PARIS — Arianespace has successfully orbited South Korea’s COMS-1 and Arabsat 5A, putting its launch manifest back on track. The Ariane 5 ECA launch, which had been set for June 23, was rescheduled twice — the first time because of an unspecified launch subsystem anomaly, the second time due to an abnormal upper-stage cryo-pressure reading. The twin-satellite payload finally lifted off without incident on June 26.
ARMY Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., was awarded on June 21 a $51,095,500 firm-fixed-price contract for the overhaul of the UH-60 main rotor blade for a quantity of 500. Work is to be performed in Bridgeport, Conn., with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2020. One bid was solicited with one bid received. U.S. Army Contracting Command, CCAM-AL-M, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-06-D-0116).
NASA DAY: NASA will reveal more details of its new Space Technology investment program and solicit feedback from industry at a forum in Adelphi, Md., on July 13-14. During the event, NASA officials also will announce three new Centennial Challenges prize programs. The first day of the forum and a media briefing will be carried live on NASA Television and streamed on the Internet.
AIR FORCE Rockwell Collins, Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was awarded a $49,000,000 contract which will develop, demonstrate, and transition the tactical targeting network technology and related interoperable technologies such a Quint network technology to support information exchange between the Tactical Edge platforms and users within the Department of Defense. At this time, $3,398,117 has been obligated. AFRL/RIKE, Rome, N.Y., is the contracting activity (FA8750-10-D-0042).
NEW DELHI — India will need more than 50 medium-sized transport planes in the medium-term, given its diverse border, homeland security and humanitarian needs, Alenia Aeronautica estimates. “India has a lot of hot borders,” says Paolo Girasole, head of Alenia parent company Finmeccanica in India, referring to airlifters required in the remote areas of eastern India occupied by local insurgents, the Naxals.
REPLICA WORKS: The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) claims the new Joint Test Assembly (JTA) for the W87 warhead works as designed following a recent Minute Man III intercontinental ballistic missile test with the Air Force. “This successful JTA test illustrates NNSA’s commitment to ensuring that all weapon systems perform as designed,” says Brig. Gen. Garrett Harencak, NNSA principal assistant deputy administrator for military application.
A Cambodian proverb holds that when elephants fight, the ants suffer. But there is a real danger of that wisdom being turned on its head as the U.S. and European Union spar in the World Trade Organization (WTO) over subsidies for large commercial aircraft. In their zeal to win, could Boeing and Airbus be teaching emerging rivals how to craft state subsidies — and inadvertently speed the end of their own duopoly?
SENSOR CHOICE: Northrop Grumman says the second and third hybrid airships planned under the U.S. Army’s Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) demonstration program could have different sensors and other improvements. Air vehicle 1, planned to fly in mid-2011 and deploy to Afghanistan early in 2012, will carry available video, radar and signals intelligence payloads purchased by the Army, including Northrop’s own Vader active-array radar for detecting and tracking vehicles and individuals.
-- AEROSPACE/DEFENSE -- LIFE SCIENCES -- CLEANTECH Download the White Paper Now: www.eflorida.com/nanowp Farnboroughh 2010: Visit the Florida Pavillion: Hall 3 B20-21 Florida. Innovation Hub of The Americas. Click here to view the pdf
CAPE CANAVERAL — Florida’s space development agency will give $500,000 to a Space Coast startup that is working to parlay its parent company’s aerospace expertise into a fuel-efficient diesel-hybrid sports car designed and built in Brevard County. Avera Motors of Rockledge, Fla., an offshoot of Mainstream Engineering Corp., also of Rockledge, will turn over its first prototype to Space Florida, which plans to tap Kennedy Space Center expertise for product and manufacturing assessments under a proposed Space Act Agreement with NASA.
MRO MILITARY EUROPE 2010 ExCeL, London, UK September 29-30, 2010 Learn to maintain military assets longer; sustain aircraft beyond forecast; recover from budget cuts, delays and program cancellations, and develop new strategies required to deliver and support equipment. Learn more at www.aviationweek.com/events Click here to view the pdf
INTERNATIONAL SPACE: The Obama administration’s looming National Space Policy likely will represent a return to a more international approach to space; a more balanced view of civil, commercial and military uses of space; and a greater openness to arms control and cooperative solutions to international space security issues, according to the left-leaning Union of Concerned Scientists.
