The House Science Committee has moved toward the Senate on reauthorizing NASA spending for the next three years with compromise language that calls for an immediate start on a heavy lift launch vehicle able to orbit a capsule based on the Orion crew exploration vehicle by the end of 2016.
The European Space Agency is embarking on an 18-month study to define a mission concept and detailed design for a proposed lander/rover mission to the south pole of the Moon.
Technicians at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are ready to install a unique instrument on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory that will allow the big rover to analyze the chemical composition of rocks and soil as far as 7 meters (23 ft.) away.
As Congress decides whether to follow the proposed U.S. Navy procurement plan for the service’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), lawmakers may want to look at whether the service should change its acquisition strategy or even if the Navy has provided enough time to review the proposed program, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The Republic of Singapore Air Force has received the first of 10 modernized Lockheed C-130B Hercules transports that it tapped ST Aerospace to upgrade in March 2007. Systems modifications will give these older aircraft more commonality with RSAF’s younger C-130H fleet and should add about 20 years to their service life.
LIGHTER FLIGHT: The next Soyuz capsule launched to the International Space Station will be able to carry about 70 km. more payload, thanks to a digital flight computer that replaces the analog system used for the past 30 years. Cosmonaut Aleksander Kaleri will check out the new TsVM-101 computer in flight next month, when the Soyuz TMA-01M vehicle is launched to the ISS. Liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is scheduled for Oct. 8. The digital computer is baselined for the new Soyuz variant, according to the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
BEIJING – Japan is expected to decide by the end of the year whether to order four Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk surveillance aircraft that could later be upgraded to reinforce the country’s anti-ballistic missile defenses. The decision, which has been brewing for years, is due to appear in the National Defense Program Guideline, which will set out future military policy when it appears this year, program officials say.
CAPE CANAVERAL — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is retargeting the launch of its next Falcon 9 rocket, which will carry an operational Dragon capsule, from Oct. 23 to early November. The flight is the first of up to three launches planned under SpaceX’s $278 million Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract with NASA. The company also has contracts worth $1.6 billion for 12 cargo delivery runs to the International Space Station.
STAYING ON STATION: The International Space Station partner agencies met Sept. 21 by videoconference to discuss the continuation of station operations and science activities into the next decade. Japan has committed to continue supporting station operations beyond 2016. Current plans call for station operations to extend at least until 2020. “Coupled with the approval of the government of the Russian Federation for continuation to 2020, this progress is indicative of the strength of the station partnership,” NASA said.
Evaluators from the U.S. Government Accountability Office say the U.S. Global Positioning System remains at risk of losing full operability, despite upgrades implemented by the U.S. Air Force.
The global helicopter market is playing out like a Dickens novel these days, with civil business going through the worst of times and military sales seeing their best days, according to the recent Teal Group World Rotorcraft Overview. Teal Group expects civil deliveries to fall 20.8% in 2010, on top of a 13.3% decline in 2009, after experiencing “unprecedented growth rates in 2003-2008 … that transformed the industry,” the consultancy’s report says.
The U.S. Army has set Oct. 1 as the day it will brief industry on requirement changes in the Ground Combat Vehicle competition, which the service announced in August it was temporarily canceling until it issues a new request for proposals (RFP) for a retooled program.
HOUSTON — Lockheed Martin is pursuing an aggressive lean manufacturing strategy in the refurbished Operations & Checkout (O&C) building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where engineers and technicians plan to prepare the Orion crew capsule for a critical 2013 test flight intended to verify a deep-space re-entry capability. Major components for the Orion test capsule are expected to begin arriving at the O&C facility in 2012.
Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon have completed unusually protracted negotiations on the next lot buy of F-35 Join Strike Fighters, called low-rate, initial production 4. This will be the first fixed-price F-35 contract, and will include the purchase of 30 F-35s for the U.S., as well as one for the U.K., according to Pentagon officials. An option also is included for one of the single-engine stealthy strike fighters for the Netherlands. The lot was expected to include all 32 aircraft.
PARIS — Russian Satellite Communications Co. has contracted with ISS Reshetnev and Thales Alenia Space for three additional spacecraft to modernize and expand its telecommunications satellite network. The spacecraft, AM8, AT1 and AT2, will carry payloads supplied by Thales Alenia and will be the first Russian-based satellites to use ISS Reshetnev’s new Express 1000 small satellite bus.
The external fuel tank assigned to the last scheduled shuttle mission set sail for Kennedy Space Center from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans by barge late Sept. 21, leaving behind a rapidly dwindling Lockheed Martin workforce. Sporting a battle-scarred jacket of orange insulating foam, External Tank 122 is expected to reach the Florida shuttle port on Sept. 26.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Space Shuttle Discovery was rolled out to the launch pad Sept. 20 for its 39th and final flight, with nine days of contingency time to meet a targeted Nov. 1 liftoff and no commitment by the U.S. government for a successor vehicle to carry people into orbit.
NEW DELHI — The Indian army is taking concrete steps toward achieving network-centric operations at the strategic, operational and tactical levels with its Battlefield Management System (BMS). BMS will be the precursor to a similar system for India’s paramilitary forces that will address counterterrorism and counterinfiltration requirements.
TEL AVIV — Israel’s new Panther vertical takeoff and landing unmanned tiltrotor aircraft is one of the latest products emerging from the classified projects section of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The UAV was developed by IAI’s Malat division, which has been looking at new designs to fill some of the operational gaps between the company’s largest, longest-range Heron TP UAV — now in operation with the Israeli Air Force — and its smallest 0.5-kg. (1.1-lb.) Mosquito UAV with a 30-40 min. flight time.
