REPURPOSED: NASA has decided to reuse the "mother ships" from the Stardust and Deep Impact missions for new scientific investigations, including one to characterize extra-solar planets. The Deep Impact Extended Investigation will use the spacecraft that sent a copper projectile into the comet Tempel 1 to observe known extra-solar planets as they pass before their stars. Scientists hope Deep Impact's sensitivity will let them determine if the planets have moons, rings or Earth-sized companion planets.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA are expected to release a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) system later this month. Industry will be given time to comment, and the final RFP is expected in September, followed by a contract award for the first two spacecraft early next year, according to Stephen O'Neill, president of Boeing Satellite Systems International Inc. First launch is slated for late 2014.
The U.S. Air Force has mismanaged the major contract meant to secure the net-centric future for the service and the Pentagon, the Defense Department Inspector General (IG) reports.
PRESIDENTIAL MISSILES: White House officials believe Russia has expanded its proposal to work together over potential ballistic missile defense in Europe, but the Bush administration will continue to seek a radar site in the Czech Republic and midcourse interceptors in Poland, officials have said. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Maine to meet President Bush, suggested even building a new radar facility in south Russia and establishing information exchange centers in Moscow and Brussels.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says industry and military officials must find ways to cut down the production, outfitting and shipping times for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles meant to blunt the impact of attacks by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq. "DOD and industry have to look outside normal ways of doing things," Gates said June 29 during a Pentagon press briefing. "Lives are at stake."
BOEING TOO: Following a similar award to Northrop Grumman, the U.S. Air Force is awarding Boeing a $9 million contract to study a Minotaur launch vehicle and a delivery vehicle designed to carry and dispense multiple BLU-108B/B sensor-fused weapons as part of a prompt global strike (PGS) capability, according to a Defense Department contract announcement June 29. PGS entails striking anywhere around the world with a conventional warhead within an hour of launch.
HOT SIGHTS: BAE Systems said July 2 a $183 million U.S. Army award it recently received for thermal weapons sights is the first award under a five-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract that could reach $1 billion. The award from the Army's Program Executive Office Soldier includes increasing production rates to 3,000 per month. The company already is under contract to produce and deliver more than 29,600 Thermal Weapon Sites-II (TWS-II). That five-year, $295 million contract is administered by the Communications-Electronics Command (DAILY, Jan. 22).
AIR FORCE L3 Communications, Link Simulation and Training, Arlington, Texas, is being awarded a firm-fixed-price contract for $18,786,687. The action provides for one Aircrew Training Device (ATD) for the Hellenic Air Force, upgrades to current ATD and associated Contractor Logistics Support (CLS). The work will be complete by June 2011. To date, total funds have been obligated. Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8621-07-C-6260).
BAE Systems and the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) will deliver a "Convex Flying Program" - part of the contract to supply a total training solution for an order of 66 Hawk advance jet trainers - converting Indian air force-qualified flying instructors and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) test pilots onto the new Indian Hawk.
AESA APPROVED: The U.S. Navy has approved its APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars for full-rate production. After review by Navy acquisition chief Delores Etter, the program office was approved June 25 for 437 units. The move marks the end of low-rate initial production of 84 radars that began with delivery of the first unit in July 2003. The radar, headed for Super Hornet Block II aircraft, has proven to be seven times more reliable than the legacy system it replaces.
The U.S. Air Force says it is holding firm on the planned launch dates for upcoming Atlas V and Delta IV missions using the Pratt & Whitney RL10 upper-stage engine, having traced the launch anomaly on a recent National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) classified satellite launch to a stuck valve on the Atlas V's Lockheed Martin Centaur upper stage. The stuck valve depleted the Centaur's hydrogen fuel, according to the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) in Los Angeles.
The fiscal 2008 NASA budget approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee last week gives the agency a topline of $17.46 billion - $150 million above the Bush administration's request - which includes a number of plus-ups to various science programs. The topline recommendation is $1.175 billion above the FY '07 enacted level. The bill includes $5.655 billion for science, $554 million for aeronautics research and $3.972 billion for exploration systems. $4 billion for space shuttle
Boeing has collected data through the years that, combined with the results of a computer simulation, show the downwash for its HH-47 combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter variant already meets U.S. Air Force requirements, company officials said. The data and simulation show the aircraft's tandem rotors spread out the force necessary to keep the helicopter aloft and disperse the resulting downwash, said Bill Ripley, HH-47 chief engineer.
DIRECTV 10: An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton M rocket with a Breeze M upper stage will orbit the DirecTV 10 satellite on July 7 at 7:16 a.m. local time (9:16 p.m. EDT July 6). The 5,893-kilogram (12,990-pound) spacecraft was built by Boeing based on its 702 bus. Launch will take place from Launch Pad 39 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
The Defense Department is crafting new regulations to waive domestic sourcing restrictions over specialty metals for acquisitions of commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) items.
