MORE GLOBAL: U.S. Navy Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, says Africa and the Arctic region are likely to become bigger areas of concern for U.S. leaders and his sea service in the future. Speaking Feb.
EUTELSAT GROWS: Growth at Eutelsat continued unabated in the first half of its 2009-10 fiscal year, prompting the No. 3 fixed satellite service provider to reiterate its strong forecast for the full year and the next three years. Eutelsat reported revenues up 13.3% to €575.9 million ($783 million); earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization were up 12.5% to €463 million. Profits jumped 25% to €174 million.
The Defense Department likely has cut or canceled all of the major costly programs it believes are too expensive or fail to meet current military needs, says Robert Hale, the Pentagon’s comptroller. It’s unlikely, he says, that service brass and contractors will see the wholesale ax-wielding that has chopped through Pentagon programs during the past two years. “We’ve weeded out those programs,” Hale said Feb. 16 following his briefing at Aviation Week’s Aerospace & Defense Technology and Requirements conference in Washington.
JAPAN’S TURN: Veteran astronaut Koichi Wakata will become the first Japanese to command the International Space Station, NASA and its partners announced Feb. 18 while unveiling a lineup of nine crew members newly assigned to expeditions 35 through 39 in 2013 and 14. Wakata will take command of Expedition 39, starting in March 2014. Wakata, an aerospace engineer, spent 138 days aboard the station as a flight engineer in 2009. He served as a mission specialist aboard the 13-day STS-92 station assembly mission in 2000 and the nine-day STS-72 mission in 1996.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Air Force is conducting a review of its current, planned and needed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets in order to create a more “balanced portfolio” for the future, says Secretary Michael Donley. “We are looking at how best to balance ISR assets across the spectrum of conflict,” Donley told an audience hosted by the Air Force Association at its annual Air Warfare Symposium.
WSMR SUPPORT: NASA has selected Jacobs Technology Inc. of Tullahoma, Tenn., for a potential $500 million, five-year contract to provide test evaluation and support services at the agency’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M. The agreement, announced by the Johnson Space Center on Feb. 17, includes a three-year base period, valued at $300 million and effective May 1, as well as two one-year options, each valued at $100 million. Major subcontractors include ERC Inc. of Huntsville, Ala.; and GeoControl Systems Inc. and MEI Technologies Inc., both of Houston.
HOUSTON — The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) was moved from the Earth-facing (nadir) to the zenith (space-facing) port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module on Feb. 18, providing the required clearance for the space shuttle Discovery to dock on the STS-133 mission. Discovery’s scheduled liftoff on the long-delayed 11-12-day assembly and supply mission on Feb. 24 at 4:50 p.m. EST is expected to set up a Feb. 26 rendezvous and docking with the orbiting science laboratory at Harmony’s forward port.
PARIS — SES expects revenue growth to slow a bit this year because of launch delays and a solar array problem, but predicts expansion will resume in 2012 as new capacity—including a spacecraft ordered Feb. 17 —s added to the fleet.
NASA’s fiscal 2012 aeronautics budget supports ongoing research into increasing airspace capacity and reducing aviation’s impact on the environment, but it cuts spending on hypersonics to free funds for work on airport surface operations and high-altitude icing. The request for $569.4 million fully funds research in support of NextGen national airspace system (NAS) modernization, as well as NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) program, says Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for aeronautics.
MOSCOW — Long-stalled plans to modernize Russia’s venerable Ilyushin Il-76 transport are set to get under way this year with the first flight of the Il-476 upgrade. Alexander Tulyakov, vice president of Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. (UAC), announced Feb. 15 that the Ulyanovsk-based Aviastar-SP facility, a UAC subsidiary, will hand over a prototype aircraft toward year’s end for the start of flight trials, along with a second aircraft for static tests.
