NASA contractors are carrying out long-planned layoffs in the wake of the final flight of the space shuttle. The day after Atlantis knifed through predawn Florida skies on July 21 to touch down in the final act of a spirited 30-year program, the shuttle program dropped 3,200 of the 5,500 contract workers who stood shoulder to shoulder with 1,200 civil servant colleagues to prepare and conduct the final mission.
A Nov. 30 launch date has been set for the first cargo supply mission by SpaceX's Falcon 9 launcher to the International Space Station, says Garrett Reisman, head of SpaceX's astronaut safety program. Two mission packages have been combined for the launch from Cape Canaveral, the COTS-2 automated approach test and the COTS-3 berthing test. Reisman says if the COTS-2 test is unsuccessful, COTS-3 will not be attempted.
The longtime chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Tom Poberezny, has retired, effective Aug. 1. He also had been president and CEO since 1989 of the organization his father Paul started in 1958. Tom Poberezny also had been chairman of the EAA's annual AirVenture convention and fly-in (see photo) since 1977. His accomplishments include overseeing the Oshkosh, Wis., organization's first major capital campaign, which was created to build the current EAA Aviation Center headquarters and museum at Wittman Regional Airport.
New Zealander Geoffrey Bryson Fisken, who died in June, shot down the most Japanese aircraft of any British Commonwealth pilot during World War II. Serving in the ill-fated defense of Singapore and later in the Solomon Islands campaign, Fisken is credited with 11 aircraft destroyed and five probables. He was 96.
South Korean coast guard members have retrieved pieces of the wreckage of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter that crashed into the sea off South Korea's island of Jeju on July 28. The accident investigation is likely to focus on flammable materials on board.
Engineers prefer to build designs on knowledge rather than guesswork, but when it comes to high-speed, high-altitude flight there is not a lot of data to work with. Mistaken assumptions about airflow over the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (Darpa) Lockheed Martin HTV-2 hypersonic glider are believed to have resulted in the early termination of its first flight on April 22, 2010.
Airline fears of a global proliferation of emission tax schemes are beginning to be realized, with the Australian government the latest to try to extract money from carriers under the guise of environmental concern. Just as the battle over a European Emissions Trading System (ETS) is reaching a crescendo, Australia's Labor government has unveiled a plan for large companies—including airlines—to pay a carbon tax of AU$23 ($25.17) per ton from July 2012. This will morph into a cap-and-trade system in 2015.
The European Union's carbon market entered into summertime hover mode in July as buy-side demand for the emissions credits dried up from the electric utilities and industrial manufacturers required by law to comply with the scheme's caps on their carbon dioxide emissions. Prices for EU Allowance (EUA) carbon credits traded in the bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS) briefly touched a two-year low in June as carbon traders bemoaned a sustained period of low demand for the emissions permits from electric utilities.
Engineers at Langley Research Center are using a $1.7 million, 1-million-gal. basin to test a mockup of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) for its performance in the water landings that will be common to many of the next-generation U.S. crew transports in development (see photos). Testing of the MPCV article in the new Hydro Impact Basin at Langley started in July, and will continue in September with a higher-fidelity mockup of the Orion, which is the basis of the four-seat capsule NASA is developing to take crews beyond low Earth orbit.
Builders of human-rated launch vehicles will have a commercial flight computer to plug in if a new development funded by Ball Aerospace & Technologies works out. The company based the design of its prototype launch vehicle flight computers on hardware already in use by NASA. “These advanced avionics are directly applicable to future human exploration goals and objectives,” says Cary Ludtke, vice president and general manager of Ball's Civil and Operational Space unit. The fault-tolerant computers are designed for human-rated systems, Ball says.
A contingent of would-be spaceborne astronomers has completed three days of training at the Nastar Center near Philadelphia, setting the stage for research-funded suborbital human spaceflight once vehicle-development for the purpose is completed. Astronaut-trainees from the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) and three South Carolina colleges took part in the training, which was intended to familiarize operators of the proposed Atsa suborbital telescope with spaceflight conditions.
Like Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Washington is making the military industrial complex an offer it cannot refuse. With debt-ceiling negotiations butting against a supposed Aug. 2 deadline for a congressional deal, industry executives were left wondering last week what happens if Washington—the only real customer for many—suddenly starts choosing which bills to pay.
