SHIPPING OUT: Thales Alenia Space is preparing to ship Eutelsat’s W7, a 70-transponder Ku-band satellite to be launched by an International Launch Services Proton M in mid-November. Intended to replace Seasat 1, W7 will double Eutelsat capacity at 36 deg. E. Long., a neighborhood the operator is developing to serve fast-growing TV and data markets in Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East and southern Africa.
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) hit its target on the south pole of the moon early Oct. 9, but with no visible impact plume, only time will tell if the mission actually turned up any evidence of water or frozen hydrogen in the moon’s permanently shadowed craters.
NASA AERO: NASA begins a series of DC-8 research flights to the Antarctic on Oct. 15 to study sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. The flights are part of “Operation Ice Bridge,” a six-year campaign that represents the largest airborne survey ever made of ice in the Earth’s polar regions. The DC-8 will use laser mapping instruments, ice-penetrating radar and gravity instruments.
White House and NASA officials will get their first crack at the final report of the human-spaceflight review panel headed by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine as early as this week, after panel members compromised on the tricky issue of launch-vehicle safety in scoring exploration-architecture options.
ARMING UP: The U.S. Army wants a whole lot of foreign small arms — over 10,000 of them — including AK-47s. Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Independence, Mo., snagged a $21,081,648 firm-fixed-price contract for 10,697 non-standard weapons, 66,874 AK-47 magazines and 16,050 spare parts. Work is to be performed in Kazanluk, Bulgaria, (82 percent), Bulgaria, Serbia, (7.6 percent), Bulgaria, (2.8 percent), Cugir, Romania, (1.5 percent), Jamestown, Pa., (0.4 percent) and Pakistan (5.6 percent), with an estimated completion date of May 25, 2010.
AIRSHIP TIE-UP: L-3 Communications has signed a memorandum of understanding to act as system integrator and operator of the STS-111 medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned airship under development by US..-German joint venture Sanswire-TAO. German partner TAO Technologies has begun flying the initial STS-111, an 111-foot-long multi-segment non-rigid airship designed to carry a 20-pound payload at up to 15,000 feet for 60 hours.
Rear Adm. William Landay, head of the U.S. Navy’s program executive office (PEO) for ships, wants to drive shipbuilding toward a leaner, more competitive model. Landay hosted a reporters’ roundtable this week to outline the Navy’s commitment to revamping a somewhat beleaguered shipbuilding industry. There is not “one specific trigger” that drove the Navy to make changes, he said. The items Landay outlined are “fundamentally things we’ve talked about doing in individual programs and now we’re trying to address across the PEO.”
The U.S. Army is once again revamping its plans for the troubled Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) intelligence aircraft program. The new focus is on quick fielding of mature technologies integrated onto a turboprop aircraft, most likely the KingAir 350, that is suitable for operations in Afghanistan, says Col. Rob Carpenter, the Army’s ACS project manager.
Remote imaging company GeoEye will turn two of its Earth imaging satellites toward the moon Oct. 9 to photograph the impact plume from NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). The LCROSS spacecraft and the spent Centaur upper stage from its booster will deliberately plunge into the permanently shadowed Cabeus crater near the moon’s south pole. A variety of Earth- and space-based sensors will observe the impact plumes looking for signs of water ice.
A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Oct. 8 with DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 commercial remote sensing spacecraft onboard, after a 13-minute delay while a battery problem in the rocket’s second stage was resolved. Liftoff came at 2:51 p.m. EDT. Built by Ball Aerospace for the Colorado-based satellite-imagery provider, WorldView-2 is the first eight-band multispectral satellite launched for the commercial market.
MARIETTA, Ga. — The U.S. C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) officially began its initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) on Oct. 1, after years of fitful funding from the Pentagon.
DISASTER RELIEF: Inmarsat and Vizada have agreed to help the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) improve its mobile telecom disaster relief service. Inmarsat and satellite communications provider Vizada will contribute 70 Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network terminals to the ITU and provide preferential airtime rates and technical training support.
Raytheon is currently in discussions with the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) about a new technology that allows soldiers to train for combat using real-time 3-D simulators, company officials said at this week’s Association of the U.S. Army convention in Washington.
FRIGATE ORDER: The French government has ordered three additional Franco-Italian Fremm multimission frigates, including two for air defense. Originally designed for anti-submarine and anti-ship duty, the mission of the helicopter-carrying Fremm fleet was later broadened to include air defense, allowing orders for more expensive Horizon air defense frigates to be halved. The first vessel is to be delivered in 2012.
NASA scientists have recalculated the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis using updated data, and determined there is a “significantly reduced” likelihood that it will strike Earth when it passes by in 2036.
DRUG BUSTING: The MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned rotorcraft deployed onboard the USS McInerney this week in preparation for counternarcotics missions in and around the Caribbean this year. This operational evaluation period will allow Navy operators to develop tactics, techniques and procedures for using the rotorcraft and its intelligence-collecting payload for the mission. Introduction of the Northrop Grumman Fire Scout into the Navy fleet marks the first time an automated unmanned aerial system has been delivered for shipboard operation by sailors.
SIM CITIES: The French army aviation corps has opened two simulation centers. One, at the Tiger attack helicopter school in Provence, is equipped with two full-mission simulators and two cockpit procedures trainers supplied by Thales and Rheinmetall Defense Electronics. The other, at the army aviation school, houses three IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) trainers, a six-seat tactical trainer and a combined flight/weapon system trainer, all supplied by Thales.
LONDON — Britain’s Conservative Party has expressed its determination to hold a Strategic Defense Review, while fencing off the country’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent. Liam Fox, the shadow defense secretary, told the party conference Oct. 8 that the party would immediately launch a review were it to be elected. National elections in the U.K. need to be held no later than the end of May 2010. The Conservatives are well ahead of the ruling Labour Party in opinion polls.
TANKER COCKPITS: Rockwell Collins has won a $33.5 million contract for the Block 45 upgrade to the U.S. Air Force’s KC-135 refueler cockpits. Contained in the kit are improved global air traffic management systems, including a new autopilot flight director, radar altimeter and electronic engine instrument display systems. During the development phase, two KC-135s will be modified in preparation for modification of up to 415 KC-135s.
The decision to tear down an F136 test engine for closer inspection following discovery of turbine damage has halted development testing on the alternate powerplant for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, at least temporarily. The second development F136, engine number 5, is being torn down and checked after “dings and nicks” were found on turbine blades during inspection following an extended maximum-thrust test run, says the General Electric/Rolls-Royce (GE/RR) Fighter Engine Team.
Equipped with a special underwater shroud, the AIM-9X air-to-air missile can be carried in an unmodified configuration and fired from a submarine’s vertical launch tube, according to Michael Sharp, Raytheon’s director of advanced maritime technology and a former submarine commander. In littoral warfare, tactical options for submarines have become limited, given the requirement to operate in shallow water where evasion is difficult.