BEIJING and SINGAPORE – Korea Aerospace Industries appears to have secured a first export customer for its T-50 supersonic trainer, with the Indonesian government reportedly agreeing to buy the aircraft. The imminent order is part of a deepening defense industrial relationship between South Korea and Indonesia, each of which is trying to advance its ability to make advanced weapons and each of which must keep a wary eye on the rising power of China.
ORLANDO, Fla. — A clone of the Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite made by a Boeing/Ball Aerospace team and launched last year is not necessary to continue the mission of tracking objects in space from space, says Gen. William Shelton, the new Air Force Space Command chief.
The U.S. Navy’s focus on funding surface fleet ships in the fiscal 2012 budget request is proving to be a bonanza for aircraft carriers, Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA-7) amphibious assault replacement ships and San Antonio LPD-17-class vessels. The Navy plans to spend a combined amount of about $6 billion for construction and research and development work on those vessels during the upcoming fiscal year.
NEW DELHI – Having already launched an independent aviation training center in India, Canada’s CAE has officially inaugurated its new aerospace and defense center close to Bengaluru International Airport. In the 116,000-sq.-ft. complex, CAE designs and develops defense training systems and operates an engineering center of excellence where visual databases and other software components for CAE’s simulators are developed.
PENTAGON S&T: The top science and technology priorities for the U.S. Defense Department through fiscal 2016 include cyber, unmanned vehicle autonomy, human-machine interfaces and countering weapons of mass destruction, says Zachary Lemnios, director of defense research and engineering and the Pentagon’s chief technology officer. Speaking Feb.
BENGALURU, India — Indian defense electronics manufacturer Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) has signed a 15-year technology collaboration agreement (TCA) with Optelian International Corp. of North America, which specializes in optical communication systems.
PARIS — European space officials are hoping that the flawless launch of Europe’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-2) to the International Space Station (ISS) Feb. 16 will buoy efforts to fund a planned extension of the facility. The cargo vessel, christened Johannes Kepler, lifted off from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 6:50 p.m. local time atop an Ariane 5 ES rocket, setting up a scheduled docking with the ISS on Feb. 24.
An old comet sample-return mothership recycled to take a second look at the comet blasted by NASA’s Deep Impact probe spotted what was left of the crater left from the 2005 experiment during a fast flyby Feb. 14. Researchers were still downloading the 72 images collected by the 12-year-old Stardust probe as it zipped past the comet Tempel-1 at 24,000 mph., as close as 111 mi. from the icy body that circulates between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars.
HOUSTON — Cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka breezed through the installation of two experiments and the retrieval of materials science panels outside the International Space Station (ISS) during a Feb. 16 spacewalk that ended 1 hr. earlier than planned. In their 5-hr. excursion that concluded at 1:21 p.m. EST, the spacewalkers attached the Molniya-Gamma and Radiometria experiments to the exterior of the Zvezda service module.
HOUSTON — United Space Alliance, NASA’s prime contractor for space shuttle operations, is seeking funds through the agency’s Commercial Crew Development Round 2 competition to assess the business case for keeping the shuttle flying for another 12-14 missions beginning in 2013, following an early restart of external fuel tank and solid-rocket booster production.
EASIER ACQUISITION: The Pentagon’s plans for more stable buys of satellites and rockets is a prime example of how the Defense Department is seeking better buying power in its annual purchasing, acquisition chief Ashton Carter said Feb. 16 at Aviation Week’s A&D Technology and Requirements conference in Washington. Carter noted how the Evolutionary Acquisition for Space Efficiency (Ease) plan for AEHF and Sbirs satellites will help smooth out production, reaping lower long-term costs for the Pentagon.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates complained to House Armed Services Committee lawmakers Feb. 16 about Congress’s failure to pass the fiscal 2011 budget, saying that relying on continuing resolutions to keep government running has caused “serious damage” to the military. He noted that if Congress fails to pass the fiscal 2011 defense budget, the $549 billion requested by President Barack Obama would be cut by $23 billion.
