Sierra Nevada Corp. is moving into fabrication of the aeroshell structures for its planned Dream Chaser lifting-body crew vehicle, after winning NASA approval for the tooling needed to build the hardware. Under the company’s $20-million Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) agreement, the space agency also certified it had cleared a milestone with a three-ignition hot-fire test of the hybrid rocket engine that will power the Dream Chaser. “It was a pretty hard test,” said Mark N. Sirangelo, corporate vice president for space systems.
Astrium Services’ Paradigm unit has contracted to use all of the capacity on an X-band hosted payload to be carried on Anik G1, a new spacecraft Telesat plans to launch in the second half of 2012, for the anticipated 15-year life of the spacecraft.
A recent entrant in the Google Lunar X Prize competition hopes to pay for a robotic Moon lander by selling rides on its launch vehicle at bargain-basement prices, including a $24.5-million trip to lunar orbit.
Lost in the debate about U.S. defense spending—should it be reformed, cut, expanded or some combination thereof—is the glaring fact that no one knows precisely where the money is being spent or even how much is being spent. Yes, there is the headline-grabbing figure that, with war costs included, the White House has asked for more than $708 billion for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.
Heidi McNary (see photo) has been named vice president/chief technical officer of Hawker Beechcraft Corp. She joins HBC from DeCrane Aerospace in Phoenix, where she was chief operating officer/executive vice president-sales and marketing.
Southwest Airlines and its pilots’ union reached a tentative agreement on wages and work rules that moves the carrier closer to adding the Boeing 737-800 to its fleet. The agreement was approved unanimously by the Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association board and will be voted on by the rank and file during November. The airline has set a Dec. 1 deadline for deciding whether to add the 737-800.
Bill Spilman has become director-airline information technology solutions-Americas, and Charles Clough vice president-airline IT commercial-Americas, both at Amadeus global distribution system.
The International Space Station has a crew of six again after the Oct. 9 docking of Soyuz TMA-01M, the first Russian crew vehicle with digital avionics. On board were cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. They joined the station’s Expedition 25 crew—Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker of NASA and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin—after docking at the new Russian Poisk spacecraft.
I wish Raytheon luck now that it has been tapped by the U.S. Air Force to develop and build the Small Diameter Bomb II (AW&ST Sept. 6, p. 32). While stationed at Naval Air Test Center-Strike Ordnance at NAS Patuxent River, Md., I saw a lot of fit tests. Fit tests indicate it will fit, but the first few seconds after release will be the real proof. Weapons that arm too soon or bounce off the aircraft—or each other—upon release can make for an interesting flight.
USAF Maj. Gens. Michael R. Moeller and Douglas H. Owens have been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general. Moeller has been named U.S. security coordinator for Israel-Palestinian Authority. He was director of strategy, plans and policy at Headquarters U.S. Central Command, MacDill AFB, Fla. Owens has been appointed vice commander of Air Education and Training Command, Randolph AFB, Texas. He was vice commander of Pacific Air Forces, Hickam AFB, Hawaii. Brig. Gen. Timothy M.
The world’s airports are allying with airlines in taking a new and plucky approach toward governments over aviation security in the wake of private sessions between top aviation officials and government leaders from the U.S., Canada and the European Union.
NASA has accepted the mission review for the $485-million Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution (Maven) project, heading it toward a 2013 launch. Built by Lockheed Martin, the spacecraft will orbit the planet, probing its upper atmosphere to study the influence of the solar wind in driving surface water from the red planet.
Israeli defense director Udi Shani formally signed a letter of offer and acceptance for the country’s first purchase of F-35s late last week. Israel is the first foreign military sales customer for the single-engine stealthy aircraft made by Lockheed Martin. The $2.75-billion sale includes 19 aircraft for an average cost of $144 million. There is an option for 25 more aircraft.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Leithen Francis (Singapore)
Moves by Singapore Airlines (SIA) and JetBlue Airways to launch high-speed satellite-based connectivity services signal that the air transport industry’s embrace of onboard broadband is moving into highgear.
A Google Lunar X Prize contender from Romania is edging ahead in the $30-million Moon race now that it has become the first competitor to succeed with a suborbital rocket test.
Thales Alenia Space (TAS) is seeking to tighten its ties with Russia’s space sector, in particular with longtime partner ISS Reshetnev, in order to give the Franco-Italian satellite maker a firmer foothold in Russia. Such a move would also grant Russian firms greater access to the global market.
A protest that could have derailed the U.S. Air Force’s latest KC-135 replacement competition has turned out to be merely a curious sideshow. The Government Accountability Office last week rejected claims made by would-be KC-X bidder U.S. Aerospace, which proposed an An-70-based tanker with Ukrainian state-owned Antonov, that it was unfairly kicked out of the competition because of a tardy proposal. “The Air Force acted appropriately in rejecting the proposal,” says Ralph White, managing associate general counsel for procurement law at the GAO.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon says the country is planning a $1.5-billion dual-use satellite system to improve the country’s telecommunications network, including providing connectivity to rural areas, and to reinforce national security.
In an Oct. 6 speech in suburban Washington, Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Lynn outlined the tough reality faced by the Pentagon and its contractors. While the Defense Department projects it needs 2-3% real growth each year in its warfighting accounts—modernization, force structure, training—the reality is it is likely to get only 1%. And even that meager increase will probably come under pressure as the Obama administration and Congress grapple with a gargantuan federal budget deficit and a tidal wave of entitlement spending.
