Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled for launch on July 1. Once aloft, the primary mission milestones across the 13-14 day flight will include: Day 2: The Canadian MD Robotics orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS) will be used to inspect the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) wing leading edges and nose cap. The breach of RCC material by external tank debris caused the Columbia accident.
An analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations told House lawmakers June 29 that U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is not organized to achieve long-term success in the war on terrorism due to its overemphasis on "SWAT-style raids" at the expense of less glamorous, but no less important, unconventional warfare.
SONAR PRODUCTION: Raytheon Co. said June 29 that it was awarded a $45 million, U.S. Navy contract to provide six AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar systems, the primary undersea sensor for the Navy's MH-60R multimission helicopter. The contract advances the program into full-rate production, the first accelerated production contract since the initial fielding of the MH-60R into the Navy fleet earlier this year. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems has provided the Navy with similar capabilities under low-rate production contracts since 1999.
Weather forecasters at Cape Canaveral continue to predict a 60 percent chance that thunderstorms will preclude launching space shuttle Discovery on July 1, the first day of its 19-day launch window. The Cape remains under a Phase 1 lightning advisory, U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Kaleb Nordgren of the 45th Weather Squadron said during a press conference June 29. The sea breeze is "pinned" in the area and is acting as a trigger for lightning, he said. The forecast predicts winds of 12 to 18 knots on launch day.
NEW COMMANDER: The Bush administration has tapped U.S. Navy Rear Adm. David Venlet for appointment to vice admiral and assignment as commander of the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Md. Venlet is program executive officer for tactical aircraft programs there now.
MARINE VEHICLES: EFW Inc., an Elbit Systems of America company, said June 28 that it received an additional $50 million to install electronic systems on U.S. Marine Corps vehicles in war zones such as Iraq. The Marine Corps Systems Command contract follows an initial, "compelling and urgent-need" order for similar systems last November valued at about $70 million. Under the new contract, EFW will produce, integrate, install and provide logistics support for the unidentified systems.
Ambushed by an election-year need to boost border security personnel, Congress is nonetheless providing more money for aircraft, sensors and other technology for the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection agency, and possibly the Coast Guard as well.
The House on June 29 passed its $16.7 billion fiscal 2007 appropriations for NASA by a vote of 393-23, although the chamber first had to face bipartisan efforts to eat into funding for manned missions to the moon and Mars. While the amendment proposals failed June 28, they also portend budget fights for years to come as NASA implements the Bush administration's Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) while the nation faces a domestic spending squeeze and increasing costs for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
KEYSTONE, Colo. - There's "a long way to go" to get highly classified, up-to-date information to the front-line troops who need it most, according to Peter B. Teets, a former director of the National Reconnaissance Office.
The overall concept of operations for America's next-generation air transportation system (NGATS) should be in place by the end of this summer, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said on Capitol Hill June 28. "Once we have that big picture in place, I think we'll go out and build the architecture to support the next-gen system very quickly," she said.
Engineers at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif., have built a prototype wide-field imaging system with nine apertures that is designed to overcome the drawbacks of putting large-scale optics on space-based telescopes because of the increased mass, volume and costs that comes with them. Called Star-9 for the number and arrangement of its apertures, the ATC prototype borrows a page from multilense designs of some Earth observatories.
The three-day countdown for the planned July 1 launch of the space shuttle Discovery on STS-121 is under way at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as Florida Air National Guard F-15s and ground-based security forces begin anti-terrorist patrols around Launch Complex 39B.
The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth, Texas, a $115.84 million contract modification for integration of the U.K. version of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) air system with the U.K. carrier version future (CVF) under the JSF systems development and demonstration. The new work will be carried out in Warton, U.K. (57 percent), Fort Worth (35 percent), Orlando, Fla. (5 percent), and El Segundo, Calif. (3 percent). It should be finished in October 2013, the Defense Department said June 27.
DISAPPOINTED: Australian Minister of Defense Brendan Nelson says he is "very disappointed" with Boeing's performance on the Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, and has met with Boeing CEO Jim Albaugh to discuss the program. "Recently we were informed there were ... significant delays in the project," he says. The Wedgetail is a 737-700 carrying a Northrop Grumman multirole electronically scanned array radar.
After years of delays, a U.S. Air Force Boeing Delta IV inaugurated Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., as a West Coast launch pad for highly inclined payloads with the successful June 27 launch of a secret National Reconnaissance Office satellite. The 8:33 p.m. pacific time launch was delayed for 19 minutes by strong winds, but the final count proceeded nominally once it was started. The payload, NROL-22, was successfully deployed into a highly elliptical orbit after a 54-minute ascent and is now in checkout.
Senate energy appropriators are suggesting $62.7 million for the Energy Department's Reliable Replacement Warhead program in fiscal 2007, a $35 million increase over the Bush administration's request. The additional funds would go to accelerate RRW design activities, including $10 million to initiate a second competition to replace one or more of the existing legacy systems. Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories have been key to the effort, according to chief Senate energy appropriator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.).
Perhaps foreshadowing budget fights for years to come, NASA supporters in the House turned back a spirited effort June 28 by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) that would have barred spending for sending astronauts to Mars. By press time, the House, which was debating a fiscal 2007 appropriations bill including NASA, had rejected Frank's proposal by voice vote. Supporters of the Bush administration's moon-Mars agenda and its subsequent federal spending asserted technological and economic advantages of striving toward such a goal.
