After lacking the commitments it hoped for by June this year, Boeing has extended its deadline for a decision whether to close its C-17 transport production line to August, according to a company official. Boeing executives went on a media blitz last month, saying they could guarantee a $220 million per-unit price for international customers only through June. Officials are now considering extending that price through August.
PURCHASE COMPLETED: Research and engineering firm Science Applications International Corp. said July 11 that it has completed its purchase of Campbell, Calif.-based GeoViz.com Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed. GeoViz.com produces commercial off-the-shelf tools for C4ISR, test and evaluation, modeling and simulation, and embedded training. GeoViz.com workers will switch into SAIC's Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Information Technology business unit within the System and Network Solutions Group. The employees will remain in Campbell.
Members of a National Academies' panel questioned NASA's science plans during a meeting in Washington July 11, with panel chair and former Lockheed Martin executive A. Thomas Young suggesting that the agency's goals may not be realistic given the cuts to science in NASA's FY '07 budget request.
Europe's Vega small-satellite launcher is on track for a first flight late next year following the static test of the solid-fuel motor for its second stage. Built by Avio in Colleferro, near Rome, the Zefiro 23 motor generated more than 100 metric tons of thrust over 75 seconds as it consumed 24 metric tons of propellant. The test also exercised the motor's thrust vector control system, generating data for an upcoming critical design review.
The International Telecommunication Union and Thuraya Satellite Telecoms Co. have agreed to provide portable satellite terminals to assist in disaster mitigation and relief operations. Under the agreement, Thuraya will contribute Geostationary Meteorological Satellite-capable dual handheld voice/data terminals equipped with solar chargers and Global Positioning System receivers. The ITU will cover the cost of transporting equipment to and from affected areas, while airtime will be offered by Thuraya at discounted rates.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski plans to introduce her amendment to add $1 billion in emergency funding to NASA's fiscal 2007 appropriation during a full Senate Appropriations Committee markup hearing July 13.
F/A-18 WORK: Boeing Co. subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corp. has been awarded a $167.1 million contract modification to provide support services for system configuration sets for F/A-18 aircraft weapons systems, the Defense Department said July 10. The aircraft include those flown by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, as well as the governments of Canada, Australia, Spain, Kuwait, Switzerland, Finland and Malaysia. The work will be done in St. Louis and at the Naval Air Systems Command, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, Calif.
SAT SERVICES: Loral Skynet do Brasil has landed a contract from Entel of Chile to provide nationwide fixed satellite communications services from Loral's Estrela do Sul 1 (Telstar 14) spacecraft. The agreement covers a full Ku-band transponder on the spacecraft, which was launched in January 2004. Estrela do Sul 1 has 41 transponders, but only 15 are operating due to the failure of one of its solar arrays to full deploy after launch. Its expected lifespan was also reduced from 15 to seven years.
Kennedy Space Center is moving toward key launch milestones for the next shuttle mission even as Discovery is continuing its mission to the International Space Station. The STS-115 Atlantis flight will launch the station's second port truss and second set of port solar arrays.
The nine humans in space spent July 11 packing the shuttle Discovery with scientific samples, worn out equipment and plain old trash from the International Space Station (ISS) for the return trip to Earth early next week. Spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers also prepared their suits for a third extravehicular activity (EVA) on July 12, when they will refine techniques for repairing minor damage to an orbiter's thermal protection system (TPS) and evaluate a new infrared camera system as a potential tool for TPS inspections on future missions.
The U.S. should accelerate its missile defense system so that interceptors already on hand can take out any incoming ballistic missiles launched from North Korea, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said July 11. Following North Korea's test launch of seven missiles July 4, including one with the potential to reach U.S. territory, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said he would be looking for "any opportunity to accelerate the deployment of interceptors."
Astronauts Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers bounced, swayed and pushed at the end of a 100-foot robotic-arm extender boom during the first spacewalk of the STS-121 space shuttle mission on July 8, flight-testing the boom as a potential work platform for repairs to a damaged orbiter heat shield.
TURNING POINT: The start of European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter's tenure on the International Space Station marks a turning point in the operation of the facility. The first non-U.S., non-Russian permanent crew member to serve on the ISS, Reiter will pave the way for a string of other astronauts from ESA, Canada and Japan who are ultimately expected to man the orbital facility. Reiter, a veteran of two spacewalks on the Russian Mir space station, will also be the first ESA crew member to perform extravehicular activity from the ISS.
India's space program suffered a setback on July 10 when a launch vehicle carrying an INSAT-4C communication satellite plunged into the Bay of Bengal seconds after a perfect takeoff. "Things have gone wrong in the stage of separation (of the booster from the launch vehicle). We have to analyze the data why it went wrong," Indian Space Research Organization Chairman Madhavan Nair said.
ATFLIR SPARES: Raytheon Space & Airborne Systems of El Segundo, Calif., has been awarded a $9.9 million order to provide the U.S. Navy with spares for the Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared Radar system used on F/A-18 aircraft, the Defense Department said July 10. The work will be done in El Segundo and is expected to be finished by December 2007. The contract was awarded by the Naval Inventory Control Point.
General Dynamics' strategy of selling off nearly half its businesses and replacing them with more dynamic properties is continuing to yield a big payoff. The defense giant ranked first among large aerospace companies in Aviation Week & Space Technology's 10th annual Top-Performing Companies study, continuing more than a half-decade of industry-leading operational performance. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, ITT Industries and United Technologies Corp. rounded out the top five.
NAVY Lockheed Martin Systems, Owego, N.Y., is being awarded a not to exceed $41,940,995 ceiling priced order against a basic ordering agreement for procurement of 12 weapons replaceable assemblies for the MH-60R helicopter. The work will be performed in Owego, N.Y., and is expected to be completed by January 2008. Contract funds will not expire by the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Inventory Control Point is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE
A top Chinese space official has reaffirmed China's plan to launch a 20-ton space station following additional Shenzhou Soyuz-type manned test flights. The deputy designer of the Long March 2F booster program, Song Zhengyu, told the People's Daily newspaper, the Chinese government's official mouthpiece, that the station is China's next major manned space development. A space station has led Chinese space planning for several years.
A nationwide NASA/contractor imagery and thermal analysis team has cleared the space shuttle Discovery for re-entry July 17 without any intervention to remove a slightly extended tile gap-filler on the orbiter's aft belly. The decision means the flight's third extravehicular activity (EVA) will go forward as planned July 12 and be fully devoted to important bench testing of a potential repair material for reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panels like the one that breached and caused the Columbia accident.
ARMY SGS L.L.C., Oklahoma City, was awarded on June 29, 2006, a $25,144,683 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a standard combined arms collective training facility. The work will be performed at Fort Polk, La., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 21, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 310 bids solicited on April 20, 2006, and five bids were received. The U.S. Army Engineer District, Fort Worth, Texas, is the contracting activity (W9126G-06-C-0023).
In an incident sure to complicate the Osprey team's new international sales push, one of the two MV-22B Ospreys flying to Farnborough to show off the tiltrotor's self-deployment capability had to land unexpectedly in Keflavik, Iceland, on July 10 after the right engine suffered compressor stalls.
