The Pentagon says it will wait for the results of the upcoming SpaceX demonstration scheduled later this month for the company's Falcon 1 rocket before cementing a launch date for the TacSat-1 spacecraft on the vehicle. The Office of Naval Research/Naval Research Laboratory (ONR/NRL) is the spacecraft owner and makes the decisions on launch changes. The U.S. Air Force holds and maintains the contracts, and service officials say they are concerned about launch reliability.
The security ambitions of some members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are not matched by their political will or funding commitments, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander told House lawmakers March 15. While NATO requires that members spend 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on their militaries, only six countries out of 26 do so, and "the trends are negative," Gen. Bantz Craddock said.
Democratic leaders of the House Committee on Science and Technology criticized NASA's fiscal 2008 budget request during a hearing on Capitol Hill March 15, saying the White House has consistently failed to request enough money for the agency over the past few years. "I'm afraid that NASA is headed for a train wreck if things don't change," Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) said. "There are certain challenges that NASA is facing as a result of the FY '07 Joint Resolution, but the agency's budgetary problems run much deeper."
RANGEFINDERS: Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded a $20 million contract to provide the U.S. Army with more than 500 Eyesafe Laser Rangefinders (ELRF) for its M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks, the company said March 15. The ELRF allows tank gunners to determine target ranges in all types of battlefield conditions and provides a safe way for U.S. forces to train against each other, the company said.
The House on March 15 overwhelmingly passed an acquisition reform bill that seeks greater competition and safeguards in federal acquisition, especially against perceived problems in the defense realm. The legislation was spurred by Iraq-related awards of major Pentagon programs.
The Mastiff, the newest armored vehicle British forces are using to patrol in Iraq, was reviewed by Defense Minister Paul Drayson during a recent visit to Basra, the U.K. Defense Ministry said. The 27-ton vehicles were purchased, upgraded with special equipment and delivered to Iraq in December 2006. Following training, British troops recently started patrolling with them, the defense ministry said in a news release.
Donald E. Felsinger has been named to the board of directors. Felsinger is chairman and chief executive officer of Sempra Energy. Linda A. Mills has been named to oversee federal government information technology initiatives. James Palmer has been appointed chief financial officer.
Chris Cyr has been named executive vice president for Airlines Americas for the Civil Aerospace Airlines business. Dave Whetton is being replaced by Cyr.
John Balaguer has been named vice president and general manager of customized engineering and depot support in Indianapolis David Dacquino has been appointed vice president and general manager of Integrated Support Solutions headquartered in Burlington, Mass. Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek (USA Ret.) has been named president of Raytheon Middle East/North Africa/Pakistan for Raytheon International Inc.
Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.), chairman of the newly revived House Armed Services investigations subcommittee, says he plans to leave Congress this summer if he is appointed chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. "If my nomination is approved by the [university] trustees, I plan to accept the position and to leave Congress in July," Meehan said in a statement March 13.
The top U.S. Army general on March 14 defended the service's own development and acquisition authority over unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the face of a purported Air Force effort to exert a lead role in medium- and high-altitude UAVs. The potential interservice spat spilled over into a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing over Army budget requests, with senators expressing opposing viewpoints.
Space shuttle managers are hopeful the hail-damaged external tank attached to Atlantis can be repaired at Kennedy Space Center, following two weeks of work inspecting and starting to fix some 7,000 dents and divots in the tank's delicate insulating foam. The Atlantis stack was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building after the Feb. 26 storm, which scotched any chance of meeting the March 15 launch date for the STS-117 mission to continue International Space Station Assembly.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin believes the U.S. spent enough on space travel in the 50 years since Sputnik 1 to land humans on Mars, and can carry out three more Apollo-level exploration efforts in the 50 years ahead without a real funding increase.
Preliminary estimates from NASA put the cost of a space probe to explore Jupiter's moon Europa at $2 billion to $4 billion, Acting Administrator for Science Colleen Hartman told House appropriators March 14. The estimate comes from an ongoing survey of potential outer planetary exploration missions that NASA expects to complete by the end of the summer. Other destinations under review include Jupiter's moon Ganymede and the Saturnian moons Enceladus and Titan.
