HOUSTON — Endeavour’s final flight, a 14-day STS-134 mission to the International Space Station, could feature an unusual amount of activity around the orbiting science laboratory, including a re-rendezvous demonstration of the relative navigation sensors developed for the Orion spacecraft. The mission also could include a “family portrait” of the outpost and docked spacecraft that would be taken by a Soyuz crew. The portrait was proposed for Discovery’s last mission, but the idea was eventually rejected.
LONDON — In the wake of the cancellation of the Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft, the U.K. Royal Navy has begun a study to look at how to plug some of the gaps that may result. Peter Luff, the defense minister for equipment, tells parliament that the defense ministry “is currently conducting a capability investigation into its long-term requirements for a wide-area maritime surveillance capability.” The report is due in September. The ministry currently has “no plans to procure a maritime patrol aircraft.”
BEIJING — China is dramatically stepping up its efforts to procure Western know-how, with Avic’s commercial engine company, ACAE, launching a large-scale recruitment campaign in Britain and the U.S. to back its development of a narrowbody airliner turbofan. The drive to enlist foreign staff, in part focusing on experienced workers, is another manifestation of Chinese industry’s ability to wield national resources and the lure of market access in its quest for the knowledge it needs to rapidly catch up with Western aerospace leaders.
HOUSTON — At Johnson Space Center, preparations for STS-135 – a 12-day supply mission to the International Space Station and the absolute end of the shuttle program – are unfolding with increasing urgency despite the absence of congressional agreement on a 2011 budget. The mission is slated to lift off from Kennedy Space Center on June 28 at 3:40 p.m. EDT.
WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY, Va. — Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) expects Congress to adopt a measure soon that will fund government activities for the rest of fiscal 2011, but she worries that spending hawks in the House will try to upset the “balance” between human spaceflight and space science in NASA spending.
A March 22 story inaccurately represented Germany’s plans for the Meads program. Germany is open to fielding a Meads-derived missile defense system pending the outcome of the development program. An article in the March 23 edition misstated the status of Phased Adaptive Approach missile defense sites. The first is in Kauai, Hawaii, for testing and the second will be in Romania, for operations. The third, which will be competed among contractors, will be in Poland.
SATELLITE WIN: Australia’s SingTel Optus has picked Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) to build its tenth telecommunications satellite, aiming for a 2013 launch. Optus 10 will carry 24 Ku-band transponders that are switchable between fixed and broadcast satellite service frequencies for users in Australia and New Zealand. The satellite will have an end-of-life power rating of 8.5 kw. This is the second Optus contract for SS/L, which used its 1300-series for Optus C1 in 2003. C1 carried a hosted payload for the Australian Defense Forces.
HOUSTON — If NASA and SpaceX reach agreement to combine rendezvous and berthing test flights of the Dragon capsule into a single cargo-delivery demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the tracking and capture responsibilities are likely to fall to U.S. and Japanese members of the Expedition 28 crew now training for a late May liftoff.
LINKED IN: The U.S. Air Force plans to buy enough Boeing evolutionary datalink (EDL) sets to equip the entire fleet by the second quarter of 2012, the company said March 22. The Air Force has 19 EDL kits now shared among its 76 B-52s. This is a laptop-based design to provide data and voice connectivity and beyond-line-of-sight communications (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 4, 2010). The system is an interim step toward a permanent upgrade called Combat Network Communications Technology.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian Air Force (IAF) has released a request for information (RFI) for the procurement of a telemetry system for the Bengaluru-based Aircraft System Testing Establishment (ASTE), the service’s premier test pilot school.
Libyan government forces have one of the newest, most advanced, short-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems available on the market today – the Russian-made SA-24 Grinch – that can shoot down coalition aircraft at altitudes of up to 18,000 ft., although the most effective altitudes are limited to about 11,000 ft.
