STILL WAITING: Two key incumbent Republican senators are still waiting to learn if they’ll be back on the job come January when the 111th Congress opens for business. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who sits on the defense appropriations subcommittee, trails his Democratic challenger by less than 900 votes with about 30,000 ballots still to be counted. Even if he wins, Senate Democratic leaders and some Republicans are calling for Stevens’ expulsion for his felony corruption conviction last month. Alaska Gov.
GATES GOING?: The latest gossip about President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet has it that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is declining to stay on at the Pentagon when the new administration takes over, according to at least two sources who cite Democratic insiders. What isn’t clear is whether the former CIA director and Texas A&M president has simply had enough of Washington, or has policy differences with the Obama camp, which has criticized the troop surge in Iraq.
India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter sent a 34-kilogram (75-pound) probe to the lunar surface Nov. 14 in a test of technology the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hopes to use later to soft-land rovers there. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) hit the surface at 8:31 p.m. Indian Standard Time (10:01 a.m. EST), 25 minutes after separating from Chandrayaan-1 in its operational orbit 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the lunar surface.
NASA’s Apollo-heritage J-2X cryogenic rocket engine is moving into the manufacturing and full-scale testing phase after completing a day-long critical design review at Marshall Flight Center Nov. 13. Based on the Rocketdyne J-2 engine that powered the upper stages of the Saturn V moon rocket, the J-2X is an upgrade that will be installed on both the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V heavy lifter NASA plans to develop to send humans back to the Moon.
LONDON — A gulf in requirements is ruling out any potential for joint-vehicle purchasing with the U.S. to meet a U.K. Defense Ministry program for a future family of tactical wheeled vehicles. As part of Britain’s Operational Utility Vehicle Systems (OUVS) project a U.S./U.K. working group was set up with the Pentagon’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program in the third quarter of 2008. Among other things, the working group looked at possible collaborative purchasing to meet elements of the OUVS requirement.
Crews at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are starting work on the first hardware for the first flight-test of a full-scale prototype of NASA’s next human space launch vehicle. A barge has delivered boilerplate components crafted at Glenn Research Center for the Ares I-X test that will simulate a fully fueled Ares I upper stage in a flight-test next year.
Cruise missile and armed unmanned aircraft programs are proliferating like wildfire among both nations and nonstate groups like Hezbollah, said defense analysts talking to a group of Washington-based journalists Nov. 13.
CSAR SKED: The U.S. Air Force has an updated working schedule for the combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) replacement helicopter program. The latest request for proposals (Amendment 7) is now expected during the first week of December, with a response due by the first week of January 2009 and contract award set for spring of 2009. A little over a month ago, the Air Force had maintained it was on schedule for a contract award for this fall for the program. This latest schedule change makes the program a grand total of two years behind its original schedule.
COUNCIL COUNSEL: President-elect Barack Obama has promised to bring back a national space council, but don’t assume Vice President-elect Joe Biden will be overseeing space policy. While that has been the case historically, the president has great latitude in setting up a space council. The first was created in 1958, but President Dwight Eisenhower largely ignored it, writes Dwayne A. Day, author of a history of White House space policy-making.
An industry team successfully fired the first stage motor of the developmental Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) for about 35 seconds Nov. 13, marking the completion of four of five planned tests for this stage prior to a flight demonstration next year. This burn time is representative of the profile needed to engage a ballistic missile launched from North Korea, program officials say.
ON TRACK: The U.S. Navy will release its official report on the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye’s Operational Assessment (OA) in December, marking another milestone for the aircraft on its way to a Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) decision. Two test aircraft were equipped with fully functioning mission systems and put through the paces by a Navy test squadron to assess the potential effectiveness of the E-2D in a mission environment. Manufacturer Northrop Grumman said the completion of the OA indicates the aircraft is on track for a successful Milestone C in 2009.
