PARIS — Astrium will acquire a majority stake in ND Satcom from SES Astra, reinforcing its government services business. The EADS affiliate will take a 75.1% stake in ND Satcom, an Immenstaad, Germany-based integrator and supplier of satellite communications ground systems and equipment with annual sales of €80 million ($110 million).
POD PROCEEDS: Northrop Grumman says its share of a U.S. Air Force deal to provide Litening SE pods under the Advanced Targeting Pod – Sensor Enhancement (ATP-SE) program could mean more than $920 million through 2017. The initial ID/IQ order, valued at about $25 million for 250 pods, also encompasses flight testing of the targeting systems on F-16 Blocks 40/50, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve F-16 Blocks 25/30/32, and A-10C aircraft.
LONDON — India may conclude its purchase agreement for Boeing C-17s early next month. The contract is likely to be finalized during President Barack Obama’s visit to India, due to begin on Nov. 4, industry executives say. India is in talks with the U.S. government to purchase 10 airlifters at a cost of up to $5.8 billion, which includes training, ground equipment and other items.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — NASA’s expected shift from traditional cost-plus contracts to fixed-price procurements will affect not only how the agency buys spacecraft and services for flying astronauts to orbit, but also how it provides for the maintenance and operation of the International Space Station (ISS), Deputy Administrator Lori Garver says.
HOUSTON — The independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel will recommend that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the White House and Congress strive for a decision by the end of December whether to launch shuttle Atlantis on an extra mission to the International Space Station in mid-2011, to avoid potential risks associated with workforce uncertainty. The eight-member panel agreed on the recommendation Oct. 22 during its fourth-quarter meeting at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, following two days of fact finding.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Oct. 28 - 31 — DEFENSYS (Thessaloniki International Defense & Security Fair), Thessaloniki International Fair Facilities, Thessaloniki, Greece. For more information go to www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca/eng/document.jsp?did=105174 NOV. 1 - 2 — Shephard Group’s Air Power Middle East 2010, The Ritz-Carlton, Doha, Qatar. For more information go to www.shephard.co.uk.org
NEW DELHI — U.S. defense companies are now increasingly looking to India to establish partnerships for product design, making the country a part of their global supply chain, according to a new report from consultancy KPMG. Released ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit here in November, the report focuses on the improving landscape for U.S. business and Indo-U.S. commercial enterprises in the Indian defense sector.
HOUSTON — The International Space Station’s Expedition 25 crew this week turned on the Sabatier Reactor System, installed on the orbiting laboratory under a commercial agreement with Hamilton Sundstrand Space, Land & Sea as a second means of water recovery. The system, which was delivered to the station in April, was activated Oct. 20-21 as part of an ongoing effort to develop closed-loop life support systems for future human deep-space exploration, according to NASA’s Dan Hartman, who chairs the station’s mission management team.
BETTER BALLOONING: A NASA panel that investigated the unsuccessful April 28 launch of a scientific balloon from Alice Springs, Australia, finds “surprisingly few documented procedures for balloon launches.” In turn, the panel is issuing 44 recommendations for better communication, more robust range and ground-safety plans and procedures, and better understanding of potentially unsafe conditions that can lead to accidents.
Top U.S. naval officials like the chief of naval operations, Navy Adm. Gary Roughead, have launched a public relations tour recently, talking up everything from cutting $28 billion in budgetary bloat over five years to transitioning to biofuels and doubling down on unmanned assets. The service also plans to add 32 new ships to the Navy’s inventory by 2024.
GO GEO-2: The U.S. Air Force’s second geosynchronous Space-Based Infrared System satellite is proceeding with preparations and execution of Baseline Integrated System Test 2, officials said last week. BIST 2 is a series of tests to baseline the fully integrated satellite’s characteristics before environmental testing. GEO-2 is scheduled for launch in 2012. The satellite completed integration of its two equipment panels onto the core module Oct. 6 at the Sunnyvale, Calif., development site.