LONDON — A small group of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members has agreed to launch a €100 million ($140 million) effort to expand intelligence sharing. The initiative builds on the Multi-intelligence All-source Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Interoperability Coalition (Majiic) tool already fielded in Afghanistan. The focus of that effort was to allow coalition members to easily share full-motion video and thereby eliminate the need for duplicative missions.
Lockheed Martin has signed a contract to develop a family of commercial cargo airships for a private Canadian company that plans to sell the aircraft to the oil and gas industry and other sectors for heavy-lift transport missions in remote and inaccessible regions. Calgary, Alberta-based Aviation Capital Enterprises will pay the U.S. manufacturer to develop, certify and produce a series of aircraft based on the P-791 hybrid airship demonstrator built and flown by Lockheed’s Skunk Works in 2006.
LONDON — Israel Aerospace Industries has seen a slight rebound in sales and a significant boost in profitability, the state-owned enterprise reports. After watching sales slide to $2.9 billion in 2009 from $3.6 billion the year prior, IAI reports 9% growth last year, with sales reaching $3.2 billion. Profit also recovered after falling to $61 million in 2009; it reached $94 million in 2010, which was slightly above the 2008 result. The rebound was achieved even though commercial markets are still below pre-crisis levels, CEO Itzhak Nissan notes.
The U.S. chief of naval operations is warning the government to start heading off severe budget challenges for naval forces in the 2020s, when a surge of ships built in the 1980s will “age out” at the same time when the Navy will be trying to replace its strategic submarine and nuclear aircraft carrier fleets. “The biggest issue is the decade of the ’20s,” Navy Adm. Gary Roughead told Washington-based defense reporters March 23. “The nation is looking at a challenge to shipbuilding that I believe we need to start thinking about now.”
BEIJING — China aims to launch 13 weather satellites in 2011-20 as part of an effort that it says will put it at the forefront of some technologies. The country will invest 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) in meteorological satellites during the period, says the director of the China Meteorological Administration satellite center, Yang Jun.
LONDON — British industry and the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) are wrapping up work on a device to aid helicopter pilots operating in brownout conditions. The goal is to field the system quickly on Chinooks and Merlins in Afghanistan.
BENGALURU, India — The Indian navy plans to buy heavy machine guns (HMG) for its marine assets, including ships and rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIB). The service, which has issued a request for information (RFI), says the HMGs will provide fire support for combat operations, including asymmetric warfare, assisting in the destruction of lightly protected targets. The HMGs are to be used from vehicles, RHIBs and in ground roles.
KC-390: Embraer has begun announcing major suppliers for the KC-390 tanker/transport, awarding DRS Defense Solutions a contract to develop the cargo handling and aerial delivery system. The Brazilian manufacturer is expected to announce suppliers for five major aircraft systems, including engines and avionics, before launching the joint definition phase in May. Embraer is developing the KC-390 under a $1.8 billion contract from the Brazilian air force.
LONDON — An industry group working on a study for the European Defense Agency (EDA) is drafting recommendations for governments to help preserve brittle European aerospace and defense capabilities. The Saab-led group crafting the “Future Air System for Europe” began its work last September and is due to finish in October 2011. The goal is to have a road map and implementation plan to show EDA member states how to sustain skills, says John Mattiussi, the agency’s principal officer for the defense industry.
HOUSTON — Lockheed Martin unveiled its suburban Denver Space Operations Simulation Center (SOSC) on March 21, a large development, evaluation and testing facility for NASA’s Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. Lockheed hopes to launch Orion on its first test flight in 2013 and prepare for congressionally mandated operations by the end of 2016.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) particle detector, a $2 billion collaborative project by 16 nations, has been moved to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A, where space shuttle Endeavour is being prepared to lift off on the STS-134 mission on April 19. Once mounted to the International Space Station’s (ISS) S3 Truss, AMS is to spend the next 10-20 years looking at high-energy particles from cosmic sources. Among the ambitious research goals is to prove or disprove the existence of antimatter.
