SECRET SATELLITE: An Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur I launch vehicle orbited a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload Feb. 5, placing it in a polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Officials said the payload involved research and development, but provided no other details. The launch vehicle can put as much as 1,778 lb. into low Earth orbit, using decommissioned Minuteman ICBM motors as the first two of its stages, and Pegasus XL components as the third and fourth stages.
BENGALURU, India — Indian defense public sector undertaking Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML) has formally begun its venture into aerospace production with the Feb. 7 inauguration of its new Aerospace Manufacturing Div. (AMD) in Mysore by Defense Minister A.K. Antony. Antony urged management and employees to take full advantage of India’s Defense Offset Policy, saying: “Get ready to deliver more quality products, assure deliveries on time, and I can assure you the government will give you all support.”
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — The U.S. Navy has ordered a fifth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) next-generation UHF satellite from Lockheed Martin, at an estimated cost of $339.6 million. MUOS Space Vehicle-1 (SV-1) is now in thermal vacuum testing at Lockheed’s satellite manufacturing facility here, says Kevin Bilger, vice president of global communications. MUOS is designed to replace the UHF Follow-on satellites now in orbit, and it will provide connectivity to soldiers in dense urban areas or foliage.
LONDON — European members of NATO need to cooperate more closely in a range of areas, including logistics support, to help rectify the growing imbalance in the contribution provided by the U.S. and Europe, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen argues.
LONDON — The German defense ministry will revamp its approach to acquisition as part of a more widespread overhaul of its organization. The steps, detailed Feb. 7 by Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, represent the second phase of an effort to revamp Germany’s approach to defense, which has already seen the end of conscription. The new organizational structure will include eight divisions, and staffing will be cut by 1,100 people, down to 2,000.
STILL WINTER: Even with the New Start nuclear arms reduction taking effect Feb. 5, limiting U.S. and Russian strategic arsenals to 1,550 warheads each, new climate model simulations show that a massive exchange of nuclear weapons would still result in a “nuclear winter” and massive ozone depletion, according to several government and academic researchers, including from NASA.
CAPE CANAVERAL— Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off company, has signed a launch services contract with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) for a Falcon 9 rocket to deliver a lander, small rover and up to about 240 lb. of payload to the surface of the Moon, the company announced Feb. 6.
Space Adventures, the travel agency that sends tourists to the International Space Station (ISS), and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which procures the Soyuz capsules that carry them there, have an apparent disagreement over the availability of seats for tourists. Last month Space Adventures announced “the conclusion of an agreement” with Roscosmos and RSC Energia, the Soyuz manufacturer, for three Soyuz tourist seats beginning in 2013 (Aerospace DAILY, Jan. 14).
BEIJING — Quickstep Holdings will become Australia’s largest independent composites maker with an expansion tied to the confirmation of its role as a supplier to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The company hopes to eventually apply its out-of-autoclave composites curing process to parts that it and U.S. partners will make for the F-35, with a view to cutting program costs.
HOUSTON — Canada’s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (Dextre), responding to commands from NASA’s Mission Control, took temporary possession on Feb. 3 and 4 of two external payloads delivered to the International Space Station onboard Japan’s unmanned HTV-2 in late January. Canada’s robotic handyman, equipped with two 11-ft.-long arms, had been awaiting its first formal operations since delivery to the station in March 2008.
The U.S. government is emphasizing the need for a strong and competitive space industrial base, improved acquisition processes and coordination among the Pentagon and intelligence community in its new National Security Space Strategy. The long-awaited strategy was supposed to be released last year; the document, dated January 2011, was announced Feb. 4.
PARIS — France’s government accounting office has raised a red flag over a vast French plan to sell off assets and outsource services to help compensate for a drop in procurement spending. The plan purports to raise €1.8 billion ($2.5 billion) from the sale of real estate and other assets—about half this year—and to realize €3.5 billion in savings by streamlining support functions and outsourcing many of them to private industry.
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Air Force is adapting two sensors from the canceled civil-military National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) and is working to define a third so the trio will be available for the military’s version of its replacement, the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS).
NASA is making “substantive progress” on ensuring its new approach to delivering astronauts to low Earth orbit will be as safe as possible, but challenges remain, according to the independent panel chartered to advise the agency’s administrator and Congress on spaceflight safety issues.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) FEB. 9 - 10 — 14th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC. For more information call 202-267-3674 or go to www.faa.gov/go/ast
FUNDING PLEA: Almost a dozen high-profile aerospace and defense trade organizations have written House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) stressing the need for a new fiscal 2011 defense spending measure, which is at risk if the deeply divided Congress cannot reach agreement on spending this month. “It is critical that policymakers carefully consider the negative impact on important aerospace and national security programs if DOD is asked to manage its vast and complex operations under a year-long continuing resolution,” they wrote Feb. 3.
SWIFT SHIPS: Two of the 15 U.S.-made 35-meter patrol boats for the Iraqi navy were delivered to the important Umm Qasr naval facility Jan. 26, and U.S. officials say negotiations continue over adding three more ships to the order. So far three ships have been delivered to the Iraq Navy; nine are under construction currently. U.S. officials say the boat design was chosen by Iraqis, but they were provided by Swiftships Shipbuilding via the U.S. Navy, as was training of Iraqi sailors in Morgan City, La.
FEDOROV FIRED: Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has fired United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) boss Alexey Fedorov for the lack of progress in overhauling the aircraft manufacturing industry. Mikhail Pogosyan, the head of the Sukhoi and MiG fighter manufacturing companies, is taking over.
NEW DELHI — The first of six Lockheed Martin C-130J transport aircraft is being introduced into the Indian air force on Feb. 5 at the Hindon air base near New Delhi. The second C-130J will be handed over by late February/March, with the next two deliveries made by late April/May and the final two by October. A C-130J simulator will be delivered by year’s end.
UAV AMENDMENTS: Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) wants to require FAA to develop air traffic control requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles while Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wants to expand the number of test sites in the agency’s UAV pilot project from four to 10. The senators offered amendments last week as the Senate swiftly began debating the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement bill (S.223). Both amendments were pending as of late Feb. 4.
The U.S. Marine Corps is testing an electronic-attack payload on the AAI RQ-7B Shadow as it expands the tactical unmanned aerial vehicle’s capability to meet urgent needs emerging from operations in Afghanistan. Testing at Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona is being conducted under the Corporal joint capability technology demonstration (JCTD) with the U.S. Army. To be completed in June, this involves a long-wing Shadow with a pair of underwing pods for communications relay, signals intelligence and electronic attack.
The U.S. Army announced Feb. 4 its decision to “no longer pursue the Unattended Ground Sensors and the Class 1 Unmanned Air System” as part of the Early-Infantry Brigade Combat Team (E-IBCT) program, the follow-on program that grew out of the cancellation of the Future Combat Systems suite of networked sensors and unmanned assets.
GOES-R: The Lockheed Martin Space Systems preliminary design for the GOES-R weather satellite series has been approved. The company is under contract for two spacecraft with two options. The critical design review is expected early next year. First launch is set for 2015.
HOUSTON — NASA and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly announced Feb. 4 that the veteran shuttle flier will remain the commander of the STS-134 shuttle mission to the International Space Station, while his wife, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, recovers from the gunshot wound she received at a Jan. 8 Tucson political rally.
