European industry cost estimates are putting pressure on the ExoMars program while NASA budget cuts are forcing a redesign of key elements of the flagship U.S.-European cooperative space project. The European Space Agency (ESA) is negotiating €200 million ($287 million) in hardware cost reductions with European contractors supporting the multibillion-dollar ESA-NASA mission, which would send robotic science probes and surface rovers in search of life on Mars by the end of the decade.
ENGINE SUPPORT: The House Appropriations defense subcommittee does not include funding in its fiscal 2012 defense spending bill for the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 engine, but that does not mean its members do not support an alternative powerplant for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The panel’s chairman, Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young (R-Fla.), told reporters June 1 that all but three of the subcommittee’s members supported funding the F136 last year. “We got shot down in the House,” he says.
NEW DELHI — A failure analysis committee has found no design problems with India’s Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), despite two successive failures in 2010. “We had the opportunity to look at all aspects of [the] GSLV, at not only the missions that failed but also the successful missions,” says G. Madhavan Nair, the chairman of the failure analysis committee and a former chief of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). “We could not find any design deficiency with respect to the GSLV.”
LONDON — The Swedish air force has begun operating Link 16 from its Gripen fighters after a rush program to field the data link. Sweden had been working on Link 16 for some time, but expectations were that it would take about a year from introduction until it was properly fielded. With the help of Danish military officials, the timeline was compressed to a mere two months, according to the Swedish air force. Swedish Gripens are participating in NATO’s operations over Libya, where Link 16 is playing a key role.
The enhanced Aegis system for the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey – the first U.S. Navy ship deployed in the Mediterranean as part of the nation’s Phased Adaptive Approach for ballistic missile defense (BMD) – is operating as expected, the ship’s commanding officer tells Aviation Week. “The radar’s been working great,” Capt. Jim Kilby said in a telephone interview during a recent deployment break.
HOUSTON — Endeavour soared to a landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center early June 1, ending an ambitious final mission that equipped the International Space Station with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a $2 billion marquee science project, while leaving the space shuttle program on the brink of a long-anticipated retirement. Endeavour rolled onto Runway 15 at 2:35 a.m. EDT, with Mark Kelly, commander of the 16-day STS-134 mission, at the controls.
The U.S. Navy’s proposed five-year authorization plan for aircraft carriers could reduce the size of the fleet — now 11 — and also could lead to higher costs for Virginia-class submarines, a recent Rand report says.
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee approved a spending bill June 1 that cuts $9 billion from defense – largely by capturing money from programs that were running behind schedule or from unspent funds, according to committee members. Programs that took a hit in the fiscal 2012 spending measure include the Lockheed Martin Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads), though members of Congress were reluctant to spell out details, which are embargoed until the committee releases its report on the bill June 9.
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.
