The NASA Phoenix Mars lander, carrying the most ambitious laboratory hardware ever sent to another planet, is ready for launch early Aug. 4 on a mission to taste Martian water and search for the organic carbon building-blocks of life near the planet's north pole. With advanced technology from the U.S., Canada and Europe, Phoenix will conduct much more complex sample processing than was possible on the twin Viking landers in 1976.
BILL CHAMPIONED: The America COMPETES act is headed to President Bush for review following Congressional approval of the widely bipartisan effort to boost U.S. science, math, research and technology capabilities and domestic work force in light of growing competition from China and India. The Senate and House Aug. 2 ratified their negotiators' congressional compromise (DAILY, Aug. 3). The Senate agreed to the conference report by unanimous consent while the House endorsed it 367 to 57.
JCS LEADERS: The Senate Armed Services Committee Aug. 2 favorably endorsed Navy Adm. Michael Mullen for reappointment to the grade of admiral and to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as Marine Corps General James Cartwright for reappointment to the grade of general and to be vice chairman. The nominations, as well as 808 other pending military nominations in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, were immediately reported to the floor following the committee's action for Senate confirmation.
EXPORT ISSUES: The prospective F-22 sale to Japan is heating up as officials in Tokyo insist they want the best fighter there is. But they have to persuade the U.S. Congress and their own industrial leaders that the F-22, which is unlikely to be co-produced in a foreign country, is necessary for a strong missile defense, and that its acquisition outweighs any negatives.
Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has arrived at Kourou, French Guiana, after a two-week voyage from Rotterdam aboard the MN Toucan, the dedicated payload/launcher vessel operated by Arianespace. The final sections of the ATV, intended to resupply the International Space Station and periodically reboost it to higher orbit, were unloaded July 31, along with associated test equipment and rigs, and transferred to Arianespace's big S5 processing facility.
China's naval helicopter unit has learned to land on moving ships at night after trying and failing to do so for three decades. Luo Changshuang, political commissar of the shipboard air troop, says the unit is now an all-weather, multitask combat force.
ACQUISITION REFORM: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine), has forwarded to the Senate legislation Collins authored to supposedly increase accountability in federal contracting. The proposed Accountability in Government Contracting bill falls short of provisions in another acquisition reform bill proposed by high-profile Senate Democrats that has since stalled in Lieberman's committee (DAILY, Feb. 22).
Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) chief executive John Douglass believes that strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics educational programs has enjoyed new national urgency as several groups have dedicated millions of dollars to highlight the drive in next year's presidential election. AIA has led industry members in prompting Congress into "providing ample funding and devoting resources," and members have responded, Douglass said in the AIA's summer newsletter.
While the amount of classified U.S. military or "black" funding has increased through the years, the percentage compared to overall Pentagon spending remains roughly the same, according to a recent report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA).
A congressional compromise measure that aims to boost U.S. math and science education, as well as technology research, should pass both the House and Senate by the end of the week, leading lawmakers said Aug. 1. The legislation follows an almost two-year effort by lawmakers from both parties to find incentives to lure U.S. students into high-tech fields in the face of international competitors, especially India and China, similar to how the 1960s space race girded the United States against the Soviet Union.
SSME CONTRACT: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will get another $975 million to support the space shuttle main engine (SSME) until the shuttle is retired in 2010 under a contract extension announced Aug. 2. The extension of the cost-plus-award/incentive fee contract first awarded in April 2006 brings its total value to a little more than $2.05 billion. The company will maintain and refurbish the reusable SSMEs until September 2010.
The Indian government is looking at reissuing a request for proposals in the next few months for which Boeing Integrated Defense Systems' (IDS) Harpoon missile was the only proposal out of five that met requirements. The original tender for around 30 missiles is expected to be upped to 80 missiles the second time around. The Harpoon was the only missile proposed that was judged a suitable candidate to replace BAE's Sea Eagle medium weight, anti-ship missiles for its SEPECAT Jaguar aircraft.
ELV CHIEF: Giovanni Bignami, head of Italian space agency ASI, has been named to head ELV, the Avio-ASI joint venture in charge of developing Europe's Vega light launcher. Bignami, who joined ASI in April, has been spearheading a drive to launch design of a higher power version of Vega, perhaps in cooperation with Germany. ELV also confirmed Vega would make its inaugural launch in the first half of 2008, and said it is close to concluding a contract with operator Arianespace for the first 10 launch vehicles.
Northrop Grumman completed its first KC-30 tanker airframe in July, the company announced. The first KC-30, called SDD-1, was assembled in 30 days at the EADS commercial aircraft center. The proposed tanker is based on an Airbus A330/A340 airframe, and is being pitched as a replacement to the aging, and some would say ailing, KC-135 fleet currently operated by the Air Force. Boeing is also in the running for the KC-X replacement, offering its tanker version of the 767, the KC-767 Advanced Tanker.
Russia's Progress 26 robotic resupply vehicle is en route to the International Space Station after launch Aug. 2 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff of the Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress came on time at 1:34 p.m. EDT, setting up an Aug. 5 docking at the station's Pirs docking compartment using the automatic Kurs system. Progress 24, which reached the ISS in January, undocked from that spot on Aug. 1 and re-entered the atmosphere with a load of trash.
Senate authorizers are pushing for the U.S. Coast Guard to buy or build two more polar-class icebreakers, maintain the Long Range Aids to Navigation-C (LORAN-C) system and align its senior command structure with the other armed forces and create deployable force packages. The moves come as the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Aug. 2 marked up a fiscal 2008 Coast Guard authorization bill that allocated $998.07 million total for Coast Guard acquisition, including the embattled Deepwater recapitalization program.
The U.S. has spent nearly $3 billion to buy and ship equipment to Iraqi security forces, but the Pentagon cannot guarantee that it reached the forces it was meant for, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. "Since 2003, the United States has provided about $19.2 billion to develop the Iraqi security forces, including at least $2.8 billion to purchase and transport equipment to Iraqi forces," GAO says. "DOD recently requested an additional $2 billion to continue these efforts."
SBIRS TEST: Lockheed Martin said Aug. 1 that it successfully completed an end-to-end test between the space and ground elements of the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and called it a key milestone in preparation for launch and on-orbit operations of the program's first geosynchronous orbit (GEO) spacecraft. The Interim Mission Control Station Backup in Boulder, Colo., Lockheed Martin's SBIRS Auxiliary Support Center, Northrop Grumman's Satellite Payload Operational Test Station and the satellite Functional Test Assembly participated in the interface.
The Bush administration is looking to add $5.3 billion to already requested fiscal 2008 defense supplemental appropriations "to maximize production and fielding" of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, according to officials' statements and documents. The FY '08 off-budget request, sent to Capitol Hill in February with the base budget request, contained $400 million for MRAPs. But the total FY '08 requirement is now projected to be $5.8 billion, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England recently told the House Budget Committee.
