MARINE JSF: The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have signed a memorandum of understanding formally acknowledging that the Marines will buy F-35Cs designed for use from aircraft carriers. The Marine Corps will buy 80 F-35Cs and 340 F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variants. The F-35 program has slipped substantially, with the B-version being placed on a two-year probation.
HOUSTON — The scheduled March 30 launch of three U.S. and Russian Expedition 27 crewmembers to the International Space Station will be delayed, most likely for a few days, by an electrical issue with the Kvant-V communications system on their Soyuz TMA-21/26S spacecraft, NASA and Roscosmos announced March 14.
CAPE CANAVERAL — A United Space Alliance (USA) worker died March 14 after falling off Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, where shuttle Endeavour is being prepared for an April 19 launch. Emergency medical personnel were unable to revive the man, identified as James D. Vanover, an engineer for shuttle contractor USA. NASA canceled all work at the pad for the rest of the day and offered counseling and employee assistance to workers. The incident is under investigation, NASA said in a statement.
CAPE CANAVERAL — A classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) lifted off aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 rocket on March 11. The 211-ft.-tall Delta 4 blasted off at 6:38 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 37. The rocket used a single common booster core with a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) RS-68 main engine; two Alliant Techsystems GEM 60 solid rocket motors; a PWR RL10B-2 upper-stage engine; and a 4-meter-dia. upper stage and composite payload fairing.
RAF BRIZE NORTON, England — The U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) is considering acquiring a simulator for its Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs as the service starts examining requirements beyond near-term operational demands.
HOUSTON — NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency on March 14 signed a two-year, $753 million agreement extending the purchase of Soyuz spacecraft for the transportation of U.S., European, Japanese and Canadian astronauts to the International Space Station through June 2016.
LONDON — Dassault Aviation and BAE Systems will work together to address future Franco-British medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aircraft requirements. The two companies have been in talks for several months after Paris and London laid out plans to make the MALE UAV requirement a cornerstone of their cooperation agreement finalized in November.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) will launch the SES-8 medium-sized communications satellite on a Falcon 9 vehicle in 2013, under the startup launch service provider’s first geostationary communications satellite launch contract.
The U.S. Seventh Fleet has temporarily repositioned the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its other ships and aircraft away from Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant after detecting low-level radiation in the air and on its aircraft operating in the area. The source of this airborne radioactivity is a plume released from the power plant as a result of Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami, officials said.
RAF BRIZE NORTON, England — The U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) is considering acquiring a simulator for its Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs as the service starts examining requirements beyond near-term operational demands.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) will launch the SES-8 medium-sized communications satellite on a Falcon 9 vehicle in 2013, under the startup launch service provider’s first geostationary communications satellite launch contract.
The U.S. Air Force will have to reduce its current procurement and research and development (R&D) accounts for fiscal 2011 by as much as $4 billion if Congress continues to fund at fiscal 2010 levels through continuing resolutions, according to senior service officials.
ARMY AM General, LLC, South Bend, Ind., was awarded a $546,464,268 firm-fixed-price contract on March 4, 2011. The award will provide for the procurement of 2,845 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. The work will be performed in Mishawaka, Ind., with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2012. One bid was solicited with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-10-C-0405).
NASA and International Space Station partners are assessing the effect of the shutdown of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s control center in Tsukuba following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan on March 11. JAXA oversees the station’s Kibo laboratory complex, as well as the HTV-2 cargo ship docked at the station’s Node 2 nadir port. NASA control centers in Houston and Huntsville, Ala., took over control from JAXA after Tsukuba was evacuated on March 11. Damage assessments to the center, located 30 mi. northeast of Tokyo, are under way.
STUDENT SCRAMJET: Aerospace engineering researchers and students at the University of Virginia will display a hypersonic “scramjet” engine prototype March 19. The research team is preparing to unveil an engine that can travel at five times the speed of sound, along with a two-stage sounding rocket, on the front lawn of the university’s Thornton Hall.
NASA and International Space Station partners are assessing the effect of the shutdown of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s control center in Tsukuba following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan on March 11. JAXA oversees the station’s Kibo laboratory complex, as well as the HTV-2 cargo ship docked at the station’s Node 2 nadir port. NASA control centers in Houston and Huntsville, Ala., took over control from JAXA after Tsukuba was evacuated on March 11. Damage assessments to the center, located 30 mi. northeast of Tokyo, are under way.
The U.S. Air Force has terminated funding for an infrared search and track (IRST) upgrade for its F-15C/D fleet as part of the service’s push last year to produce savings for the Pentagon’s fiscal 2012 budget.
HOUSTON — The scheduled March 30 launch of three U.S. and Russian Expedition 27 crewmembers to the International Space Station will be delayed, most likely for a few days, by an electrical issue with the Kvant-V communications system on their Soyuz TMA-21/26S spacecraft, NASA and Roscosmos announced March 14.
MARINE JSF: The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have signed a memorandum of understanding formally acknowledging that the Marines will buy F-35Cs designed for use from aircraft carriers. The Marine Corps will buy 80 F-35Cs and 340 F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variants. The F-35 program has slipped substantially, with the B-version being placed on a two-year probation.
The U.S. Air Force will have to reduce its current procurement and research and development (R&D) accounts for fiscal 2011 by as much as $4 billion if Congress continues to fund at fiscal 2010 levels through continuing resolutions, according to senior service officials.
