President Bush’s plan to reduce troop levels in Iraq over the next six months isn’t enough to begin rebuilding U.S. military readiness and provide additional forces needed in Afghanistan, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Sept. 9. Bush announced earlier in the day that he planned to cut troops deployed to Iraq by 8,000 by February 2009.
The biggest risk to the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis during next month’s mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope will come from micrometeoroid/orbital debris (MMOD) instead of the falling insulation that doomed the shuttle Columbia and has been the main concern with subsequent shuttle flights.
Supporters of the U.S. Army’s Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) concept have appealed to Congress to reverse a decision that jeopardizes fledgling multiservice efforts to develop a new battlefield airlifter. Proponents have asked House Armed Services Committee and defense appropriations subcommittee leaders to reconsider their decision to deny the Army’s request to reprogram $11.5 million in fiscal 2008 funding to provide its contribution to the definition and risk reduction of candidate aircraft for JHL (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 27).
French armaments agency DGA has issued a 1.5 million euro ($2 million) contract to EADS Astrium and Thales to operate France’s Essaim signals intelligence (SIGINT) demonstrator for another 18 months. The extension aims to provide continued availability of SIGINT data, which is used for operational as well as experimental use, until a more advanced electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) demonstration cluster is launched in mid-2010. Operation of the four Essaim spacecraft, orbited 44 months ago for a nominal 36-month mission, has already been extended once.
GeoEye-1, the commercial industry’s highest resolution satellite, is in its calibration and checkout phase after a successful launch on a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Sept. 6. GeoEye Chief Executive Matthew O’Connell said the company’s ground station in Tromso, Norway, made contact with the 4,310-pound satellite about 1 hour, 40 minutes after the 11:50 a.m. liftoff.
NASA’s space shuttle program can continue to fly beyond its current scheduled retirement date at the end of 2010, probably with only a minimal effect on development of the first of its follow-on U.S. human spaceflight vehicles, if Congress appropriates enough money for both activities, NASA’s shuttle manager says. “What I would tell you is we haven’t reached the point yet of no return,” John Shannon, NASA’s space shuttle program manager, said Sept. 8.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a contract with United Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney, of East Hartford, Conn., for $30,042,543. The contract will exercise an option for three combined test force engines. The location of performance is United Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney, East Hartford. At this time $30,042,543 has been obligated. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8611-06-C-2900). NAVY
HAWKS WORK: Sikorsky has flown the first helicopter from its Hawk Works military derivatives completion center at Schweizer Aircraft in Horseheads, N.Y. The new S-70B Naval Hawk will be delivered to an international customer in the first quarter of 2009. To avoid disrupting production of baseline UH-60Ms and MH-60R/Ss for U.S. military customers, Sikorsky set up the Hawk Works to complete any helicopters requiring customized configurations. In addition to the S-70Bs, UH-60Ls and MH-60Ss are being completed at the site.
The Pentagon’s Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) has validated Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) proposals for fiscal 2009, introducing a new set of opportunities for fast fielding of joint projects and new technology. Included in the list is an unmanned airship called Persius, with an integrated sensor and communication relay payload for persistent and responsive theater support. The Joint Recovery and Distribution Systems is a common vehicle for cargo distribution, as well as recovery of disabled joint forces’ vehicles.
The U.S. Air Force has decided to pull the financial plug on a mobile command-and-control system conceived as an offshoot of a program meant to marry FAA and NORAD radars to prevent terrorists from completing another 9/11-type attack, sources say.
Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has ended a flawless inaugural mission at the International Space Station (ISS) with a successful undocking from the orbital facility. The maneuver, completed at 11:29 p.m. European Central Standard Time Sept. 5, began with a series of preliminary tasks the day before. Once these tasks were performed, the ATV hooks opened, detaching the vehicle from the ISS with a spring mechanism that pushed it slowly away.
Scientists are beginning to cull information from a small asteroid, 2867 Steins, following a close flyby by Europe’s Rosetta comet chaser on Sept. 5 that brought the probe to within 800 kilometers (500 miles) of its target object and allowed it to be viewed with its Osiris wide-angle optical camera.
The U.S. Navy has begun buying the next-generation commercial satellite communications terminals to augment its Military Satellite Communications, representing a potential tenfold increase in at-sea data throughput.
PARIS – Launch of Europe’s Goce gravity field and ocean circulation explorer, scheduled last week on a Russian Rocket booster, has been delayed until Oct. 5. The European Space Agency (ESA) said the delay was caused by an anomaly in the guidance and navigation subsystem (GNS) of the rocket’s Breeze KM upper stage that will require one of the units in the GNS to be replaced.
LIGHT FANTASTIC: Rockwell Collins will demonstrate new emissive micro-displays (EMDs) with the ability to generate dynamic three-dimensional holographic images under an $8.4 million U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract. Unlike LCDs, EMDs do not need a backlight, and consume less power. The program goal is to develop EMDs with high brightness and long lifetime, at low cost. Potential technologies include field-emission and organic light-emitting diode displays.
ARMY AM General LLC, South Bend, Ind., was awarded on Sept. 3, 2008, a $76,029,475 firm/fixed price contract for the purchase of 560 M1152A1B2 High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles. The work will be performed in Mishawaka, Ind., with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2009. One bid was solicited and one bid was received. TACOM Warren, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001).
Space shuttle managers have moved back the next two launches by two days each to accommodate delays forced by Tropical Storm Hanna this week, and they don’t expect Hurricane Ike to change that tentative schedule even if it forces a rollback of the shuttle already on the pad.
THALES STAKE: The replacement of Alcatel-Lucent’s CEO, Pat Russo, by Ben Verwaayen is prompting new rumors that Alcatel-Lucent’s 21 percent share in aerospace and defense contractor Thales may end up on the block. Although Chairman Philippe Camus, who replaced Serge Tchuruk, says such a sale “is not on the table,” the 1.65 billion euro ($2.5 billion) stake may be too valuable to hang on to for the troubled telecom manufacturer, analysts say.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Sept. 9 - 10 — 2008 Homeland Security Symposium & Exhibition, “New Directions in Homeland Security,” Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/8490
BEIJING — The U.S. is renewing space cooperation negotiations with China, including top-level talks aimed at the formation of a potential landmark “long-term and stable mechanism for aerospace cooperation” between the American and Chinese space programs. The reinitiation of space cooperation talks after a two-year hiatus comes at the same time the Chinese are poised for a manned space spectacular and the kickoff of the country’s first optical/radar satellite constellation.
PICKING UP ELINT: Britain is nearing a decision on how to replace its primary manned electronic intelligence (ELINT) platform, the BAE Systems Nimrod R1, with three options in consideration: acquisition of the U.S. RC-135 Rivet Joint, refitting the present R1 aircraft with an improved payload or using the Nimrod MRA4 airframe as the basis for its ELINT aircraft.
