EYEING FISCAL 2009: U.S. Air Force budgeters have plugged $6 million into their proposed fiscal 2007 spending plan for an F-15E Radar Modernization Program. The money will pay for low-level risk-reduction work until the full-blown effort kicks off in FY '09, the service says. But the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar block upgrade for the service's older F-15C/D fleet won't go ahead because the Air Force has "higher fiscal priorities." Congress added money for the C/D effort in FY '05.
The first of four converted U.S. submarines, specifically designed to help special forces perform covert missions, returned to the Navy's fleet for service on Feb. 7. The USS Ohio, converted by General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat unit, is the first of four nuclear-powered ballistic missile subs (SSBNs) to be converted into cruise missile-laden, special forces-friendly SSGNs. The other three -- the USS Michigan, USS Florida and USS Georgia -- are slated to rejoin the fleet by 2007. Ohio was returned to service at a ceremony in Bangor, Wash.
NASA still hasn't decided to launch its STS-121 space shuttle mission in May, the next available window for the daylight photography conditions mandated after the Columbia accident, or in the follow-on July window. But regardless of when that test flight occurs, if it demonstrates the problems that felled Columbia are solved, NASA will be back in the space operations business in earnest.
FALCON 1: SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket is tentatively scheduled to make its next attempt at a debut flight from Kwajalein Atoll on Feb. 10 during a seven-hour launch window opening at 3 p.m. Eastern time. The low-cost launcher is carrying the FalconSat-2 spacecraft for the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The last of several aborted flight attempts for the Falcon 1 was in December, when a fuel tank partially buckled inward as it was drained (DAILY, Dec. 20, 2005).
The Bush administration appears to be acquiescing to congressional opposition to a new nuclear bunker-buster bomb, known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP). For FY '07, no RNEP funds were explicitly requested for either the Energy or Defense departments. But the Navy has asked for $77 million for the Hard and Deeply Buried Target Defeat System (HDBTDS) after it received $7.2 million for FY '06 and $9.6 million in FY '05.
The timeliness of commercial imagery data is becoming the next issue over which the U.S. government may want to exercise "shutter control," according to Air Force Col. Anthony Russo, chief of the space division at U.S. Strategic Command. "The argument has shifted," Russo said during a Feb. 8 lunch in Washington sponsored by the Center for Media and Security. "It used to be the argument over whether we could release less-than-one-meter resolution imagery, which was military quality at the time. The issue now is about real time."
Technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., plan to enshroud a trio of hatbox-sized satellites on the front end of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus launch vehicle next week, as they move a step closer to the day when scientists will use dozens of satellites working together to measure complex phenomena in space.
With congressional Democrats already critical of the Bush administration's proposed one-third boost to national missile defense spending for FY '07, to $10.4 billion from $7.8 billion this year, missile supporters will be charging up Capitol Hill. The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance said it "endorses and will aggressively support this new budget amount." Still, despite the requested funding boost, President Bush was silent on the issue in his State of the Union address this month.
The U.S. Navy is developing a master plan for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) that should be complete in June, according to Jim Thomsen, program executive officer for littoral and mine warfare. The master plan follows a similar plan for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) released last year, which specified four classes of UUV that the service plans to acquire. The Navy wants to move toward standardized families of unmanned vehicles so as not to overtax support infrastructure, Thomsen said.
Pilot Steve Fossett's chances of setting a new unrefueled aircraft flight distance record in the Scaled Composites/Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer remain in doubt because of uncooperative winds and a repeat of fuel venting problems experienced on the aircraft's first around-the-word flight. GlobalFlyer was to reach the halfway portion of the trip while flying over Japan about 8 p.m. Eastern time Feb. 9. Finding good tailwinds over Africa, the Middle East and Asia has been difficult.
NASA's Centennial Challenges technology-prize program is gaining steam with a new series of purses as high as $5 million. Draft rules for the six new prizes cover competitions for a high-efficiency cryogenic fuel storage depot; a lunar "all terrain vehicle" (ATV); a low-cost spacesuit; a rechargeable power source that works over a 14-day lunar night; a "micro" re-entry vehicle to return samples from orbit, and a solar sail.
