CZECH RADAR: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States will push forward with a plan to base a powerful missile defense radar in the Czech Republic despite a Russian offer to co-locate operations in Azerbaijan. "I was very explicit in the meeting that we saw the Azeri radar as an additional capability, that we intended to proceed with the radar, the X-band radar in the Czech Republic," Gates told reporters June 14 after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.
KEI BOOST: Kinetic Energy Interceptor contractors assert they are on target for a booster flight test in the second half of 2008. They told reporters late June 14 that they conducted a successful static test fire of the first stage of the three-stage rocket at a range in Utah. Three more such tests are slated for the first stage, as well as four similar fires for the second, before liftoff in a year.
DESTROYER HITS: U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has let two contracts to speed ahead with DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer efforts, the Defense Department announced June 11. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works is being awarded a $197.1 million cost-reimbursement type contract modification for Zumwalt long-lead material and pre-production planning to support detailed design and construction. It runs through December.
Two top secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) ocean surveillance spacecraft were placed in the wrong orbit June 15 when the 200-foot-tall Atlas V rocket they were riding on stopped firing too early in space following launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The top secret satellites separated safely from the malfunctioning booster, however, and have enough rocket propellant to continue their mission, an official said on background.
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command has extended Aurora Flight Sciences a $6.2 million contract modification for Orion unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) prototype development and test flight. Aurora's work will be performed in Starkville, Miss., and should be finished by September 2010. The company in July 2006 unveiled Orion, an unmanned aircraft designed to carry small payloads for ultra-long endurance surveillance missions, and which will be built in Mississippi.
PARIS - EADS Astrium is throwing its hat into the ring of companies anxious to tap the nascent space tourism market. Last week, the company--the first in Europe to show an interest in this segment--unveiled a novel concept featuring conventional turbojet engines, a liquid oxygen methane rocket motor for the boost phase, canards and very long rear-mounted wings.
FLIGHT PROFILE: Since Astrium's newly unveiled suborbital space tourism vehicle (see story p. 5) will take off and land like a conventional aircraft, no special launch facilities will be needed, the company says. Astrium is presently eyeing a site in Tunisia within easy reach of Paris, London and other major European cities that could double as an attractive luxury resort where customers could train for a week before making the flight.
Dassault Aviation says it will announce next week an alliance with Thales and other partners to develop and market tactical and long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Chairman/CEO Charles Edelstenne told reporters June 15 that one aim of the alliance would be to offer the Watchkeeper system designed by Thales for the U.K., or derivatives of that system, to meet requirements for a tactical UAV capability in France and other European countries.
Astronaut John (Danny) Olivas used a surgical stapler and some stainless steel pins to tack down a ripped piece of thermal blanket on the tail of the space shuttle Atlantis June 15, easing concerns the damage could endanger the orbiter on reentry or delay its turnaround on the ground.
HORNET'S NEST: Boeing is offering the U.S. Navy what one Pentagon source calls a "tempting" deal for an all-time-low flyaway price of $49.9 million for new F-18E/F Super Hornets. The cost is guaranteed for a third multi-year buy of 170 aircraft, but this is nearly double the Navy's stated commitment for 92 more. Still, the deal "is going to be pretty tough for the Navy to turn down," says a Pentagon official. The proposal comes as Pentagon leaders worry that the cost of Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter will continue to grow.
BORDER UAVS: In an apparent bid to sway conservatives in his party into backing a so-called comprehensive immigration bill, President Bush threw his support behind $4.4 billion in immediate additional funding for securing U.S. land borders and enforcing immigration laws. Funding would come from the fines and penalties to be collected from illegal immigrants, he announced June 14.
TSAT RFP: The U.S. Air Force released the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) Communications System space segment production contract late June 14. Responses from competitors Lockheed Martin and Boeing are due July 30, with a contract award expected before the end of the year.
INVESTIGATE: Leaders of a House Science subcommittee are recommending a Justice Dept. investigation of NASA General Counsel Michael Wholley, for obstruction of justice and destruction of government records. Wholley destroyed video records of an April 10 meeting between NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and the staff of the Office of the Inspector General.
BETTER LUCK: Astronauts working on assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) on June 14 made progress retracting the solar arrays on the old P6 truss element temporarily mounted on the top of the outpost.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has pushed its deadline back three weeks, to June 27, to submit proposals for a high altitude unmanned aerial system (UAS) to detect and deter shoulder-fired missiles aimed at commercial aircraft. DHS also pushed back the date for selecting proposals from June 29 to July 20. The department's Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate now plans to award a contract or contracts by Sept. 3 instead of Aug. 17.
Sea Launch expects to resume missions in October with the launch of the Thuraya D3 mobile services satellite. The Odyssey launch platform, which was damaged in the Jan. 30 explosion of a Zenit-3SL booster (DAILY, Feb. 1), and the Sea Launch Commander control ship were due in Vancouver, B.C., June 14 for repairs. The platform was to undergo heavy industrial repairs and painting, while the Commander was due for routine maintenance.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - A NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) peer review of Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) reentry heating and aerodynamics work finds that critical areas lack sufficient "risk management processes to guide decision making" as the agency works on the hypersonic reentry thermal and aerodynamic advancements necessary for the CEV development.
The two cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS) shut down the computers on the Russian side of the orbiting facility June 14, deferring by a day work to restore critical command and navigation systems that crashed June 13. Loss of the Russian-side computers, which actually were built in Western Europe, could force an evacuation of the station, although managers considered that unlikely and certainly undesirable.
SCRUBBED: The failure of a ground-based command encoder June 14 at Cape Canaveral forced the launch postponement of two National Reconnaissance Office ocean surveillance spacecraft on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V. The U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing, which operates Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, plans to fix the problem in time for a second launch attempt June 15 during a 30-minute launch window that opens at 11:04 a.m. EDT.
