraft. The company plans unmanned flight tests of the system late next year, its time line set by potential international customers requiring the capability to operate their aircraft in civil airspace.
LONDON — With the budget battle over the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System continuing, Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) is asking for a Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment of the costs of completing Meads versus sticking with the Patriot system. The review is seen as an effort to shore up support for Meads, whose partners are the U.S., Germany and Italy. Germany has conducted a similar assessment and concluded it should stick with Meads.
Northrop Grumman and Australian CEA Technologies recently demonstrated Ceafar – a scalable and tailorable S-Band active, electronically scanned array (AESA) multifunction radar suitable for naval vessels as small as offshore patrol craft and as large as destroyers and cruisers, the companies say. Northrop has boasted of its work on navy radar programs like Ceafar with CEA in the North American contractor’s discussions about why it stands a good chance to win the U.S. Navy’s Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) contract.
PARIS — NASA could delay a long-awaited commercial cargo demonstration to the International Space Station (ISS) that Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is currently planning to launch in late November.
LOS ANGELES – Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is assembling parts for an RLXX demonstrator rig that it hopes will be a pathfinder for a next-generation U.S. upper-stage engine by around 2017. Progress on the rig comes as the U.S. Air Force studies requirements for a next-generation engine (NGE) and as competitors such as Aerojet call for a competition to succeed PWR’s venerable RL10.
LONDON — Efforts to develop the air defense missile system for the U.K.’s Type 23 frigate and Type 26 Global Combat Ship are progressing, with MBDA reporting progress in initial trials of the system and key components.
NUCLEAR CUTS: Despite a presidential commitment of upward of $86 billion over a decade, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) says the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still has to make “significant changes in the timing, scale and extent of several major projects” to live within its budget. Cost estimates for two major new facilities – the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility in Los Alamos, N.M.
As the Pentagon looks at its budget to find savings, everything is being considered, according to the man nominated to be the next No. 2 civilian at the Defense Department. That includes spending on military personnel, overseas basing and the Pentagon’s largest weapon system, the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter, according to Ashton Carter, who is currently in charge of buying weapons for the U.S. military.
PARIS – European launch provider Arianespace will send two DirecTV satellites into orbit and has the option of launching an additional two spacecraft for the consumer television service, the Evry, France-based consortium announced Sept. 13. The launch is planned for 2014. The four satellites will weigh in at more than 6 metric tons and will be part of a fleet expansion and replenishment program.
