Zev Kaplan, Phillip A. McNeil and Carl J. Rickertsen have been nominated for the board of directors. Kaplan is general counsel to Cash Systems Inc., a financial services business company. McNeil is a managing partner and the chief investment officer of SPP Mezzanine Partners, the general partner of SPP Mezzanine Funding LP. Rickertsen is managing partner of Pine Creek Partners, a private equity investment firm.
Japan, South Korea and the European Community invest "significantly larger" funds in robotics research and development for their private sectors than the United States, according to a study conducted by NASA, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Moreover, industrial robots were invented and commercialized in the United States but now are made almost exclusively in Japan and Europe.
DRS Technologies Inc. will continue to produce and support launch control and power distribution subsystems for Lockheed Martin's MK 41 Vertical Launching System under a $7.6 million contract, the company said Oct. 12. The systems will be for MK 41s on Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's DDH-class ships.
Frederick J. Harris has been appointed president of the subsidiary National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., effective Jan. 1. Harris will replace Dick Vortmann. Jeffrey Kudlac has been named a vice president.
With NASA dictating most elements of the design for its Crew Exploration Vehicle, the crux of the industry competition to build the vehicle will be the price tag and production efficiencies proposed by each team, according to Doug Young, Northrop Grumman's CEV program manager.
China's second manned spacecraft was successfully launched into Earth's orbit on Oct. 12, the China Internet Information Service said. Astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng will conduct laboratory tests aboard the Shenzhou VI over several days after transferring from the spacecraft's return module into its orbital module. The 9.2-meter (10-yard) long spacecraft took off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province.
NASA and the X Prize Foundation plan to collaborate on two upcoming Centennial Challenges prize competitions, the agency announced. The Suborbital Payload Challenge would reward the first team that demonstrates a reusable suborbital rocket to altitudes or speeds of interest to science researchers, NASA said.
The U.S. Coast Guard has established the Coast Guard International Programs to push the service's foreign military sales, including equipment and services related to its Deepwater recapitalization effort. Under the leadership of Rear Adm. Patrick Stillman, who also is the program executive officer for Deepwater, Coast Guard International Programs is a consolidation of the FMS Division, formerly directed by the Coast Guard's International Affairs Office, and the Deepwater International Programs Office.
CDR SOON: The hull of the first Fast Response Cutter, the smallest of three classes of new cutters planned to recapitalize the U.S. Coast Guard's surface fleet under the Deepwater recapitalization program, is almost 30% complete, according to the service and the industry consortium running Deepwater. A critical design review for the 140-foot cutter - a program whose plans were accelerated by a decade under the revised Deepwater budget plan - is projected for late this year or early in 2006, they said.
BLACK HAWK PARTS: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. will provide spare parts for Sikorsky-built UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters under a $10.3 million contract from the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense said Oct. 11. The work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2009.
Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips returned safely to Earth Oct. 10 after spending six months on the International Space Station. They were accompanied by U.S. businessman Gregory Olsen, the world's third commercial space tourist, who spent eight days aboard the station. The trio landed in their Soyuz vehicle in north-central Kazakhstan at 9:09 p.m. EDT.
The U.S. Defense Department said Oct. 11 that it is sending 15 helicopters and four C-130 Hercules cargo planes to aid remote areas of Guatemala suffering from severe flooding and mudslides triggered by Hurricane Stan. Nine Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters already have been dispatched, and six more are expected to arrive in the next few days. The helicopters are being used to reach isolated villages where bridges have been wiped out, while the C-130s are carrying food, water, plastic sheeting and medical supplies.
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.
