Growing federal budget constraints will spur the U.S. Air Force to seek more opportunities to partner with other military services to buy weapon systems, a top Air Force general said Oct. 11.
Harris Corp. will design and build four unfurlable mesh reflectors for three commercial satellites being built by Space Systems/Loral, the company said Oct. 10. The gold mesh-covered reflectors stow like umbrellas for launch and then unfurl in space, Melbourne, Fla.-based Harris said. Under the SS/L contract, the reflectors will be used for ICO Satellite Management's Mobile Satellite Services satellite; TerreStar Networks' TerreStar-1 mobile communications satellite; and XM Satellite Radio's XM-5 radio broadcast satellite.
Proponents and representatives of Defense Department services contracting are concerned that a new push in the Senate for defense acquisition reform could lead to punitive measures against them now that the DOD is spending more for services than for goods and weapon platforms. "There is a growing perception in Congress that lax management of services contracts has resulted in circumvention of taxpayer safeguards, such as open competition and management accountability," says a member update from the Aerospace Industries Association.
China's second manned spacecraft, Shenzhou VI, is set to carry two astronauts into Earth's orbit between Oct. 12-15, the China Internet News Service said Oct. 11. The launch is planned from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu.
The U.S. Defense Department's ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review is devoting much of its attention to the challenge of tracking and destroying moving targets, such as handfuls of lightly armed insurgents, an analyst said Oct. 11. Loren Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute, said that problems in precisely targeting fixed-site targets "have basically been solved" and that "the big challenge now lies in finding the elusive target.
An unarmed Trident II D5 ballistic missile was successfully test-launched during a British naval exercise in the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 10, the British defense ministry said. The submarine HMS Vanguard fired the missile as the final part of trials before it returns to operational service following routine maintenance.
The Senate, in passing its fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill, has asked the Pentagon to report to congressional appropriators about different technologies and concepts available to protect commercial and military aviation alike against man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). The Defense Department requested $13.4 million to develop a ground-based, networked electro-optical sensor grid combined with directed energy, counter-MANPAD technologies to protect both military and commercial aviation from MANPADS.
TO THE MOON: On Oct. 31, the Public Broadcasting Service's American Experience will premiere "Race to the Moon," an hour-long documentary about the 1968 Apollo 8 lunar orbiter mission. The documentary includes interviews with astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, as well as their wives, news anchor Walter Cronkite, members of NASA mission control, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, "A Man on the Moon" author Andrew Chaikin and John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.
The Defense Department's Joint IED Task Force is shifting its original focus on short-term projects to protect troops from improvised explosive devices to more long-term work. The task force's original charter only allowed it to look at "very short-duration concepts and ideas and technologies, so we're only picking the very low-hanging fruit," according to Col. Brian Green, the task force's acting technology director. "Now this summer, that's changed."
Orbital Recovery has signed a memorandum of agreement for its first satellite servicing mission, to take place in 2009, the company announced. This agreement guarantees a launch slot for the company's ConeXpress Orbital Life Extension Vehicle (CX-OLEV) to prolong the operation of "a major international operator's communications spacecraft," according to Orbital Recovery. The customer does not want its identity revealed yet.
BRADLEY CABLES: DRS Technologies will build electronic cable sets for U.S. Army Bradley Combat Systems under a $30 million contract from Bradley prime contractor BAE Systems, the company said Oct. 11. The work will be performed by the DRS Laurel Technologies unit in Johnstown, Pa., with deliveries set to begin in July 2006 and continue through July 2007.
Changes to domestic military bases under the pending Base Closure and Realignment process, expected to become law this month, are likely to create new opportunities for information technology vendors, according to a suburban Washington consulting firm.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking congressional approval to make permanent the prize authority under which it offered the Grand Challenge program, according to Director Tony Tether. The authorization is slated to expire in 2008. Although Tether expects there will be similar Grand Challenge-type programs mounted at DARPA before the decade is out, there is nothing on the immediate horizon.
BALLISTIC WINDSCREENS: Armor Holdings Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., said Oct. 11 that it has been awarded a $17.6 million contract modification to provide the U.S. Army with ballistic glass windscreens for up-armored Humvees. The modification is an extension of a previously awarded $53.5 million agreement. The windscreens will be delivered during 2006. The work will be done at Armor Holdings' Fairfield, Ohio, glass plant. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.
Boeing has completed the on-orbit delivery of the Spaceway F1 satellite to DIRECTV Inc., following the completion of in-orbit testing, the company said Oct. 10. The Spaceway F1, which Boeing says is the most complex commercial satellite ever built, will allow DIRECTV to beam high-definition TV channels to several of the nation's largest markets. The Boeing 702 satellite was designed and built at Boeing's Satellite Development Center in El Segundo, Calif., and launched in April by Sea Launch Co. (DAILY, April 27).
Australia's navy commissioned the frigate NUSHIP Toowoomba Oct. 8 in Brisbane, the country's defense department said. The ship was christened by Judy Blight, the daughter of the late Lt. Cmdr. Howard Goodwin, the last commanding officer of HMAS Toowoomba I, a minesweeper that served during World War II. The ceremony was one day shy of the 64th anniversary of Toowoomba I's commissioning on Oct. 9, 1941.
Michigan Aerospace Corp. said its Mechanical Systems Business Unit will design, test and move to production an unmanned watercraft launch and recovery system for use on the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship. At-sea testing of the system is planned for next year, the company said. The technology will be evaluated for use in other surface and underwater applications, and sensors could be added later to guide launches and recoveries.
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products said Oct. 10 that it has been awarded a $14.7 million contract to produce 1,097 MK19 grenade machine guns for the U.S. Army. The MK19 can fire up to 400 grenades per minute. Program management will take place at the company's Burlington, Vt., facility. Production work will be done at the Saco, Maine, facility.
Teachers will be able to perform simple experiments in microgravity as Zero Gravity Corp. will conduct "weightless" flights from the space shuttle's runway at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., next month. Zero-G will use its Boeing 727-200 aircraft, "G-Force One," to fly parabolic trajectories that temporarily create weightlessness. NASA and the European Space Agency have used such flights for years to conduct experiments in microgravity.
