SHUTTLE SUPPORT: Responding to a recent press editorial urging NASA to stop flying the space shuttle, House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) says he supports NASA Administrator Michael Griffin's decision to go forward with Discovery's launch despite the objections of the agency's safety and mission assurance officer and chief engineer (DAILY, June 22). "All indications are that the safety culture of NASA is working well thus far throughout the pre-launch process," Calvert says.
July 16 - 18 -- Summer Legislative Issues Conference, co-sponsored by AAAE & ACI-NA, Washington, D.C. For more information contact Ashleigh de la Torre at 202-293-8500, email [email protected] or go to www.aci-na.aero. July 17 - 23 -- 45th Farnborough International Airshow 2006, Farnborough Aerodrome, Hampshire, England. For more information go to www.farnborough.com. July 24 - 26 -- Geospatial Intelligence, "Imagery Exploitation on All Fronts," Westin Arlington Gateway, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.idga.org.
Senators last week made several changes to authorized defense research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds before passing their fiscal 2007 policy bill which affected the Arrow ballistic missile defense (BMD) system, the Advanced Aluminum Aerostructures Initiative and Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
RESET: The U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command has awarded BAE Systems a $27.2 million contract modification to reset 44 Bradley A2 Operation Desert Storm (ODS) vehicles returning from Iraq. The work will begin immediately, with deliveries to be complete by May 2007. Combined with $227 million previously funded in March, this modification brings the company's total FY '06 reset contract value to $254.4 million.
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.
