GOES CHECKOUT: Checkout of the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-14, continues apace. The spacecraft sent its first visible-light full-disk image of Earth July 27, with a resolution of 1 kilometer. via an ITT Industries imager mounted on an optical bench built by Boeing, the prime contractor for the spacecraft. The next major step in the five-month check out, set for Aug. 14, is to deploy the imager and sounder cooler doors to allow infrared images of Earth and soundings of atmospheric temperatures and water vapor levels.
Construction of Russia’s new multirole Yasen-class nuclear submarine, Kazan, began at Sevmash’s facilities in Severodvinsk July 24. It is the second sub of this class — the first ship, Severodvinsk, was laid down in 1993 and is expected to be commissioned in 2011. The Russian Navy reportedly plans to have six Yasen class submarines. “We need these submarines for all our fleets,” said Navy Deputy Commander Nikolay Borisov at the lay-down ceremony.
Space Shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on schedule at 1:26 p.m. EDT July 28, marking the end of a busy assembly visit that included five spacewalks and completed installation of Japan’s Kibo laboratory. The Expedition 20 and STS-127 crews bid one another farewell and closed hatches between the station and Endeavour at 11:08 a.m. EDT. After the undocking, the shuttle drifted free and Pilot Doug Hurley performed a close fly-around of the station at a distance of 400 feet to survey its exterior.
LOS ANGELES — A technical issue with a helicopter cable system is forcing the Spaceward Foundation to postpone the Space Elevator Power Beaming Challenge Games originally scheduled for this summer at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. The Spaceward Foundation, which conducts the competition as part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program, together with NASA, which is providing the $2 million prize money for this segment, said the problems cropped up during tests of the helicopter-mounted cable system last week.
EURO LIFT: The first-of-its-kind multinational strategic airlift unit at Papa Air Base in Hungary was activated July 27. The 12 nations that committed to the 30-year strategic airlift program, called Heavy Airlift Wing, built the operational unit in just 10 months. The purpose was to collectively create a heavy airlift unit to meet national obligations to the European Union, United Nations and NATO. Primary among those obligations for all participants is support for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
NASA probably won’t be able to meet its 2010 deadline for retiring the space shuttle fleet, and even if it does it will probably take about two years longer than planned to get the follow-on vehicles into operation, meaning the anticipated five-year gap in U.S. human space access is likely to stretch by at least a year.
FT. WORTH, Texas — The U.S. Navy has strongly endorsed a single engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, citing lack of space on its aircraft carriers to support an alternate powerplant. “I’m in the one engine camp,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, speaking July 28 at the rollout of the first Pratt & Whitney F135-powered F-35C carrier variant here. “On a carrier, space matters.”
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GENOA, Italy The Italian government is further boosting its effort within the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), sending more air and ground assets to Afghanistan. The decision was made following an increase in combat clashes involving Folgore Brigade paratroopers deployed in western Afghanistan.
Astronauts and cosmonauts on the space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station (ISS) wrapped up the fifth and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of their joint mission July 27, and will say their farewells and undock July 28. NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn made short work of most of their assigned tasks on EVA 5, but managers at Mission Control Center - Houston made a “conservative” call and sent them back inside instead of out to the station truss for one final chore.
HIT HARD: Sales declines in Moog’s commercial and military programs led to a 96 percent drop in year-over-year profits. The company reported fiscal third-quarter sales of $445 million, down 10 percent from the same period a year ago. Aircraft sales in the quarter were $162 million, or 8 percent lower than last year. Military sales were up, the company said, but much of the work on the F-35 has been completed. Sales in Moog’s space and defense division were up 2 percent in the fiscal third quarter, to $65 million.
APACHE ARROWHEAD: The U.S. Army recently awarded Lockheed Martin a $142 million follow-on production contract for the Arrowhead Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) for the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter. The Lot 6 contract includes 55 Arrowhead kits for U.S. Army Apaches and kits for several international customers. More than 850 systems will have been delivered with the completion of the Lot 6 contract, which extends production through December 2011.
Saudi Arabia has become the second largest customer for Airbus Military A330-based multirole tanker transports with a decision to double its order for the refuelers. EADS announced July 27 that Saudi Arabia will buy three more of the aircraft. The deal comes on top of a commitment for three A330s that the country signed last year. The first of the Saudi refuelers is to be delivered in 2011. Saudi Arabia will use both hose-and-drogue pods and the refueling boom system that Airbus developed.
NEW DELHI India’s first indigenously built nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine was launched on July 26 at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam. The 6,000-ton sub INS Arihant, which means “Destroyer of Enemies,” features a single 80 MW pressurized nuclear reactor and carries six 533 mm torpedoes, Klub land attack and anti-ship cruise missiles.
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and Dryden Flight Research Center here have conducted an aerial radar survey of volcanos in Alaska, the Aleutians and Cascade Mountain Range using a Gulfstream III equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
Aurora Flight Sciences is developing technology demonstration plans for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) with the target of identifying ways to reduce air mobility fleet fuel usage 90 percent by 2030-2035. The study is being conducted under the Revolutionary Configurations for Energy Efficiency (RCEE) program, which is being funded with Recovery Act stimulus money. In June, Boeing and Lockheed Martin were awarded RCEE contracts to study aft-body drag reduction.
ARMY Raytheon Company, Integrated Defense Company, Andover, Mass., was awarded on July 23, 2009, a $8,926,847 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for FY ’09 Patriot engineering services contract option award for 37,822 man-hours of effort. The work is to be performed in Andover, Mass. (1.39%), and Tewksbury, Mass. (98.61%) with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2014. One bid was solicited with one bid received. U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-09-C-0057).
Classified intelligence community satellites have yielded a treasure trove of imagery on Arctic Sea changes, but a National Academies panel wants even more access. The panel’s report especially wants more dissemination of Literal Imagery Derived Products (LIDPs), which would provide detailed data for scientists about changes in the seascape. The committee recommends that the intelligence community release and disseminate all Arctic sea ice LIDPs that have been produced to date as soon as possible.
