In a vote of confidence for the once-troubled program, the U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile’s (Jassm) ninth production lot, which is the first to include the Extended Range (ER) variant.
SEA LAUNCH SHIPMENT: A two-stage Ukrainian Zenit-2S booster and a Russian Block-DM-SL upper stage is at sea en route to Long Beach, Calif., for the resumption of flight operations by Sea Launch in the third quarter of this year. The first Sea Launch hardware shipped since the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection departed the Port of Oktyabrsky on May 31, the company says. “Sea Launch has 10 Zenit 3SLs on order, covering requirements for missions No. 31 through No.
NEW DELHI — India will launch a dozen foreign satellites in the next couple of years, according to the chief of the country’s space agency. “We have [firm orders] today for about 12 satellites, which are scheduled to be launched in the coming two years,” Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says. The satellites are mainly Canadian, German and Indonesian, including an 800-kg (1,760-lb.) spacecraft environment-monitoring satellite from DLF Germany.
ZUKU TV: Luxembourg’s SES S.A. and television and broadband satellite operator Wananchi of Kenya have formed a joint venture to set up a new direct-to-home service in East Africa. Dubbed Zuku TV, the operation will provide pay television service in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and elsewhere in East Africa using SES capacity beginning in July. The European company also will set up a training program for installers, with a pilot program already operating in Nairobi.
Japanese researchers are working on a solar-sail spacecraft with 10 times the surface area of the Ikaros testbed launched toward Venus last year, after achieving all of their technical objectives with the testbed. This spacecraft will launch on a five-year mission instead of the six-month span allotted to Ikaros. Lofted as a piggyback payload with the Venus Climate Orbiter Akasuki on May 21, 2010, Ikaros passed Venus on Dec. 8.
LONDON — The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has become the first recipient of an Airbus A330 Multirole Tanker Transport (MRTT). On June 1, Airbus Military formally handed over the first of five KC-30As to the Australian government at the tanker’s home base at RAAF Amberley.
Space Florida, a state-backed agency working to expand space-related business in Florida, is in discussions with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to take over one of the space shuttle’s processing hangars. “We have plans with Space Florida to turn over one of the Orbiter Processing Facilities for them to operate,” KSC Director Bob Cabana said during the May meeting of National Space Club Florida.
NEW DELHI — France and Germany are making a last-ditch effort to boost their companies’ chances to win the $11 billion Medium-Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program for the Indian air force, as authorities are set to open the bids of the two downselected firms vying for the 126-aircraft order.
CARBON FOOTPRINT: A team of NASA-led researchers has used NASA satellite and ground-based data to create the most precise map ever produced depicting the amount and location of carbon stored in Earth’s tropical forests, according to the agency. The data are expected to provide a baseline for ongoing carbon monitoring and research and assist in the management of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Previous studies had estimated the carbon stored in forests within a single continent, but there existed no systematic way of looking at all tropical forests, NASA says.
AIR FORCE The Cessna Aircraft Co., Wichita, is being awarded an $88,499,909 firm-fixed price, single award contract for items being procured for the Afghanistan Basic Trainer/Light Lift Family of Systems: six Cessna T-182T aircraft; 26 Cessna 208B aircraft; six aircrew training devices; and interim contractor support for the aircraft and training devices in Afghanistan and advisor training. This effort supports foreign military sales to Afghanistan. 877 AESG/SYI, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8617-11-C-6209).
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BEIJING — A Venezuelan order for Y-8 airlifters from Avic Aircraft has been cut to eight units from 12, although it still represents the largest export contract so far for the type, a Chinese development of the Antonov An-12. A banner at a signing ceremony shows that Venezuela has ordered the Y-8F-200, the civil derivative of the Y-8C, which was the first fully pressurized version of the aircraft. The Y-8 is about the same size as the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules.
PRICE POINT: Don’t believe Lockheed Martin when it claims the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be comparable in cost with the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, says Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing Military Aircraft. Lockheed says the F-35A will cost $65 million at peak production rate, but argues an F/A-18E/F costs about the same when the price of separately purchased systems such as targeting sensors and helmet displays are included. Not so, according to Chadwick, who says the F/A-18E/F’s “go-to-war” unit flyaway cost is $53 million in 2010 dollars.
BEIJING — China has renewed its polar-orbiting weather satellite group with the in-orbit verification of the Fengyun 3B. With the satellite now going into service alongside sibling Fengyun 3A, China will have a global observation interval of 6 hr., down from 12 previously. Fengyun 3B was subject to half a year of in-orbit checkouts after its Nov. 5 launch.
ARMY Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., was awarded on May 23 a $207,133,531 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of 15 UH-60M aircraft for the Sweden’s armed forces and government furnished equipment to contractor furnished equipment. The work will be performed in Stratford, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2012. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, AMCOM Contracting Center, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-08-C-0003).
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee’s version of the defense appropriations bill slashes $2.3 billion from research and development accounts compared to what President Obama had requested and $524 million from the U.S. Army’s troubled Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (Emarss). The subcommittee is scheduled to debate and vote on the Republicans’ draft of the bill on June 1.
Space shuttle main engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne last week sent out notices of upcoming layoffs to 69 workers at Kennedy Space Center. The layoffs take effect July 31, the date the company’s four-month, $36.9 million contract extension with NASA for support of the space shuttle main engines ends. The Florida layoffs are part of 300 job cuts across the company.
NEW DELHI – India is expected to approve a deal with France for upgrading around 50 Mirage 2000 supersonic fighters, providing an additional boost to French company Dassault Aviation, which also is bidding for the Indian air force’s $11 billion program to purchase 126 fighters. The Mirages were procured from France, and the upgrade project would cost around $2.4 billion.
BEIJING — China will send its Chang’e 2 lunar probe to the second Sun-Earth Lagrangian point next month, laying groundwork for Martian missions. The opportunity to send Chang’e 2 into deep space from Earth has resulted from the good condition of the spacecraft as it approaches the end of its lunar observation mission, says the China Academy of Sciences.
