BOEING CHANGES: Boeing has tapped Tod Hullin as senior vice president for public policy and communications at the company's Washington, D.C. office. He replaces Rudy deLeon, who is retiring June 30. Thomas Downey was named vice president of corporate communications and will relocate from Seattle to the company's corporate headquarters in Chicago. DeLeon said he's taking time to look at his opportunities before deciding what to do next.
SPACE-TEST GEAR: Belgium-based Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems (AMOS) has signed a contract with Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO's) Space Application Center in Ahmedabad for production of a one-meter diameter collimator to test cameras flown in Indian remote-sensing satellites. AMOS will design, manufacture, test and supply the collimator according to ISRO specifications. AMOS, which has already supplied two collimators to the Indian center, is also involved in the design, manufacturing and installation of a space simulator for ISRO in Bangalore.
Pierre Sprey, a former Pentagon analyst and member of the so-called "fighter mafia," and James Stevenson, a former editor of the Navy Fighter Weapons School's Top Gun Journal, have criticized the F-22 Raptor as an inferior fighter not worth its rising programmatic costs.
DARMSTADT, GERMANY - Scientists are preparing to receive the first data from Venus in more than a decade following the successful injection of a European probe into orbit around Earth's nearest planetary neighbor.
Two California companies that supplied important hardware for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers have joined forces to go after new Mars and other NASA, commercial, and defense space mission business. Alliance Spacesystems Inc. (ASI) of Pasadena and Vision Composites of Signal Hill plan a merger by July designed to strengthen ASI's ability to provide integrated robotic and composite structural systems to aerospace programs. Just what the two companies will call themselves after the merger is still being determined.
After demonstrating level-4 control of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and its weapons from the cockpit of an AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter earlier this year, Boeing hopes to conduct cooperative flights with the Longbow and multiple UAVs this summer at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz. Boeing hopes to use its Unmanned Little Bird and ScanEagle UAVs in the demonstration, which would be sponsored by the U.S. Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD).
The U.S. military needs more airlift capability and "lots of it," according to Lexington Institute Chief Operating Officer Loren Thompson, who has criticized the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 defense spending request for pointing to the end of domestic airlift production lines. In an April 13 issue brief, the think tank analyst said global tensions have shifted from places like Europe, where the U.S. military had large combat units permanently stationed, to places where its presence is smaller and less welcome.
NASA Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev landed safely in Kazakahstan April 8 after 190 days on the International Space Station. Brazil's Marcos Pontes was with the NASA astronauts. Pontes rode in the Soyuz "taxi seat" with Expedition 13, becoming the first Brazilian in space. All three men were healthy after traveling from the station to the surface, a three-hour, 20-minute journey.
Lockheed Martin Corp. said April 11 that it received a $50.6 million contract modification from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command for MK 41 Vertical Launch Systems for three new Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers. The modification funds 36 Baseline VII modules, with sets of 12 being installed on each of the three DDG-51 destroyers. The award completes a procurement that started last August with a $27 million contract for long-lead materials. The modules should be delivered by 2010.
RUNNERS-UP: NASA isn't ruling out eventually implementing some of its runner-up proposals for how to use the extra payload afforded by switching the 2008 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from a Delta II rocket to the larger Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, according to Scott Horowitz, associate administrator for exploration systems.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley says he is considering further adjustments to force structure as Pentagon bean counters play the numbers for the upcoming fiscal 2008 budget and consider the risk associated with the entrée of the Joint Strike Fighter into the Air Force arsenal.
The Ukrainian military is slated to undertake upgrades to its command, control, communications and computer systems as part of a larger effort to bring the former-Soviet republic closer to NATO. The enhancements are part of the newly issued NATO-Ukraine Annual Target Plan for 2006. It is the latest iteration of the document that first was established in 2002 to help Ukraine along the path towards potentially becoming a NATO member. The document outlines policy, operational and technical steps Kiev should adopt.
BOEING NUMBERS: The Boeing Co. will release its first-quarter 2006 financial results at 7:30 a.m. Eastern on April 26. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer James Bell will host a web- and teleconference about the results and company outlook at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
While the U.S. Navy is emphasizing electric propulsion to improve the efficiency and operation of its surface ships and submarines, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) continues to push for an all-nuclear Navy. Bartlett, House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee chairman, has cited the director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion and said life-cycle cost efficiency lines already have crossed for large-deck amphibious ships to go nuclear. If crude oil prices reach $205 per barrel, "those lines will cross for surface combatants as well," he said April 6.
SPACE AWARD: The Cassini-Huygens mission team received an Aerospace Laurel award from the editors of Aviation Week & Space Technology Magazine during a ceremony held at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, Va., April 7. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-led team won the award for the successful landing of the European Space Agency's Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan in January, and for the science data and imagery from NASA's Cassini orbiter, which will continue sending back data for many years.
NASA on April 11 issued a request for information (RFI) asking for ideas on lunar activities that could fit into the agency's plans for revisiting the moon and using it as a springboard for the human exploration of Mars.
SPACE FIRSTS: On April 12, NASA celebrates the 25th anniversary of the first space shuttle mission, STS-1, when Apollo veteran Commander John Young and Pilot Bob Crippen flew the shuttle Columbia. The date also marks the 45th anniversary of the first-ever human spaceflight, by Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
