For the third time in a week NASA has delayed launch of the Dawn asteroid orbiter, this time until early September. NASA managers, including Administrator Michael Griffin, decided on a further delay to September after additional evaluation of a July 15 launch target set less than 24 hours earlier. Dawn will have from roughly Sept. 7 to mid-October to launch on its way to visit its asteroid targets Vesta and Ceres.
U.S. Army records show that H-47 Chinooks and AH-1 Cobras are the two leading helicopters for downwash-related incidents, based on a Aerospace Daily analysis of the service's mishap database dating from the early 1970s through the first years of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) embattled Airborne Laser (ABL) boost-phase missile defense program is expected to play a prominent role this week and next among the weapons and systems debated by the Senate under the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill.
Aircraft, especially newer rotorcraft, could serve as reasonable alternatives to an expensive shipbuilding plan with so-far questionable results to achieve the U.S. military's nebulous goal of creating a seabasing capability, according to various scenarios outlined in a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report.
France appears to have reconsidered plans to boycott a $500 million - $1 billion radar/optical reconnaissance network intended for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on the grounds that the technology needed to meet the very high spatial resolution requirement is too sensitive for export. Thales Alenia Space officials say they are bidding a dual-sensor system for which its Italian arm will supply the radar segment and its French unit the optical component, using a pair of spacecraft based on its Italian Prima and French Proteus satellite bus designs.
MARINE RAID: Raytheon said July 9 it received a $22 million U.S. Army contract option for 41 Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) tower systems with remote ground stations for the Marine Corps Persistent Surveillance System initiative in Iraq. Deliveries will begin in September. The persistent-surveillance systems were designed for the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan combat operations in particular, and the latest award marks RAID expansion into the Corps (DAILY, June 26).
FLIGHT PATH: The VH-71 presidential helicopter program is on track to fly three more test vehicles by early 2008, AgustaWestland North America President Steven Moss says. Test Vehicle #2 (TV-2), built under contract to the U.S. Navy for the Marine Corps, flew for the first time July 5. It is the first test aircraft built specifically for the VH-71 Presidential Helicopters program, although the Lockheed Martin-led industry team has flown other aircraft in connection with the effort.
DAWN DELAY: Launch of NASA's Dawn asteroid mission will be delayed until no earlier than July 9. On July 6, managers still were determining whether they would make additional attempts in July, or move the launch to September following the liftoff of the Phoenix Mars lander on another Delta II that would take precedence over Dawn's less stringent launch window.
DUST DANGER: Danger to the Mars rover Opportunity is increasing dramatically as a large regional dust storm begins to block out more than 90 percent of the sunlight at that rover's landing site. The growing fear is that sunlight could be blocked so long by the dust that the rover's battery could be depleted and stop keeping the spacecraft warm at night. Rover operations were scaled back to protect battery charge starting June 30, and until July 5 managers believed the dust storm was beginning to tail off, based on readings from Opportunity about solar obscuration levels.
AESA TWEAK: Boeing is being awarded a $90.2 million contract modification by the Naval Air Systems Command for "a newly developed, additional capability" for the AN/APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, according to a July 5 contract announcement from the Defense Department. Almost all of the work will occur in El Segundo, Calif., although some will take place in St. Louis, Mo. The modification runs through September 2011.
Federal acquisition officials are clarifying a controversial decision over small business recertification and the move could strike a compromise of sorts after criticism that the Small Business Administration's (SBA) rule last fall did not go far enough. According to a notice July 5 in the Federal Register, the Civilian Agency Acquisition and Defense Acquisition Regulations councils made the new iteration effective June 30.
IRIDIUM NEXT: Iridium Satellite is looking for potential partners interested in participating in the design, development and deployment of the company's next-generation satellite communication network, dubbed "Iridium NEXT." The company has released a request for information (RFI) to learn more about the technologies required for the NEXT network, and the company has "formed a core internal team of industry experts, augmented by external consulting partners, to evaluate the key technical issues related to Iridium NEXT," says Joe Pizzicaroli, vice president and chief satell
An electronics glitch on NASA's Phoenix Mars lander that wasn't discovered until final preflight testing at Kennedy Space Center will prevent it from collecting a series of downward-looking images as it descends toward the Red Planet's north pole next May.
China's Long March 3B has orbited Chinasat 6B, a 38-transponder C-band spacecraft intended to expand the broadcasting capacity of operator ChinaSatCom. The 4.5-metric ton (9,900-pound), 9.5-kilowatt satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space, blasted off July 5 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China. The launch marked the first commercial satellite mission for Long March since Apstar VI, also built by Thales Alenia, last year.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] July 8 - 10 -- ALA Miami 2007, Aeronautical Convention & Exposition, Doral Golf Resort & Spa, Miami, Fla. For more information call (817) 284-0431, www.ala.aero. July 19 -- Aeronautical Repair Station Association: Train To Gain Course, Wichita, Kan. For more information call ARSA Training Services (703) 739-9543, email: [email protected].
Problems getting the Tiger reconnaissance and attack helicopter fielded in Australia have prompted Canberra to stop payments on the project. The Australian defense department said last week it had ceased payments to Eurocopter's Australian Aerospace on June 1. The reason is that the Tiger, being bought under the Air 87 program, has not reached initial operational capability (IOC) as planned.
SAVING CSAR: Boeing's going on the offense in the battle over who gets to build the combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) replacement fleet for the U.S. Air Force. Initially during the protests by losing companies Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky, Boeing kept mum. But lately the company's been addressing concerns and making experts available, and has scheduled a media phone-in discussion for July 10. Boeing's success in nailing down the contract - worth between $10 billion and $15 billion for more than 140 aircraft - apparently was only the prelude to the real competition.
The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) is pushing to require the Defense Department establish an Acquisition Workforce Development Fund to help defense agencies build up their acquisition workforces and capabilities.
RAPID EYE: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will hold an industry day July 25th in Arlington, Va., for its Rapid Eye program, which seeks to demonstrate the ability to use a rocket to deliver a persistent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) anywhere in the world within one hour. Rapid Eye "will, at a minimum, develop and demonstrate all the technologies necessary" for the system, DARPA says.
QUIKSCAT: Senate appropriators are worried about the fate of the aging QuikSCAT (Quick Scatterometer) satellite, which provides data on ocean surface winds used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for hurricane prediction. "The committee is concerned with reports about the degradation in the QuikSCAT satellite," the Senate Appropriations Committee said in the report accompanying its version of NOAA's fiscal 2008 spending bill.
RAPTOR RESERVATIONS: Japan faces an array of legal and budgetary concerns about enhancing its military, raising questions about whether Tokyo could follow through on a potential F-22 sale, a June 29 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says (DAILY, July 6). Under a self-imposed ban on exporting arms, Japan cannot in principle participate in joint development that requires it to export weapons parts and research data to other countries. This ban has been loosened to allow Japan to work on missile defense with the U.S., but the issue remains contentious.
BLACK HAWKS APPROVED: The Pentagon's chief acquisition official has approved full-rate production of the Army's UH-60M and HH-60M Black Hawk helicopters. At the same time, Ken Krieg on June 26 also approved fiscal 2008 advanced procurement for long-lead items to support the initial cut-in aircraft for the HH/UH-60M effort, according to the Defense Department's announcement July 5. The $24 billion upgrade program is a major source of business for Sikorsky Aircraft and it provides additional payload, range and survivability over existing Black Hawks.
