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.
GREAT ESCAPE: The U.S. Army has awarded BAE Systems a $17 million contract for 4,702 Vehicle Emergency Escape (VEE) Window kits. The kits will be used on the Humvee, allowing soldiers to quickly exit the vehicle in the event of an emergency by releasing and pushing the front window out in seconds. More than 3,000 VEE kits already have been shipped to the Army for up-armored M1114 and M1151 Humvees.
SAN DIEGO – Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is declaring a philosophical call to arms to the Western aerospace and defense (A&D) industry, saying uncertainties spurred by change of political control in Washington and worldwide concerns like ongoing Asian wars and financial crises provide an opportunity for businesses to make good on long-sought reforms.
FAST FORWARD: Lockheed Martin’s preproduction F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), AA1, achieved supersonic flight for the first time Nov. 13, according to Dan Crowley, the company’s JSF vice president. The aircraft reached 1.05 Mach during its sixty-ninth flight, which lasted 58 minutes. This brings the flight-hour tally to 95.5 on the aircraft, which is representative of the conventional takeoff and landing variant.
Northrop Grumman has introduced the first ruggedized high-power solid-state laser designed for operation on the battlefield – the modular Firestrike laser, intended for use in a range of ground-, sea- and air-based weapons. Previous high-power electric lasers have been designed for laboratory testing. “Firestrike will enable the application of solid-state lasers to a broad set of military applications,” says Dan Wildt, vice president of directed-energy systems for Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector.
Iran has flight-tested a Ghadr-110/Samen/Sejjil solid propellant ballistic missile with a range of 1,200 miles. According to an analysis of photographs, the rocket uses two solid propellant rocket motor stages, each about 1.35 meters in diameter. The first stage uses steering vanes mounted in the rocket nozzle, a technique that goes all the way back to the German V-2.
THIRD TEST: French armaments agency DGA has successfully test-fired the new M51 ballistic nuclear missile for the third time from an underwater silo at the ballistic test range in southwestern France. The missile, built by EADS Astrium and Snecma/SNCPE joint venture G2P, is to be deployed aboard the Terrible nuclear-powered submarine in 2010, replacing aging M45s.
The U.S Navy is borrowing a page from the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) playbook, integrating four FCS Non-Line of Sight Launch Systems (NLOS-LS) on the deck of its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – In an old paint hangar here, NASA’s Ames Research Center has its Hover Test Vehicle (HTV) encased in web safety netting as it perfects the control software that will allow the simple spacecraft to land and hop around on the lunar surface.
NORDIC LIFTERS: The Royal Norwegian Air Force took delivery of the first of four C-130Js from Lockheed Martin Nov. 12. The Super Hercules are stretch variants of the C-130J used by the U.S. Air Force. The Norwegians join a growing list of international C-130J customers including Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Italy, Qatar and the United Kingdom. A second C-130J will be delivered to the Norway air force in 2009 and the last two in 2010.
PRODUCT LIFE: Bell Helicopter has embarked on a multiyear upgrade of its product life cycle management and computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing software to meet regulatory requirements and the need to standardize its business practices across aging programs. Bell declined to give an investment figure but said it will upgrade its Dassault Systemes software tools throughout the company to include Enovia version 6 within its existing Catia V5 platform.
