MOBILE TV: The European Commission has approved a joint venture between SES Astra and Eutelsat to jointly provide an S-band mobile TV service. The service, to use a pair of S-band transponders on Eutelsat's W2A satellite, should be fully available by 2009, but partial coverage using a ground ancillary terrestrial component network could begin next year.
SENSOR FUNDING: In a definitive nod to concerns over global climate change, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) is adding $60 million to NASA's budget for Earth Science research missions monitoring climate and weather in its fiscal 2008 spending bill, while at the same time providing funds to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for sensors on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Within that amount, $850,000 is for continued development of a successor to the Total Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS).
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 30 - Aug. 2 -- 2007 Naval S&T Partnership Conference, "The Navy After Next... Powered by Naval Research II -- Power & Energy for the Fleet and Force," Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/7200. Aug. 6 - 9 -- AUVSI's Unmmaned Systems North America 2007, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.auvsi.org.
WORKFORCE REPORTS: Though NASA has made overtures toward streamlining its workforce, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) feels it has not quite achieved its goals. The HAC is attempting to stop the agency's bloodletting by putting a moratorium on NASA's Reduction in Force, and would like to closely re-evaluate management's term appointments (versus merit-based) for civil servant positions.
The European Union (EU) and the U.S. have agreed on a final design for the common signal to be used by their new Galileo and GPS IIIA satellite navigation systems. The design permits the L1F signal on Galileo and the L1C signal on GPS IIIA to use a multiplexed binary offset carrier waveform. The waveform will make it possible to track the signals with higher accuracy. The design is the product of joint working groups set up after an initial compatibility and interoperability agreement in June 2004.
CMS AWARD: In August the U.S. Navy plans to award a contract for the system development and demonstration phase of the Countermine System (CMS), a weapon that will destroy mines in very shallow water and beaches near amphibious landing areas without requiring intervention by humans or marine mammals. CMS will use precision-guided standoff munitions to attack surface-laid and buried mines, dispensing "countermine neutralizers" that will consume the mine's explosive fill, detonate it or defuse it.
NASA DEADLINES: The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) wants NASA collaborate with the National Academies to form an independent project review committee (established under the auspices of the Space Studies Board and/or the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board) to avoid future program management problems. The HAC's version of NASA's fiscal 2008 spending bill allocates one million dollars for this effort, and the committee has requested a progress report by the end of February 2008.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2008 defense spending bill July 25 containing cuts for two Air Force space programs - the Alternative Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) III.
TANKER WORK: Northrop Grumman officials say some work on the military modifications for its first KC-30s will be handled at its Melbourne, Fla., facility where it has centered its Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar Systems work. A portion of the work also will be handled by its new facility in Mobile, Ala., where the company plans to modify production models of its A330s into tankers if it wins the U.S. Air Force's $40 billion KC-X competition. The development program would include four tankers, with much of that work being handled in Melbourne.
A quartet of retired Air Force and Army generals with Joint Chiefs of Staff and command-leadership experience is trying to call attention to a looming "airlift crisis" while begging Congress to lead the way forward among distracted and sparring Defense Department entities.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force's next-generation landing guidance equipment, the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS), has taken a major step forward with the release of a request for proposals (RFP) for the first phase of development.
The U.S. Navy's proposed shipbuilding plan omits elements and makes assumptions that could substantially mask the service's true funding needs, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope in Hawaii to study debris discs around distant stars believe a gigantic lopsided needle-shaped disk around a star designated HD 15115 holds clues to the formation of our own solar system.
Pakistan successfully tested a Babur subsonic cruise missile - part of Pakistan's Haft-7 missile series - capable of carrying a nuclear warhead on July 26. With a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles), Babur is a terrain-hugging missile that can avoid radar detection. The test follows India's recent announcement that it completed the design of its new cruise missile system, the subsonic 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound), 1000-kilometer (621-mile) range missile with a speed of Mach 0.7 called Nirbhay.
SABOTAGE: Federal authorities and NASA are investigating a case of alleged sabotage of a small computer box planned for launch to the International Space Station on STS-118 Aug. 7. An inspector at a subcontractor facility outside of Florida found damage to wires and other internal components of the network interface unit before it was shipped to Kennedy Space Center. The device will be repaired and launched to the station as planned, then mounted in the Destiny laboratory to receive data from strain gauges on the ISS truss and relay them to engineers on the ground.
A quartet of retired Air Force and Army generals with Joint Chiefs of Staff and command-leadership experience is trying to call attention to a looming "airlift crisis" while begging Congress to lead the way forward among distracted and sparring Defense Department entities.
Pakistan successfully tested a Babur subsonic cruise missile - part of Pakistan's Haft-7 missile series - capable of carrying a nuclear warhead on July 26. With a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles), Babur is a terrain-hugging missile that can avoid radar detection. The test follows India's recent announcement that it completed the design of its new cruise missile system, the subsonic 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound), 1000-kilometer (621-mile) range missile with a speed of Mach 0.7 called Nirbhay.
A panel reviewing astronaut health issues in the wake of the Lisa Nowak arrest was told that on at least two occasions astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so intoxicated that they posed a flight-safety risk. The panel also reported "heavy use of alcohol" by astronauts in crew quarters before launch, within the standard 12-hour "bottle to throttle" rule applied to pilots of conventional aircraft.
Old U.S. Navy shipbuilding habits helped lead to soaring costs for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a CRS expert told Congress. "Navy and industry officials testified to this subcommittee on February 8, 2007, that concurrency between design and construction was a significant contributor to the recent cost growth in the LCS program," Congressional Research Service (CRS) defense specialist Ronald O'Rourke told the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee On Seapower and Expeditionary Forces earlier this week.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force's next-generation landing guidance equipment, the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS), has taken a major step forward with the release of a request for proposals (RFP) for the first phase of development.
