33 MONTHS: The first test flight for NASA's Ares 1 Crew Launch Vehicle is 33 months away, says Associate Administrator for Exploration Scott Horowitz. He says he was struck by how relatively close that milestone is when he was reminded of it during the Exploration Systems quarterly review in Alabama last week. The flight-test will involve a full-up first stage and a dummy second stage that will fly all the way through stage separation. "I mean, if that doesn't start getting you excited, then nothing gets you excited," he says.
Martin C. Faga has been named to the board of directors. Paolo E. Colombi has been named head of the International Business Unit. Timothy J. Puckorius has resigned and is being replaced by Colombi.
EXPLORATION RETREAT: NASA's top space-flight leadership, led by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, chose a rustic lodge atop Monte Sano, near the Marshall Space Flight Center, for last week's three-day Exploration Systems Mission Directorate quarterly review, the first agency-wide assessment of the Constellation Program to develop the vehicles needed to return humans to the moon as a first step to Mars.
Rafi Bisker has been nominated as a director. Raanan Cohen has been nominated chief executive officer. Lior Hannes has been nominated director and vice chairman of the board. Jonathan Kolber has been nominated director and chairman. Gideon Lahav has been nominated as a director.
Before leaving town without finishing the fiscal 2007 defense spending bill, the Senate rejected an effort by missile-fleet advocates Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) to appropriate $77 million toward the Defense Department's effort to tip 24 submarine-based Trident II (D-5) intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional warheads.
CORPORATE FRAUD: Details of an infused federal corporate fraud task force, a personal priority of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, should be finalized within two months to better pursue procurement misdeeds across the government, but especially in defense acquisition. McNulty, the former U.S. prosecutor in Eastern Virginia who handled the Darleen Druyun scandal, announced the effort in early 2005 after former Boeing CFO Michael Sears was sentenced (DAILY, Feb. 22, 2005). "The more contracting going on, the more potential there is for fraud," he says.
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate is trying to shape a low-cost space nuclear power research program to ensure that the technology will be ready when needed for future long-duration explorations of the moon, Mars and elsewhere. Following the deferment of the Prometheus space nuclear power and propulsion effort last year, there has been "almost no funding" available for nuclear research at NASA, Associate Administrator for Exploration Scott Horowitz said during the Mars Society's annual conference in Washington Aug. 4.
TIMING MONEY: Congress is in the process of providing more off-budget supplemental spending for U.S. military operations worldwide, but questions remain from where that money will come. The Senate added $13.1 billion to the already $50 billion "bridge fund" for fiscal 2007, which has been passed by the House (DAILY, Aug. 4). But in the Senate's version, $42.054 billion is designated as an emergency in FY '07 while the rest, $7.946 billion, actually comes from the Defense Department's FY '06 allocation.
NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Scott Horowitz addressed rumored increases in the development cost of the Ares 1 Crew Launch Vehicle Aug. 4, saying that NASA has decided to spend more on the rocket's initial development to avoid billions in life-cycle costs later. The cost to develop the Ares 1, a larger derivative of the space shuttle's solid rocket booster (SRB), is rumored to have risen from $1 billion to as high as $3 billion.
Lockheed Martin officials are geared up for two important North American battles for the C-130J Hercules tactical mobility aircraft. In the United States, Lockheed was scheduled to get a briefing from the Army Aviation and Missile Command to explain why the service felt the company's shortened C-130J would not meet requirements for the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA).
JSF MILESTONES: The Joint Strike Fighter is being readied for two scheduled milestones in mid-August. Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor, is getting ready to fire up the engine in the first production model. The company is also preparing to flip on key electrical systems to start up the plane and provide power in basic systems.
Aug. 20 - 23 -- The Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States 35th General Conference & Exhibition, Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information go to www.ngaus.org. Aug. 21 - 25 -- 39th Annual Rotary Wing Technology, "A Comprehensive Short Course in Rotary Wing Technology," Penn State University Park, University Park, Penn. For more information go to www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/RotaryWing/.
NEW OSPREYS: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command awarded the Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office in Amarillo, Texas, a $200.1 million undefinitized contract action to begin fabrication and delivery of three MV-22 tiltrotor production aircraft. The new work should be finished by December 2009, the Pentagon announced late Aug. 3. Meanwhile, six Block B aircraft have been delivered to date, with two more due before the end of the month, a Navair representative said recently (DAILY, Aug. 4).
MORE C-17S: Britain and the United States have agreed to a deal in which the Royal Air Force will acquire a fifth Boeing C-17 in 2008 and also purchase four of the aircraft that it now leases. British Defense Undersecretary Tom Watson announced the agreement with Boeing on Aug. 4. At the same time, he confirmed that the four aircraft the U.K. air force now operates will be purchased outright when the present lease arrangement expires in '08. The RAF has long harbored ambitions to add to its four-strong fleet, and had hoped to eventually field eight of the aircraft.
