TEST FLIGHT TWO: NASA is still working toward a May window for the next space shuttle test flight, three years after the loss of Columbia forced development of in-orbit repair techniques for the delicate thermal protection system on the orbiter. The STS-121 mission will see spacesuited astronauts test mechanical plugs and putty-like filler on test articles in the cargo bay that later will be subjected to simulated re-entry temperatures in arc-jet tests on the ground.
GPS III: The U.S. Air Force plans to release the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Global Positioning System III satellite segment by mid-March, followed by another RFP for the GPS III control segment later in the spring. Contracts will be awarded beginning in the fall. The service is now finalizing both RFPs with the undersecretary of the Air Force for space.
GLOBAL WARMING: Congress is opening an informal probe into a key NASA scientist's charge that the agency has tried to stifle his calls for reduced greenhouse-gas emissions. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Science Committee, says "NASA is clearly doing something wrong" after James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, complained publicly that agency headquarters was showing excessive zeal in screening his public statements.
The Feb. 7 edition of Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will be sent to readers a few hours later than normal to allow for full coverage of the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 defense budget proposal, which will be unveiled on Feb. 6.
The Quadrennial Defense Review, released Feb. 3, says the Navy will "return to a steady-state production rate" of two attack submarines per year no later than 2012 while achieving an average per-hull procurement cost objective of $2 billion.
The HMS Daring, the first of the British navy's new Type 45 destroyers, was launched on Feb. 1 at the Scotstoun shipyard in Glasgow, the U.K. defense ministry said. "HMS Daring is the most powerful destroyer the U.K. has ever built. The launch of this first Type 45 is a milestone in the development of the Royal Navy of the future. It is proof that the government gives our sailors the tools they need to do their job now and in the future," John Reid, Britain's defense secretary, said in a statement.
C-130J ENGINES: Rolls-Royce said Feb. 3 it signed a $35 million, 10-year contract to support engines on C-130J aircraft operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The aircraft, powered by four Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 engines, are operated out of the Coast Guard Aircraft Project Office in Elizabeth City, N.C.
NASA's inspector general, Robert W. Cobb, has himself become the object of an investigation into charges he "'failed to investigate violations of safety concerns'" and retaliation against whistle-blowers.
BANG, NOT BUCKS: Many aerospace industry and military planners have been looking toward Long-Range Strike as the next major aircraft program that would make up for the major cuts now planned for the B-52 heavy bomber force. Not so fast, Quadrennial Defense Review planners are saying. The philosophy of the review is about capabilities, not numbers. Planners, despite fewer aircraft, expect to produce an "ever-increasing incline of capabilities" to do even more missions than are currently possible.
The Defense Department is expected to request $439 billion in its fiscal 2007 budget request, including $84 billion for procurement and $73 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation, informed analysts have said. The budget request, $120 billion in already planned supplementals for Iraq and Afghanistan operations in fiscal 2006 and early 2007, and the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) are seen as more friendly to industry than expected.
The Pentagon's 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) calls for a 15 percent increase in special operations forces in fiscal 2007, along with accelerated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement to improve the military's persistent surveillance. This latest QDR, a congressionally mandated 20-year defense outlook, continues the Pentagon's increased emphasis on special operations forces (SOF) in the post-Cold War fight against global terrorism. The SOF budget has risen 81 percent since 2001, according to the QDR.
The Stiletto, a prototype shallow-water craft made from a tough, lightweight carbon composite material, will be "put through its paces" with Naval Special Clearance Team 1 in early May, the Defense Department said Feb. 1. Nevertheless, Navy Cmdr. Greg Glaros, a transformation strategist in the DOD's Office of Force Transformation, also said he was uncertain when the one-of-its-kind craft will be fielded.
As he prepares to step down from the helm of Loral Space and Communications after 34 years, Bernard L. Schwartz says he learned a lesson from the company's financially disastrous Globalstar satellite telephone venture. But he has no regrets about his decision a decade ago to sell off the company's military electronics units to focus on space communications. Schwartz says two milestones prompted him to announce his retirement as chairman/CEO: the company's emergence from bankruptcy protection last November and his 80th birthday the following month.
SEALIFT IT: SRA International Inc. announced Feb. 1 that it has awarded a competitive contract to provide a range of information technology services to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command afloat operations. The contract has an estimated value of $108.5 million over six years if all options are exercised. SRA partners include Advanced Information Systems Group Inc., Anteon International Corp., Cambridge Communication Systems Inc., Capstone Corp., Cyberspace Technologies International Inc., GlobalSat, InScope, Mercomms Unlimited, MILVETS Systems Technology Inc.
Terrorist protection for the Super Bowl in Detroit Feb. 5 includes a detailed imagery data base of the area taken by secret National Reconnaissance Office Advanced KH-11 type digital imaging spacecraft. The imaging of U.S. cities by NRO reconnaissance spacecraft has also been done in the past to help build geometrically correct imagery products for use by agencies such as the Secret Service to support presidential visits and other high-profile visitors or events.
NASA's Ames Research Center is seeking industry's help to identify alternate heat shield materials that could protect the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) when it re-enters Earth's atmosphere following a mission to low Earth orbit. NASA and its CEV contractors already are working on the more advanced and robust heat shields that will be needed to protect the CEV when it re-enters following a trip to the moon. NASA plans to begin flying crew aboard the CEV by 2012 and return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2018.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Feb. 2 that the fiscal 2007 defense budget, which the Bush administration will propose Feb. 6, is "appropriate" and that U.S. taxpayers are getting more military capability per dollar than ever before. "My feeling is that the defense budget is appropriate and that we will be getting a great deal more out of it than in earlier periods because of the steps that have been taken to improve the effectiveness of the military," he told a lunch crowd at the National Press Club in Washington.
MERCURY MISSION: L-3 Communications announced Feb. 2 that its Vertex Aerospace subsidiary has been awarded a nine-month, $27.1 million contract to provide Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) for the U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft fleet. With the exercise of four one-year options, the total value of the contract is $142.3 million. A modified version of the Boeing 707, the E-6B Mercury serves as an airborne command post and is the U.S. Navy's largest and heaviest aircraft.
The joint venture of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. heading the U.S. Coast Guard's massive Deepwater recapitalization program said the first National Security Cutter is about 49 percent complete. The ship is scheduled for launch later this year and will be delivered in spring 2007. Production of the second cutter has started, Integrated Coast Guard Systems said in its January newsletter.
The Northrop Grumman/Navy Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle team hopes to conduct shipboard takeoff and landings aboard the High Speed Vessel 2 (Swift) in May, according to program officials. The Swift is demonstrating technologies for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), where the Fire Scout UAV eventually will be deployed to assist manned helicopters with countermine and anti-submarine warfare missions.
NASA should remain involved in rotorcraft research, Director of Army Aviation Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt told Capitol Hill lawmakers during a hearing in Washington Feb. 1. "We need your help in keeping NASA involved," Mundt told members of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces. "NASA needs to stay involved in the rotary wing industry, and they need to stay involved in helping us bring [forward] the technologies that will help our rotorcraft."