TRAINER RFP: With trials completed for the Indian air force’s next basic trainer, the country wants to make a procurement decision by March to fill gaps in its aging fleet. A request for proposals for 75 basic trainers has been released by the air force with a possible addition of 106 aircraft to be manufactured under a license agreement by government-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
HOUSTON — The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is aiming for a March 2011 decision on the site for a third domestic campus, either at the Greater Rockford Airport near Chicago or Ellington Field in Houston. The envisioned 1,000-student campus would offer undergraduate degree programs in aerospace and mechanical engineering, aeronautical science and homeland security as well as graduate offerings in systems engineering, aeronautical science and aviation. The private university envisions a residential and commuter campus.
Passage of legislation authorizing NASA spending for the next three years means the agency’s Constellation Program of back-to-the-Moon spacecraft developments is officially over, but some of its work will continue as the agency shifts its focus to sending humans to an asteroid.
BIDS IN: Boeing and Lockheed Martin/Kaman have submitted bids to provide cargo resupply services to the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan using unmanned helicopters. Boeing has proposed new-build A160T Hummingbirds off the company-funded production line in Mesa, Ariz., while Lockheed and Kaman have offered the K-Max and propose using “available assets” as the external-lift helicopter is not in production.
Nov. 30 - Dec. 1, 2010 Munich, Germany Gain cost-effective best practices and strategies for engine MRO planning, new technology implementation, navigating maintenance contracts, green processes and compliance issues. Register now - http://www.aviationweek.com/events/current/mroeng/index.htm Click here to view the pdf
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has a new human resources leader, after the former HR director quit in April. R. Srinivasan became the new HR chief on Sept. 30 and will hold the position until his retirement in May 2011. Srinivasan was the managing director for HAL’s Helicopter Complex and is returning from an extended medical leave. There also are reports emerging on the future of D. Shivamurti, whose tenure as finance director comes up for renewal this month. HAL directors are reviewed every five years.
LONDON — The Germany military expects to deploy its Mantis counter-rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) system to Afghanistan in 2012. The air force, which is taking over responsibility for that mission area next year, will deploy the system to protect the German base in Kunduz. Mantis should become operational in 2011. The German government has ordered two C-RAMs from Rheinmetall, which is an evolution of the Skyshield system.
ISR DOWN: As U.K. government officials plan to retire the country’s five new Raytheon-built, Sentinel R-1 radar, ground-surveillance aircraft under the Strategic Defense and Security Review, some suggest the Lockheed Martin F-35. But one U.S. insider disputes the notion. “The notion that the F-35 can provide the coverage [and endurance] that Sentinel can is the product of a staffer who has no idea of physics and the capabilities of either aircraft,” says a U.S.-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance specialist with insight into the program.
METEOR TEST: The Swedish defense armaments agency, FMV, notes that the eighth Meteor missile firing was recently completed from a Gripen during trials at the Vidsel test range in the north of the country. “The purpose of the test was to verify the model on separation of the missile from the aircraft. The impact from the missile exhaust plume on the aircraft engine was also studied,” according to FMV. The datalink’s performance also was verified. The test shot completes the second phase of Sweden’s effort to integrate Meteor on Gripen.
LUNAR ICE: New findings from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) confirm the presence of water ice in both the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions as well as areas that receive occasional sunlight. Analysis of data captured by LRO and LCROSS when the latter mission purposely crashed its spent Centaur upper stage into the Moon’s Cabeus crater shows that volatiles including methane, hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide made up more than 20% of the resulting impact plume.
LONDON — The French government is in the final stages of awarding a contract for integration of the MBDA Meteor ramjet powered air-to-air missile on the Rafale strike fighter, according to a French defense ministry official. France would be the second country to pay to integrate the weapon onto its combat aircraft, following Sweden, which recently made the decision to do so on the JAS-39 Gripen.