SPACE TEAM: President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has named two former NASA officials to the space, science and technology agency review team. One is Lori Garver, president of Capital Space and a former NASA associate administrator of policy. The other is Roderic Olvera Young, senior vice president of TMG Strategies, who previously worked on the staff of the House Banking and Appropriations committees and served as press secretary to former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to take another step towards high-power solid-state laser weapons after evaluating industry’s ideas for the Reliable Electric Laser Initiative (RELI). A follow-on to the Joint High-Power Solid-State Laser (JHPSSL) program, which aims for laboratory demonstrations of rival 100 kilowatt lasers by the middle of next year, RELI will focus on making electric lasers more efficient, as well as more compact, lightweight, reliable and rugged, so they can be used in weapons.
ABORT TEST: The solid-fuel launch abort system (LAS) that would pull NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle to safety in a launch failure will get its first full-scale test this week at Promontory, Utah. Scheduled for 3 p.m. EST Nov. 20 at an ATK Launch Systems facility, the test will be the first of its type since the Apollo era. If all goes well, it will set up a LAS test with an Orion mockup next spring at White Sands Missile Range.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is redesigning over 150 parts for its Chinook CH-47D and F-model aircraft after discovering a highly effective infrared signature suppression (IRSS) system caused strain and cracking on the aircraft’s aft pylon.
JOINT VESSEL: Austal USA will design and build the U.S. Navy a Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) under a $185 million contract awarded by the service. The contract includes options for nine additional ships. But it’s the Army that will get their ship first, in 2011, with the Navy receiving its JHSV in 2012. The program is a joint effort between the two services to acquire a high-speed vessel for intra-theater troop, vehicle and equipment transport. The U.S. military currently leases two HSVs capable of achieving speeds of more than 30 knots.
NEW DELHI – An Indian naval stealth frigate successfully defended a merchant vessel from being hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Nov. 11 and escorted the ship to safety. The attempted attack by pirates on the 38,000-ton “Jag Arnav” in the Gulf of Aden was repulsed by the INS Gomti, which was patrolling in the area, after it had crossed the Suez Canal and was 60 nautical miles east of Aden. An armed helicopter with marine commandos was launched from the naval ship to assist the merchant ship.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The budget picture is bleak for most of U.S. Army aviation, according to the division’s program executive officer, but science and technology (S&T) is suffering the most.
A large group of former NASA managers and planetary scientists is proposing sweeping changes to the Bush administration’s Vision for Space Exploration that would replace a human return to the moon with manned missions to asteroids and other locations much farther from Earth.
POSTED LOSS: Intelsat reported a 10 percent jump in revenues to $1.75 billion for the first nine months of this year and an 11 percent rise in adjusted EBITDA to $1.4 billion. The company’s fill rate rose to 83 percent, from 80 percent, and contract backlog grew to a record $8.7 billion. However, the company suffered a $673.9 billion net loss for the period.
PARIS – France has dispatched its SDTI tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to Afghanistan as part of a buildup intended to enhance force protection in the Afghan theater following an August attack that killed 10 French peacekeepers. The UAV detachment, derived from the Sagem Sperwer, consists of a single system and 10 air vehicles. It arrived on Oct. 8 and the next day performed an operational mission in support of Afghan forces alongside a Predator UAV and French Gazelle and Caraval helicopters.
President-elect Barack Obama’s transition organization has named two former Clinton administration Defense Department officials to head the Obama Pentagon agency review team. On Nov. 12, the Obama transition team tapped John P. White, chair of the Middle East Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Michele A. Flournoy, president and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to image the star Fomalhaut believe they have captured the first extra-solar planet ever detected directly in visible light. A separate near-infrared image collected with the Keck and Gemini telescopes in Hawaii directly revealed what are believed to be three more planets in the extra-solar system surrounding the star HR8799, 140 light years distant.
FIGHTING PIRACY: The European Union (EU) has approved the deployment of a naval task force to combat growing piracy in the waters off Somalia. The force, code-named Atalante, will be led by Great Britain and is to be ready for departure by early December. It will include four to six vessels backed up by three or four maritime patrol aircraft. The mission – the first naval expedition organized by the EU – is expected to pave the way for more ambitious EU naval undertakings, notably a joint carrier group agreed to in principle Nov.
