The crew of space shuttle Endeavour should be safe to return to Earth with a divot extending across two belly tiles in the orbiter's thermal protection system, but NASA engineers still may call for an in-orbit repair job to avoid a long turnaround delay on the ground.
Spacewalkers Rick Mastracchio and Dave Williams replaced a control moment gyro (CMG) on the International Space Station (ISS) Aug. 13, moving steadily through their second well-rehearsed extravehicular activity (EVA) on the STS-118/13A.1 ISS assembly mission. The pair has completed the primary assembly and maintenance tasks for the mission. On Aug. 11 Mastracchio and Williams went outside to guide a 5-foot section of the starboard truss into place and bolt it down.
AEGIS RADAR: Lockheed Martin has won a $34 million, sole-source contract for logistics support of the Aegis SPY-1 radar weapon system. The contract includes a 3-year base period plus two 1-year option periods, which, if exercised, bring the total estimated value of the contract to $59.6 million. Work will be completed by August 2010.
A new RAND Corp. study calls for carving out 9,000 Army National Guard soldiers to form 10 homeland security (HLS) specific task forces, including training and equipping, ahead of the next major natural disaster or domestic terrorist attack. RAND researchers Lynn Davis and others suggest the Guard formally be given the federal HLS mission, as with military counter-drug operations, and to stand up the 10 units as regional response forces.
President Bush signed the America COMPETES Act into law Aug. 9 in a rare White House ceremony but foreshadowed conflict over matching appropriations with the authorizing legislation. The president maintained that COMPETES supports many of the key elements of his American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), which he introduced in his 2006 State of the Union speech, and said that is why he enacted the bill. Yet Bush hinted at continued friction between his ACI budget requests and the authorization measure.
After a long lobbying campaign, Raytheon apparently has succeeded in getting defense officials to try out its long-range, land-based, wide-area surveillance system for aircraft and ships. The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center is awarding Raytheon an estimated $72.7 million more for hardware engineering and a demonstration of the supposed homeland security capabilities of a Relocatable Over the Horizon Radar (ROTHR) Two-dimensional Receive Antenna Array, the Pentagon announced Aug. 9.
Boeing announced Aug. 10 an $18 million contract award from the U.S. Navy to design, develop and produce the Undergraduate Military Flight Officer (UMFO) ground-based training system for Training Wing 6 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. The first instrument flight trainer will be ready in September 2008. The UMFO system comprises simulators, instrument and operation flight trainers, and interactive courses, which present highly capable simulations in an electronic classroom.
Mission managers have cleared the space shuttle Endeavour to remain docked to the International Space Station (ISS) three extra days, after new hardware that lets the orbiter draw power from the station's solar arrays proved itself. The crews were notified Aug. 12, shortly after finishing a focused inspection of thermal-tile damage on the orbiter's belly, that the SSPTS met engineering expectations and could supplement the orbiter fuel cells sufficiently to slow consumption of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen they use to make electricity.
TAIWAN HARPOONS: The U.S. is eyeing a sale of Harpoon missiles and related equipment to Taiwan. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States has requested an estimated $125 million sale of 60 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II missiles, 2 Harpoon guidance control units, 30 Harpoon containers, 30 Harpoon extended air-launch lugs, and 40 Harpoon upgrade kits from AGM-84G to AGM-84 L configuration.
Following a trajectory maneuver Aug. 10, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is on a more direct course to Mars. The spacecraft is traveling at 74,200 mph relative to the sun after departing Earth Aug. 4 at 6.8 miles per second onboard the third stage of a NASA/United Launch Alliance Delta II.
NASA is giving astrophysicists a chance to refine proposals to use the moon as a base for advanced research in their field once humans return there. The agency, which hopes to start building a lunar base after 2020, will fund concept studies of experiments on the moon designed to test Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, study x-rays produced by solar wind, and advance understanding of the early structure of the universe.
NASA is pondering whether the next space shuttle mission in October should be delayed for modifications to thwart a new external tank (ET) debris threat, following the discovery of a serious tile divot on Endeavour. The STS-118 crew conducted a focused inspection of the belly tile damage Aug. 12 using laser imaging sensors on the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS). The key area of concern is a damaged area extending 3.48 x 2.31 inches and spanning two tiles.
DAGR ORDER: The U.S. Air Force's Global Positioning Systems Wing is ordering 43,093 Defense Advanced GPS Receivers (DAGRs) and accessories from Rockwell Collins for $100.76 million, according to a Pentagon announcement Aug. 10. The DAGRs will provide the U.S. military, Australia, Canada, France and Germany with GPS User Equipment, including a precise-positioning system and hand-held, dual-frequency (l1/L2), lightweight receiver (less than one pound) that incorporates the tamper-resistant GPS Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module Security module.
The Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne recently visited the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Joint Program Executive Office in San Diego to discuss the delayed and overbudget software radio effort.
SPLITTING THE BABY: Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman continue to try to differentiate themselves over Deepwater work under the Coast Guard's embattled recapitalization program. The two companies, once simpatico under the Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) regime, increasingly churn out separate press announcements and use corporate-identifying language now that the end of ICGS as lead systems integrator is a fate accompli under Coast Guard plans and congressional mandates.
ISS RESUPPLY: U.S. industry has until Sept. 7 to make suggestions to NASA's spaceflight operators as they plan agency strategy for purchasing International Space Station resupply services once the space shuttle fleet is grounded for good in 2010. An Aug. 7 request for information wants industry data on cargo missions carrying 2,000-3,000 kilograms to the station, with downmass capability and concepts for rendezvous, proximity operations and docked activities.
NEW FUEL: The B-52H can now fly with a new 50-50 blend of JP-8 and domestically produced synthetic kerosene fuel that was approved by Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne Aug. 8 following a 16-month testing and demonstration period. Wynne says researchers are satisfied with the performance of synthetic fuel produced under the Fischer-Tropsch process, and the U.S. is looking forward to research into alternative sources for synthetic fuel and development of a clean coal-to-liquid Fischer-Tropsch process as well. The C-17 is next in line for fuel blend certification.