As if the debt-ceiling crisis was not enough of a constitutional tussle, another battle between the legislative and executive branches has seen its first official salvo. On July 27 the Senate Commerce Committee made good on its earlier threat to subpoena documents related to the design selection for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (AW&ST June 27, p. 22). NASA is closing in on its reference design for the SLS and it has already given the committee a letter to that effect and a peek at 6,000 pages of documents from the protracted selection process.
The IRS wants airlines to refund passengers for taxes paid on tickets purchased before the FAA shut down, but the Air Transport Association (ATA) is pushing back. Travelers who bought tickets before the government stopped collecting taxes July 23 but are traveling after the FAA partially shut down are entitled to a refund on excise taxes, according to a July 26 letter the tax agency sent to ATA President Nick Calio.
Finally, the Transportation Department (DOT) will delay the implementation of some of its new passenger rights rules until early next year, partially acceding to U.S. and international carriers, although not as much as they hoped. But the fight is far from over: Three U.S. low-cost carriers have gone to a federal appeals court to fight various aspects of the new rules, and they have asked the court to forbid implementation until a final ruling.
Lacking the means but not the desire, Boeing is setting aside the creation of its first advanced single-aisle transport of the 21st century in favor of a more conservative new engine 737. But even that relatively prosaic approach is not without manufacturing peril. Chairman/CEO James McNerney says the company's Renton factory, Boeing's touchstone for lean manufacturing south of Seattle, may not be able to swallow a 737NE project alongside its busy schedule assembling the Next Generation 737, although at this stage nothing is decided.
While a decision on the 737 tops Boeing's list for new programs, the 787-10X second stretch of the baseline 787-8 is moving higher up the priority chain.
While Boeing's board readies for its 737 New Engine launch decision, program planners face key choices over what other technologies will be featured on the future derivative. Although playing down the scale of non-engine-related upgrades planned for the 737NE, the company is nevertheless exploring a range of potential relatively low-risk options ranging from advanced systems to aerodynamic innovations. The evaluation balances Boeing's desire to outpace the Airbus A320NEO, while minimizing development costs and maximizing commonality.
The fanfare was loud and generated the desired attention, but now that the euphoria has subsided it is apparent that AMR Group's deals with Airbus and Boeing to overhaul American Airlines' narrowbody fleet are more wishful thinking than concrete achievement.
Demand across its product range is prompting GE Aviation to open a $56 million, 150,000-sq.-ft. factory for composite engine components in Ellisville, Miss., its second recent addition in that southern state.
Singapore, a small nation dependent on sea trade for its livelihood, has decided to explore the option of gaining a more sophisticated anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and maritime patrol capability. In a separate development, Singapore also plans to issue a tender for new refueling tankers and is evaluating heavy-lift transports.
Two years ago, the two-star officer helping to oversee the nearly $380 billion Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program would have said it “is a marathon, not a sprint.” Now he has revised that sentiment. “It's not a marathon—it's a steeplechase,” he declares, highlighting the unpredictable nature of such large programs.
The U.S. Army's new intelligence-collection aircraft program has reemerged from a gauntlet of protests only to be confronted with suggestions to fold it into a similar Air Force project. After nearly nine months of complaints about selecting Boeing to build the fleet of Enhanced Medium-Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (Emarss) aircraft, the Army finally directed the company to restart work on the contract.
David Fulghum (Washington), Paul McLeary (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
With some fanfare, the Defense Department recently unveiled its first cyberstrategy, but any possibility of rapidly streamlining U.S. cyberoperations, establishing clear command and control or securing the freedom to use offensive cyberweapons is looking more like a wish than a plan. The underlying problems include a Byzantine network of defense and civilian organizations with conflicting cyber- responsibilities, a shortage of trained specialists and—most critical of all—no identifiable funding streams.
The first of six P-8A maritime patrol aircraft Boeing is producing for the U.S. Navy completed nearly 6 hr. of initial flight testing as part of its transfer from the basic assembly line to a factory for systems installation. Designated LRIP-1, the airplane is the first from the $1.6 billion low-rate initial production contract won last January. The full P-8A program award is to include 117 aircraft as replacements for the Navy's P-3s. LRIP-1 will be the first P-8A to enter service; it is to join the fleet in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2013.
