GREGORY RESIGNS: Deputy Administrator and former astronaut Fred Gregory plans to resign from NASA as soon as a replacement is confirmed by the Senate. Prior to becoming deputy administrator in 2002, Gregory served as associate administrator for space flight and associate administrator of NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. A retired Air Force colonel, he has logged 7,000 flight hours and 455 hours in space: as pilot for the Challenger (STS-51B) in 1985, commander of Discovery (STS-33) in 1989 and commander of Atlantis (STS-44) in 1991.
ASTRONAUT LEAVING: Astronaut John Herrington is leaving NASA to become a commercial test pilot. Herrington has been named vice president, director of flight systems, and chief test pilot for Rocketplane Limited Inc. in Oklahoma City, NASA said Sept. 9. Herrington is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and the first Native American to fly in space and perform a spacewalk. He became an astronaut in 1996 and flew aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-113 to the International Space Station in November 2002.
B-52 JAMMER: Although Raytheon did not submit a proposal to be the prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force's B-52 Stand-Off Jammer (SOJ), it still hopes to participate in the program as a subcontractor and is talking to the two competing teams about a potential role, a company spokesman tells The DAILY. A Boeing/BAE Systems team and Northrop Grumman both submitted proposals for the program's upcoming technology development phase. The Air Force plans to award a contract to one of the teams in October (DAILY, Aug. 18, Aug. 30, Sept. 1).
Sept. 12 - 14 -- ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit, "The Key to Intelligent Collaboration," Adam's Mark Hotel, Denver, Colo. For more information go to www.esri.com/hssummit. Sept. 12 - 15 -- ASIS International 2005, 51st Annual Seminar and Exhibits, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fla. For more information go to www.asisonline.org.
SONAR SYSTEM: After receiving only one proposal, the U.S. Navy awarded a $13 million contract to Harris Acoustic Products Corp. of East Walpole, Mass., to build high-frequency sail array submarine sonar components for U.S. submarines to send, receive and measure sound energy for detecting mines. The contract, announced late Sept. 8, includes up to 20 projectors, 164 receive-array modules, first articles, related spare parts and technical data. Harris will carry out the contract in East Walpole by July 2013.
Raytheon has delivered a short-range millimeter wave Active Denial nonlethal weapon to the Office of Force Transformation's Full Spectrum Effects Platform (FSEP) program, also known as Project Sheriff, the company announced. In partnership with the U.S. Army's Futures Center and the Naval Surface Warfare Center, OFT is developing an operational prototype to provide forces in urban environments with new nonlethal options for subduing crowds. Active Denial fires a beam that heats the water under the skin to cause temporary pain.
LIVE-FIRE: Program officials heading the Boeing Co.'s P-8A Multimission Maritime Aircraft program for the U.S. Navy believe they are doing developmental live-fire testing early enough so that results can influence the actual design of the aircraft. Live-fire test and evaluation began in April and will finish in 2012, prior to the P-8A entering full-rate production, the Naval Air Systems Command says. Results remain classified, but Navair asserts that Boeing is working with several vendors to develop an "effective" fire-suppression system.
AEGIS BMD: U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Kathleen Paige, program director for the Missile Defense Agency's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system, is expected to retire in late November. She will be succeeded by Rear Adm. Alan B. "Brad" Hicks, who has been deputy director for combat systems and weapons, Surface Warfare Directorate, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
Boeing has begun installing on Space Shuttle Endeavour hardware that will enable it to draw power from the International Space Station, allowing the shuttle to stay docked at the facility for longer periods. When completed, the station's solar arrays will generate a maximum of 75 kilowatts of power total. The Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System will transfer up to eight kilowatts of that power to a docked shuttle, according to SSPTS Integration Manager Eric Gietl.
EX-CHAIRMAN DIES: Boeing Co. said Sept. 9 that lead director and former chairman of the board Lew Platt died on Sept. 8. He was 64. Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman, president and chief executive officer, said Platt was "one of our best friends and one of Boeing's most important leaders ... I am deeply saddened by Lew's untimely death."
MUNITIONS REMOVAL: DynCorp International LLC of Irving, Texas, said Sept. 8 that it has been awarded a contract worth up to $13.3 million to remove and destroy various munitions from Afghanistan. The munitions include land mines, light weapons, portable air-defense systems and unexploded ordnance. The contract was awarded by the U.S. State Department and has one base year and two option years.
NG CRITICIZED: Buy American advocate Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is criticizing giant U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp.'s aerial refueling tanker transatlantic alliance with EADS North America, the U.S. wing of the European defense company (DAILY, Sept. 8). "The idea of shipping these jobs off to a country that's refusing to send troops to Iraq does not appeal to me," Hunter said last week, as confirmed by a spokesman.
TRAINING DEVICE: New York-based L-3 Communications said Sept. 9 that its Link Simulation and Training division has delivered an F-16C Block 52+ Aircrew Training Device (ATD) to Greece's air force. The ATD will enable pilots to practice their air-to-air and air-to-ground combat skills by acquiring and identifying targets to accurately deliver ordnance. Pilots will also be able to practice takeoffs and landings, aerial in-flight refueling, low-level flight and emergency procedures. The device will be housed at an operational base of the air force.
The Pentagon's top acquisition official has given the V-22 Osprey what seems to be a strong endorsement. In a Sept. 8 letter to congressional defense leaders that was obtained by The DAILY late Sept. 8 (DAILY, Sept. 9), Ken Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor aircraft has satisfied provisions of the fiscal 2002 defense authorization act that call for certain effectiveness and sustainability goals to be met before production rises above its minimum sustaining rate.
Lockheed Martin has announced its team for the U.S. Army's $20 billion Information Technology Enterprise Solutions (ITES-2S) program. ITES-2S is a nine-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity program that will provide the Army with technology products and services. The Army expects to award eight contracts under the program, four to large businesses and four to small businesses with 1,500 employees or less.
PHONING HOME: The European Space Agency has added a deep-space ground station to its ESA Tracking Station network to make it easier to communicate with far-flung spacecraft. The station, in Cebreros, Spain, will come online in time to communicate with Venus Express, Europe's next planetary probe, which is to be launched Oct. 26 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The Cebreros station will be the main ground station controlling the spacecraft and getting scientific data from it.
The independent Base Closure and Realignment Commission late Sept. 8 sent to President Bush its review of the Pentagon's desired changes to domestic military facilities. Copies of the report were delivered to congressional members Sept. 9, as well as to the Defense Department.
Turkey is seeking up to $175 million in munitions and aircraft components for its F-16 fighters, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress on Sept. 8. The request is the second this week from Turkey, which is seeking to modernize its F-16 fleet. On Sept. 6, DSCA said Turkey is seeking up to $35 million worth of Joint Standoff Weapons for its F-16s (DAILY, Sept. 7).
Northrop Grumman Corp. hopes to open its Gulf Coast region shipyards, temporarily closed by Hurricane Katrina, on Sept. 12, according to a company update posted on its Web site late Sept. 7. "While the company is hopeful to resume some levels of shipbuilding activities at its shipyards next week, for now all personnel should continue to monitor these daily advisories," the company said.
NASA's effort to fix the remaining areas of potentially dangerous foam insulation loss on the space shuttle's external tank is adjusting to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, according to Bill Gerstenmaier, the agency's associate administrator for Space Operations.
PURCHASE: Lockheed Martin Corp. said Sept. 8 that it has agreed to acquire Louisville, Colo.-based Coherent Technologies Inc., which supplies laser-based remote sensing systems. Financial terms were not disclosed. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver will manage Coherent's business. The closing is expected later this year.
