COLOMBIAN HELOS: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. of Stratford, Conn., has been awarded an $18.9 million contract modification to provide Black Hawk helicopters (UH-60L/S-70A) to the Colombian air force, the Defense Department said June 21. The work will be done in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be finished by Dec. 31, 2007. The contract was awarded by the Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
NIGHT FLIGHT: PanAmSat's Galaxy 16 communications satellite is maneuvering toward its final orbital position at 99 degrees west longitude following its June 18 launch on a Zenit-3SL operated by Sea Launch Company. Liftoff came at 3:50 a.m. Eastern time from the Odyssey launch platform, positioned near the equator at 154 degrees west longitude.
NASA's head of safety and mission assurance and the agency's chief engineer explained the rationale for their overruled "no-go" shuttle launch recommendations during a teleconference June 21, and said they're generally comfortable with the final decision to launch in part because the option of sending a rescue shuttle makes the loss of the crew unlikely.
The House late June 20 passed its fiscal 2007 defense appropriations bill, but first lawmakers moved to allow the Lockheed Martin Corp.-led F-22A Raptor industry team to sell the advanced tactical fighter to foreign governments. In an amendment sponsored by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who represents a Raptor production site in Fort Worth, the House struck language enacted since 1997 and sponsored by top Democratic appropriator Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) that forbids the sale of the F/A-22 to any foreign government.
As the House moved June 20 toward passing its fiscal 2007 defense appropriations bill, appropriators there have expressed concern over a "gap" between the Navy's public statements for the need for firm cost controls for shipbuilding and the programmatic and contractual actions that would accomplish that objective.
The STS-120 shuttle flight to the International Space Station intends to carry Node 2, which will be the connecting element for the U.S.'s Destiny, Europe's Columbus and Japan's Kibo orbital facilities. Built by the Italian arm of Alcatel Alenia Space, Node 2 is set to be launched in the summer of 2007 and Columbus in the autumn of the same year, assuming the shuttle return to flight in July goes off as expected.
The House Appropriations Committee has voted to cut the U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) fiscal 2007 budget from the service's request of $936.5 million down to $692.3 million. Lawmakers justified the $244.2 million cut by noting that the launches for two upcoming Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites have been delayed enough to preclude having to buy launch vehicles for them in FY '07.
KAZSAT-1 LAUNCHED: Kazakhstan's dream of using its giant Baikonur cosmodrome as a stepping stone to space power status has taken a tiny step forward with the launch of its first spacecraft - a telecom satellite to provide broadcasting and telecom services to Central Asia and Russia. Moscow provided engineering assistance and a Proton K booster for the spacecraft, KazSat-1, and France's Alcatel, the payload.
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Director Donald Kerr have inked a new cooperative agreement that includes plans to appoint an Air Force two-star general as deputy NRO director.
A potential North Korean test of an intercontinental ballistic missile has fueled national missile defense advocates in Washington to boost their own defense of the embattled U.S. system.
AD-HOC NETWORKING: The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center awarded BAE Systems' Advanced Information Technologies Inc., of Burlington, Mass., a potential 2.5-year, $13.27 million contract for support of the Control-Based, Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking program to include the design, development, and demonstration of a mobile network that improves performance by using more effective and adaptive resource allocation, cross-layer design, and novel protocols for wireless tactical networking.
OSPREY REWORK: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command awarded the Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office an $89.32 million contract modification for rework of five Lot IV MV-22 low-rate initial production tiltrotor aircraft to a block A/B configuration. Most of the re-engineering will be performed in Bell Helicopter Textron's Amarillo, and Fort Worth, Texas, facilities, as well as Ridley Park, Pa., and is expected to be finished in November 2008, the Defense Department said June 19.
VIETNAM SAT: Arianespace will launch Vietnam's first satellite, a 20-transponder C-/Ku-band telecom spacecraft that will provide broadband, broadcasting and telecom services to southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. Construction of the satellite, Vinasat-1, was awarded to Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems after a long search for funding to underpin the mission. The 2.6 metric ton unit, based on LMCSS's A2100 bus, is to be orbited in the first half of 2008. It was Arianespace's eighth launch award of the year.
House Coast Guard authorizers will direct the Bush administration and Deepwater recapitalization program industry leaders to ensure a U.S. provider for the service's Fast Response Cutter. A provision of the 2006 Coast Guard authorization bill, unveiled June 20, requires the Coast Guard to use a "competitive contracting procedure among shipyards in the United States" and to manage it or have Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) do so.
Europe's Meteor rocket-ramjet powered air-to-air missile was successfully test fired on June 20. The firing, the second to be carried out, marks the first fully successful launch. During the first launch, the missile failed to transition to ramjet-powered flight.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a NASA spending bill June 20 that cuts the agencyís topline budget by $83.2 million below the Bush administrationís request, while shifting more money than requested into science and aeronautics. The committee recommended a total of $16.7 billion for NASA in fiscal 2007, which is an increase of $462.4 million from the FY í06 budget, not counting emergency supplemental funding for hurricane recovery.
