PARIS – The Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has shown its ability to reboost the International Space Station (ISS) – one of the three critical station functions the European freighter is designed to perform. The ATV space tug docked with the ISS for the first time on April 3 carrying 1,150 kilograms (2,540 pounds) of dry cargo plus a large supply of water, oxygen and fuel.
Subscribers, profits and revenue were all up markedly in the first quarter for satellite services provider Iridium, which ended the first quarter on March 31 with revenues of $74.3 million, a 41 percent increase over $52.7 million in the same period last year. The company also has broken through the quarter-million subscribers milepost, up 37 percent over 183,000 at this time last year. Matt Desch, chairman and CEO, said the results make Iridium “the fastest growing and second largest mobile satellite services company in the world.”
BEIJING – China is beginning the geosynchronous orbit checkout of its first relay satellite to increase communications coverage for manned Shenzhou spacecraft. The relay program is analogous to the U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system and indicates that China is installing major infrastructure for long-term manned space operations. The Tianlian I spacecraft was launched from the Xichang space center April 25 onboard a Long March 3C booster.
The Australian Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT), the first developmental Airbus A330-based tanker, has been grounded since March while receiving new parts for its refueling boom system. The MRTT also is receiving some production configuration equipment, such as the remote air refueling station and other mission systems, during this time on the ground. This follows what Northrop Grumman officials say was the first phase of MRTT flight-test last year and this year.
Anticipating a glut of flight requests from prospective commercial operators of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the next several years, FAA has assembled a rulemaking committee to develop regulations for their use. The charter for the committee is signed and the group’s first meeting is scheduled for next month, according to Doug Davis, head of FAA’s UAS program office. The committee’s goal will be to develop draft policies for the commercial use of UAS below a specified weight, speed and/or altitude.
SAY WHAT: Northrop Grumman, as part of the Global Linguistic Solutions (GLS) team, was awarded a subcontract to provide management of translation and interpretation services for the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The GLS teams also includes 11 other subcontractors, and will employ about 7,000 locally hired Iraqi citizens and more than 2,000 U.S. citizens as interpreters. The Interpreter and Translator Management Services-Iraq subcontract has a potential value of $135 million over five years.
Raytheon will produce and install upgrade kits for the U.S. Army’s Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical Terminal (SMART-T) under an $86.7 million contract, the company announced April 28. SMART-T is designed to communicate with DOD’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellites. Raytheon’s upgrades will be installed on joint and international terminals for the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps as well as for Canada and the Netherlands.
LINKOPING, Sweden – Sweden’s Gripen Demo prototype, unveiled here last week, is designed to fill two roles, according to company executives. It is an aerodynamic and propulsion prototype for a Gripen Next-Generation (NG) design, being offered to Norway, Denmark and other customers, for deliveries in 2015 or later.
Top Pentagon leaders recently have made genuine progress in adopting necessary acquisition policy reforms, according to a congressional investigator, but they continue to battle an ingrained community and Congress still may have to consider massive overhaul legislation.
BOOMING SPENDING: When all potential defense-related costs are considered, the Bush administration’s fiscal 2009 defense budget may represent close to 5 percent of gross domestic product, according to consultancy Forecast International. Although the administration listed $515 billion in its noncombat-oriented baseline request, tens of billions of dollars more are expected through supplemental appropriations across the Defense Department, and the armed services have outlined an additional $30 billion or so in requirements not provided in President Bush’s budget.
An industry-academic team from California is claiming what it believes is the first successful flight of a liquid oxygen (LOX)-methane powered rocket engine. The milestone was achieved on April 12, when the Garvey Spacecraft Corporation (GSC) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)-developed Prospector 14LM (P-14LM) reached an altitude of 5,500 feet after launching from a test site near Mojave, Calif.
The U.S. Army has opened an indefinite delivery and quantity contact with Alloy Surfaces Co. Inc. so it can purchase up to $348 million worth of the M211 special material decoy countermeasure that is protecting fixed and rotary wing aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan.
TANKS LOT: Rockwell Collins announced the completed delivery of the first 505 Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) for the Tank Urban Survivability Kit (TUSK) program. TUSK is part of an upgrade designed for M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams tank crews. As part of the TUSK upgrade program, Rockwell Collins will provide the HMD for the Loaders Thermal Weapon Sight (LTWS). The same HMD fielded for the Land Warrior and Mounted Warrior Soldier System (MWSS) program is being used as a remote viewer LTWS.
Congressional Democrats have moved to widen their battle with the Bush administration over soaring oil prices, and are issuing new threats to OPEC producers and oil companies that they are prepared to take retaliatory action over sky-high prices by using Foreign Military Sales as leverage.
CHEAP SPACE: Two years after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) first reported on DOD’s operationally responsive space (ORS) efforts, a new report found numerous challenges remain. The Defense Department has made progress, including providing Congress with an organizational plan, launching one of its TacSat satellites and developing interface standards for satellite buses. But GAO still found the department wanting. “Achieving success in ORS will be challenging,” the April report said.
A surge of defense-oriented acquisition reform legislation on Capitol Hill has opponents and supporters fighting a war of words ahead of the next battlefield, the Senate, while federal regulators move to make changes of their own. The House of Representatives has approved the so-called Contractors and Federal Spending Accountability Act of 2007 (H.R. 3033), the Close the Contractor Fraud Loophole Act (H.R. 5712), the Government Contractor Accountability Act of 2007 (H.R. 3928) and Contracting and Tax Accountability Act of 2008 (H.R. 4881).
If congressional opponents of the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award its KC-X aerial refueling tanker program to a Northrop Grumman-EADS team get their criticism written into law, it could become the greatest earmark in modern times.
The draft future airlift study plan released last month by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) lacks requisite detail, the Government Accountability said April 28, precluding GAO from conducting a full analysis.
