Repairs to the damaged flame trench on Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) shouldn’t delay the planned Oct. 8 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, but it remains an open question what effect the condition of the twin Apollo-era KSC launch pads will have on the Ares launchers under development to replace the shuttle.
Northrop Grumman is giving the Shepherding Spacecraft for NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) its final checkout, after completing thermal vacuum testing of the fast-track hardware some two months early. Based on the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter, known as an ESPA ring, LCROSS will be ready to fly to the moon as a piggyback payload on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) just 25 months after the contract was awarded.
The U.S. Army’s chief of staff, Gen. George Casey, briefed Defense Secretary Robert Gates June 25 about a substantial change in fielding the first set of Future Combat Systems (FCS) “spinout” capabilities. DOD sources tell Aerospace DAILY that the time frame for fielding Spinout 1 equipment has not changed, but different Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) will now receive those capabilities.
PRESIDENTIAL SQUEEZE: The next U.S. president’s first opportunity to wield full budgetary power will be in the fiscal 2011 budget – and even then, the chief executive and commander in chief will have only two budget cycles before being preoccupied with re-election, according to information technology consultants at Input in Reston, Va. “Contractors could still see changes in priorities and funding allocation once the new leadership teams are in place,” said senior analyst Deniece Peterson. But White House transitions are always nebulous.
The recently revealed $1.1 billion in additional costs for the troubled NPOESS program is an estimate of its out-year operations and maintenance expenses that was purposely not considered in previous estimates of the total price tag, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is leading the development of the NPOESS (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) civil/military weather satellite constellation in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force and NASA. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor.
Cyber attackers have become so proficient in their missions that they are forcing the U.S. military, government and industry to rethink the way they look at defending their information and operations, according to Bill Neugent, chief engineer for information security at MITRE. “There’s been a real shift from information assurance to mission assurance,” Neugent said June 25 after a briefing he gave at the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement’s Cyber Security for Defense conference in Arlington, Va.
NEW DELHI – EADS Military Aircraft is expected to offer consultation services for India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) as part of the 50 percent offsets required in the country’s Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) procurement, for which the company is offering its Eurofighter Typhoon. EADS says its Mako High Energy Advanced Trainer (HEAT) shares commonality with India’s LCA, for which India is seeking international help. The program was launched 25 years ago to replace India’s aging MiG-21s as the air force’s primary multirole tactical fighter.
NO ASAT PROGRAM: There is no program of record – yet – for the U.S. military to pursue an air-launched anti-satellite missile despite a preliminary, successful test performed earlier this year, according to the Missile Defense Agency’s chief. “We do not have any robust program in place,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering told a Capitol Hill breakfast audience recently. Still, Obering – who retires this fall – volunteered information over the “functional demonstration” as part of a litany of purported progress that MDA has achieved in recent years.
Boeing would have had a reasonable chance of winning the hotly contested U.S. Air Force refueling tanker program had the service followed its own procurement guidelines, according to the findings of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO, Congress’ auditing arm, released an abbreviated assessment June 18 of its review of Boeing’s March 11 protest to the KC-45A award (Aerospace DAILY, June 19). On June 25 a redacted version of the agency’s findings was released in a 67-page document.
ASTRONAUT DEADLINE: NASA’s application deadline for the 2009 Astronaut Candidate Class is July 1. To be considered, a bachelor’s degree in engineering, science or math and three years of relevant professional experience are required, the agency says. After a six-month evaluation period, NASA will announce final selections in early 2009. Astronaut candidates will report to Johnson Space Center in Houston during the summer of 2009 to begin their basic training program.
PRESIDENTIAL LIFT: The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ VH-71 presidential helicopter program “anticipates achieving several more significant milestones this year” now that all five of the initial aircraft are delivered, program officials said June 25. The program’s future was uncertain early this year after it encountered development, production and so-called concurrency concerns, which led to a dramatic restructuring (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 26, March 17).
Swedish company Saab says that Europe is “lagging at least five years behind the U.S.” in developing products to protect civil aircraft against the threat from man-portable air-defense missiles (MANPADS). Yet an industry team formed by Swedish-South African Saab Avitronics and Chemring U.K. has now signed up the first two customers for their Camps-100 civil aircraft missile protection system.
CHINESE MENU: Growing Chinese military capability increasingly puts U.S. forces in the region at risk, if only because it is unclear why China is ramping up, while military improvements could lead Chinese leaders to become more confident in pursuing confrontations, according to two U.S. Defense Department officials. “What does the party leadership intend to do with its increasing capability,” asks James Shinn, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs. He and Air Force Maj. Gen.
A $19.2 billion NASA authorization bill for fiscal 2009 adopted by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee June 24 tracks in its major points a bipartisan bill adopted by the House as a space exploration “blueprint” for the next presidential administration.
The U.S. Navy shipbuilding plan fails to guarantee a 313-ship fleet over the long term, Congressional Research Service (CRS) naval affairs specialist Ronald O’Rourke reiterated in a recent report.
The Royal Australian Air Force has flown the first production F/A-18 installed with a new radar warning receiver (RWR), putting crews closer to receiving the long-delayed capability. The F/A-18s are being fitted with the Raytheon ALR-67(V)3 system after efforts to use a BAE Systems device (the ALR-2002) failed because of development problems. This time, the Australian defense ministry says “the project is within budget and on track.” The country’s fleet is to be upgraded by 2012.
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Sweden has sketched out how it plans to go about procuring a new armored personnel carrier (APC), now that the SEP development program has been scrapped. The Swedish defense procurement agency, FMV, is still crafting detailed plans, but for now the goal is to buy an off-the-shelf system, with a quantity of around 150-300 units. Several variants of the vehicle would be needed, including a basic APC, ambulance model, recovery vehicle, command and control system, and repair vehicle.
Sensis Corporation and Saab Microwave Systems have entered a cooperative agreement for Sensis to sell and support Saab’s Giraffe Agile Multi-Beam (AMB) radar to the U.S. military. The Giraffe AMB is a multimission 3-D radar system capable of surveillance, military air traffic control and 360-degree ballistic weapon tracking and locating. The radar is available in land-based and maritime versions, and is tailored for operations with medium- and short-range surface-to-air missile systems.
NASA planners have tentatively added an engine to its planned Ares V moon rocket, and increased the length of its shuttle-derived solid-rocket boosters to accommodate a larger hydrogen tank, as early work on lunar surface operations gets under way.
IAI PARTNERS: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is to form a joint venture with Brazilian conglomerate Synergy Group to offer aerospace and defense products and provide commercial aviation services in the Latin American market. The venture will offer unmanned aerial vehicles, missile systems, radars, electronic warfare and intelligence systems. Synergy has interests in aviation, oil and gas production, power generation and construction, and owns Colombian airline Avianca.
SKY-SAILOR: An unmanned aircraft designed to evaluate the feasibility of continuous solar-powered flight on Mars has completed a 27-hour flight from an airfield in Nierderwil, Switzerland. The 10.5-foot wingspan Sky-Sailor prototype UAV flew through the night using a battery, which was then fully recharged using solar energy, demonstrating the capability for continuous flight, according to its builder, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. Design of the Sky-Sailor was started under a European Space Agency study for a Mars flyer.