Boeing wants to conduct an air launch of its ScanEagle Compressed Carriage as the next step in the demonstrator program. The company last month completed a 75-min. flight of the air vehicle, but it was launched from a truck. An air-launched flight is being targeted to take place in the next 6-12 months, says Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works. A launch platform has not been selected, but it will likely be an aircraft with external carriage, such as the F-15.
Lockheed Martin is prepared to ship the first Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite to the U.S. Navy in the second quarter of 2011, says Mark Pasquale, a company vice president. The Pentagon prices the program, which includes six satellites, at $6.9 billion. MUOS will provide narrowband UHF communications, voice, data and video for military users.
LONDON — The Australian government is throwing money behind its effort to make the country’s defense industry globally more competitive as part of a new defense industry policy rolled out June 25. The policy is aimed at addressing changes in the country’s defense industrial base, in which U.S. and European companies largely dominate the domestic market through their holdings, thereby relegating truly indigenous entities to small- or medium-sized status.
Bipartisan support is growing in both houses of Congress for a faster start on the heavy-lift launch vehicle President Barack Obama said he wants regardless of what happens to his plan to scrap the Constellation Program. A bipartisan group of 62 House members is urging Obama to initiate “the immediate development and production of a heavy-lift launch vehicle that, in conjunction with the Orion crew exploration vehicle, may be used for either lunar or deep-space exploration to an asteroid and beyond.”
MULTI-SENSOR: Lockheed Martin is readying its Gulfstream III-based Airborne Multi-intelligence Laboratory (AML) for display at the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough International Airshow in the U.K. next month, possibly followed by a tour of Europe and the Middle East. Equipped with airborne processors, operator workstations and data links, the AML can collect and correlate data from video, radar, communications and electronic intelligence sensors.
AUSTRALIAN MRO: The Australian government has announced key reforms to its naval ship repair sector, and industry will be invited to tender for long-term contracts for repair and maintenance of the navy’s major fleet units. Greg Combet, defense minister for materiel and science, says this initiative will provide industry and the navy with greater certainty and stability in the repair and maintenance of the fleet. The following companies were named to compete for the accompanying ship groups.
ST. LOUIS — Despite the availability of several advanced jet trainers already in the market, Boeing believes there is still a chance the looming T-38 replacement program will lead to a new-design aircraft. Although the Pentagon is still in the process of determining the exact requirements for the so-called T-X program, Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing Military Aircraft, says, “I believe it will be a new-build type of platform.” Boeing is already in talks with possible industrial partners about how it might pursue the T-X competition.
BIG TARGET: U.S. House Democrats across that party’s spectrum are increasingly talking about how the Pentagon must sacrifice some of its budget, along with the rest of the federal government, to rein in the U.S. deficit. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is slated to speak June 28 at a centrist Washington think tank, and several Capitol Hill newspapers have reported key lawmakers in that chamber suggesting that the defense budget is not sacrosanct.
FOLLOWING NPOESS: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is moving forward with plans for its Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) — the civil weather satellite constellation that the agency will build in lieu of the troubled National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess). JPSS spacecraft will be clones of the Npoess Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite built by Ball Aerospace; NASA will initiate the JPSS procurement as a sole-source contract to Ball.
U.S. military units are failing to package, ship and account for equipment being brought back from Iraq as part of the force drawdown there, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. As part of “Operation Clean Sweep” — set in motion by the Defense Department fragmentary order (FRAGO) of Oct. 26, 2009, U.S. military units are supposed to be properly identifying, packing, shipping and keeping track of equipment in Iraq being transported back to the United States or to other regions.
WHAT’S THE PLAN?: House Science lawmakers want supporting documents justifying decisions to terminate NASA’s Constellation Program and rely on commercial vehicles for astronaut transport to the International Space Station. NASA managers were working with the White House Office of Management and Budget to meet the June 25 deadline for their delivery to the House Science Committee.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) june 28 - July 1 — American Institute Aeronautics and Astronautics 40th Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit; 27th AIAA Aerodynamic Measurement and Ground Testing Conference; 28th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference; 41st Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference, Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago. For more information go to www.aiaa.org
