PURCHASE: Rockwell Collins has closed on its purchase of Evans & Sutherland's military and commercial simulation business. The $71.5 million cash and debt acquisition includes simulation facilities in Salt Lake City, Orlando, and the United Kingdom that employ about 200 people. Rockwell Collins says the Evans & Sutherland operations will broaden its simulation capabilities and allow it to offer hardware and software to create highly realistic visual images for simulation, training, engineering and other applications.
The upcoming June 1 spacewalk by the Expedition 13 crew of the International Space Station (ISS) will re-activate an external vent for the finicky Russian Elektron oxygen generation system, which has been having trouble restarting after being turned off. The Elektron, which generates breathable air from wastewater, requires an external vent to release hydrogen byproduct into space. Last year, an electrolyte leak into the system's original vent line made it unusable.
Fledgling space elevator company Liftport Inc. says it plans to distribute an "encyclopedia" of technical questions associated with space elevators later this year in the hopes of attracting university researchers to the field. "We're trying to develop individual questions that would make really great research topics for a Ph.D. candidate" or other researcher, Liftport President Michael Laine said during a press conference in Washington on May 30.
ANTIMINE SUPPORT: EDO Corp. said May 26 it was awarded a five-year, $25.2 million contract to provide the U.S. Navy with support and maintenance of airborne mine-countermeasure systems. Work covered by the contract includes engineering design, in-service engineering and depot maintenance and repair for a range of littoral and deep-water mine-countermeasure systems.
CANBERRA - Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles are seen by senior Australian planners as fundamental to the nation's network-centric, warfighting capabilities beyond 2020. In fact, they may buy fewer next-generation, Lockheed Martin-designed Joint Strike Fighters in order to field a stealthy, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.
Space Adventures Ltd. announced May 30 that it will purchase Space Launch Corp. of Fountain Valley, Calif. The deal is expected to go through within the next 60 days, according to a spokeswoman. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Independent aircraft parts manufacturer Heico is acquiring Arger Enterprises Inc., a 29-year-old company that designs and distributes FAA-approved aircraft and engine parts for commercial airliners. Terms of the cash deal were not disclosed. Arger operates two main facilities, one in Reno, Nev., where it is headquartered, and a second in Miami. It also has a worldwide sales network.
NEW U.K. HELOS: Three Agusta 109 helicopters joined the British air force's 32 (Royal) Squadron this month, replacing a trio of Twin Squirrel helos that served for eight years, Britain's defense ministry says. The A109 can cruise at 155 knots, cutting travel times by 20 percent over the Twin Squirrel. The aircraft carries six passengers, up from the Twin Squirrel's four, and also boasts leather seats, noise-reduction headsets, air conditioning, reading lights and a private intercom system. Two sliding doors allow passengers to enter from either side of the fuselage.
BENCHMARKING: NASA exploration managers are poised to incorporate lessons learned from last year's failure of the Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) mission, largely because they are no further along than a "benchmarking mode" that by definition looks for what actually works.
The U.S. Justice Department has cleared the proposed merger of satellite operators Intelsat and PanAmSat, leaving only the Federal Communications Commission to sign off before the $3.2 billion deal can go through. Intelsat Ltd. announced its intention to acquire long-time competitor PanAmSat last August. The company said May 26 that the Justice Department had closed its antitrust investigation of the proposed merger and is not seeking any conditions or making any comments on it. FCC's review still is under way.
COMFORT LEVEL: Israel may have started to cut back on military assistance it provides to China last year, but the U.S. Defense Department still isn't satisfied that everything is in order. Last year, the Pentagon temporarily cut off Israel from access to technology information, ostensibly because of a spat over Israel's sale in 2001 of Harpy unmanned aircraft to China and the maintenance of parts for the system in 2003-04. Israel responded by vowing to improve oversight of arms sales to China, which the Pentagon says happened and at which point the sanctions were lifted.
UH-60M DAB: Pentagon acquisition chief Kenneth Krieg signed an acquisition decision memorandum (ADM) on May 24 approving the Army's plans for the UH-60M Black Hawk Upgrade program. The ADM approves detailed Army plans to develop and test pre-planned product improvements on the Sikorsky-built UH-60M, authorizes the expenditure of fiscal 2007 and 2008 funding for development and testing of the upgrades, and establishes entrance criteria for the introduction of the upgrades into Black Hawk production lines.
Contractors that do not pay tax debts have an unfair competitive advantage because they may have lower costs than tax compliant contractors on government contracts, according to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).
JOINT DOC: Defense Department officials are weighing the potential benefits of merging the three military medical commands into one unified command that would oversee all military health care as well as the training of military medical professionals. The concept, if adopted, would bring together the Army, Air Force and Navy medical commands, ostensibly allowing the DOD to provide better care while keeping costs in check, according to Dr. David Tornberg, deputy assistant secretary of defense for clinical and program policy.
While NASA's field centers work on in-house concepts for lunar landers, the agency's Johnson Space Center (JSC) has released a request for information (RFI) to industry calling for its ideas as well.
The primary engine for the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter is running 190 degrees Fahrenheit "above our desired temperature" as Pratt & Whitney specialists work to squeeze more power out of the design during its test program.
President Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair announced May 26 that the two countries agree Britain will have "the ability to successfully operate, upgrade, employ and maintain the Joint Strike Fighter such that the U.K. retains operational sovereignty over the aircraft."
LOBBYING CONGRESS: The Planetary Society is mounting an extensive lobbying effort to convince budget appropriators in Congress to reverse the Bush administration's proposed cuts to science in its fiscal 2007 NASA budget request. "We stand at a crossroads with planetary exploration," Planetary Society Director Louis Freedman says.
