The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, now 44 months into what were to have been three-month missions, are beginning to explore terrain features strikingly different from their already diverse discoveries on Mars. Opportunity has descended several dozen feet onto the side wall of the 230-foot deep Victoria crater to a bright band of unusually smooth and polished white rock.
GAIA COMPUTERS: Maxwell Technologies of San Diego will provide the single-board computers (SBC) for the European Space Agency's Gaia astronomy mission to survey more than a billion stars and other celestial bodies in the Milky Way under a $3 million contract from the Astrium's UK-based satellite unit. Seven Maxwell SCS750 SBCs will be used to process images collected by the two-ton satellite's camera. Gaia is to be launched in December 2011 into an orbit at the second Lagrange point, 932,000 miles away on the "night side" of Earth.
LOGISTICS SUPPORT: The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman $331 million to provide logistical support services to the National Training Center and Fort Irwin, Calif., for annual programmed training, multiple joint services training exercises and unprogrammed support requirements, the company announced Oct. 3. The contract covers five years, four of which are options. Northrop Grumman has provided logistical support services to the National Training Center and Fort Irwin since 2001.
Bob Cabana has left his deputy director's post to take over as director of Stennis Space Center, Miss. Richard Gilbrech has been named associate administrator for exploration systems at NASA headquarters.
The Israeli air force has again confounded Syria's radar barrier, with what U.S. experts contend is a new technology that allowed its aircraft to infiltrate Syrian air defense communications networks and hide their presence during a bombing raid in Syria's northern desert last month.
Morocco may be preparing to jettison a bilateral fighter deal involving France and perhaps move to an international order, as India did a couple of years ago. French daily Les Echos says the U.S. is weighing in on a foreign arms export deal to sell Morocco up to 24 Lockheed Martin F-16s. The deal could be worth $2.1 billion for new aircraft, or $1.6 billion if they are bought second hand. The French have been negotiating to supply 18 Dassault Aviation Rafale combat aircraft for some 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion).
RRW REPORT: The Mitre Corp.'s JASONs, a group of scientists who advise the government on defense matters, has recommended more study, computer modeling and peer review of the proposed Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) design and concept. Substantial work remains on the physical understanding of the "surety mechanisms" that are of high priority to the RRW program, according to the group's September report summary.
Wayne Iurillo has been appointed vice president and general manager of Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC's Indianapolis-based Customized Engineering and Depot Support business unit. Les Janka has been named vice president, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Network Centric Systems operations. Dr. Thomas Kennedy has been appointed vice president of the Tactical Airborne Systems organization.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has delayed a controversial program to share classified satellite imagery with nonfederal agencies, including local law enforcement, according to a House oversight committee. DHS heeded congressional concerns and delayed its planned launch of the new National Applications Office (NAO), House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement Oct. 1, the same day the NAO was to start work.
TRIDENT SUPPORT: L-3's Interstate Electronics Corp. in Anaheim, Calif., is receiving a $59.6 million cost- plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for specialized technical engineering services to operate, maintain and repair Trident II D5 Test Instrumentation subsystems, spares and related support equipment. Work will be performed in Anaheim, Calif., and should be completed in May 2009.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) feels enough confidence from last week's successful test of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) System to shift focus for the next flight-test to include countermeasures.
Daniel Gillian has been named director of enterprise sourcing for India. He will be based in New Delhi. Edward M. Liddy has been elected to the board of directors.
COMMERCIAL REFUELING: The Senate's fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, passed late Oct. 1, includes a provision for an Air Force pilot program to study the feasibility and advisability of commercial fee-for-services air refueling. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) members said they were concerned about the military's ability to meet air refueling requirements in the immediate future. "At a time of historically low readiness levels, the Air Force cannot afford further degradation in air refueling capacity," the panel said in its report accompanying the bill.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has approved the next phase of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system, which it is co-funding with the European Commission. Confirming the enthusiasm they showed when GMES was kicked off in late 2005, the ESA member states pledged 500 million euros ($700 million) - 16 percent more than requested - for the so-called Phase 2 Segment 1 phase, which covers development of the first three dedicated Sentinel GMES spacecraft and their related ground segment.
The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle is finally nearing its weight targets, with the design team taking a bottoms up approach to trimming weight, informed by new thinking about redundancy in safety and mission-critical systems, according to NASA Project Manager Skip Hatfield. Going into its most recent round of redesigns, the Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft was still about 5,000 pounds over its target weight of 25 tons. That target provides a 25 percent margin for growth allowances and management reserve (DAILY, May 21).
German industry officials say the German air force is looking at a data relay satellite capability to permit operational electronic intelligence (elint) to be quickly downloaded from its planned fleet of Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. The capability could be provided either by a dedicated small satellite or a shared system like that proposed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
DEFENSE BILLS: The Senate late Oct. 1 passed it fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill and on Oct. 2 started debating its related appropriations bill. The progress allows the chamber to go to congressional conference with the House over the policy bill and move closer to providing regular funding for the military. Meanwhile, the Defense Department and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere remain funded by the recently passed continuing resolution through at least Nov. 16.
U.S. Air Force laboratories lack adequate control over certain contracting steps and oversight, according to the DOD Office of the Inspector General (IG). The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans and executes the service's science and technology program budget, which was $2.4 billion in fiscal 2006. The IG reviewed 20 contracts valued at more than $828 million.
