Russian military operators apparently will be using the Kosmos 2455 military satellite launched Nov. 20 for electronic intelligence. While Russian defense ministry officials did not release any details on the payload launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Soyuz-U booster, the Kommersant newspaper identified Kosmos 2455 as a next-generation electronic reconnaissance satellite of the Lotos type. In combination with the yet-to-be launched Pion satellite, the new spacecraft will form the Liana orbital intelligence system.
Intelsat flight controllers are checking out Intelsat 14, the newest telecommunications satellite in the company’s fleet, and were set for the Nov. 29 launch of Intelsat 15 as well. Across the Atlantic, Eutelsat was setting up its W7 satellite following a Zenit launch from Kazakhstan.
Boeing has delivered two more trainers for the U.S. Air Force’s C-130 Avionic Modernization Program (AMP) to Little Rock AFB, Ark. The 314th Airlift Wing there will be the government’s sole location for training aircrews on that model’s upgraded avionics.
GE Aviation has purchased Naverus Inc., a privately held Seattle-based company that designs Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures for aircraft operators, airlines and air traffic control agencies around the world, including the U.S., China and Australia. Financial details of the buyout, announced Nov. 23, were not disclosed.
Five, four, three . . . two . . . one . . . the Space Training Simulator STS-400 “mother ship” releases the spaceflight/reentry vehicle and the space traveler feels a kick in the seat of the pants as the powerful engine boosts the vehicle 68 mi. above Earth for a suborbital flight.
Site clearance work is getting underway at North Charleston, S.C., on Boeing’s second 787 assembly line, while preliminary work to prepare the first aircraft for its long-delayed maiden flight has also begun in Everett, Wash. Flight-test engineers are believed to have conducted a safety-of-flight review of ZA001’s landing gear on Nov. 22-23, though Boeing declines to confirm “day-to-day” status on aircraft No. 1. The pre-flight system gauntlet tests, which will mark the start of the roughly three-week preparation toward first flight, have yet to begin.
Dudley Cate is right about skipping the KC-X procurement altogether (AW&ST Nov. 16, p. 10). In this era of limited budgets, ordering minor airframe overhauls and avionics updates for the KC-135 fleet makes sense. Furthermore, the Pacific theater tanker shortfall—which suggests the need for a Boeing-777/Airbus A330-size aircraft—could be addressed inexpensively by converting surplus DC-10-30s. That idea worked when the U.S. Air Force modified Boeing 707s into the E-8 Joint Stars.
Amy Butler (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
The Pentagon appears to be willing to boost funding for the $300-billion Joint Strike Fighter program in an attempt to shore up the flight-test effort and minimize cost growth and projected delays.
Pilot trainees fly the Embraer 135/145 regional jet full-flight simulator at a FlightSafety International Learning Center. FSI provides more than one million hours of simulation-based training yearly for pilots of commercial as well as business and military aircraft. An intense industry debate is centered around airline pilot training methods and hiring requirements (see p. 52). FlightSafety International photo.
Spare parts delivered by the space shuttle Atlantis should help the International Space Station operate long after the shuttle fleet retires, stretching its service life with extra gyros, pumps and other hardware that inevitably will wear out. Atlantis was headed home for its next-to-last landing late last week after more than six days docked to the ISS. The six-man shuttle crew delivered two pallets of spare parts and performed a host of maintenance tasks in and outside the station.
Airbus says the 28-month delay to the Boeing 787 flight-test program is bad news for the European manufacturer and the industry at large. “It does not do us or the industry any good when a program is as troubled as we were with the A380,” says Airbus Americas Chairman Allan McArtor. “Suppliers are hurting when a big program is delayed, so we’d like to see that program get going.”
A proof-of-concept experiment with radiation-resistant carbon nanotube-based memory devices has demonstrated that they can be operated in space regardless of the rigors of launch. The wafers of carbon Nanotube Random Access Memory (NRAM)—similar to the one at right being examined by a technician—performed as well after reentry into the atmosphere as they did in benchmark tests before launch. Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif., and Nantero of Woburn, Mass., conducted the experiment on last May’s STS-125 mission of space shuttle Atlantis.
Boeing and General Dynamics are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the long-standing case between them and the Pentagon over cancellation of the U.S. Navy’s A-12 stealthy attack aircraft in 1991. The saga has focused on whether the Pentagon had the right to cancel the program for cause. This year, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the government and last week refused to reopen the case. The verdict would force Boeing and General Dynamics to pay the government $2.8 billion plus interest, which has become a huge bill.
Blue Origins, the space-tourism startup developing the New Shepherd vertical-takeoff-and-landing suborbital vehicle, has picked three scientific experiments to ride the vehicle as early as 2011. Although the three will be carried on an unmanned flight, the company plans to offer rides to “researcher astronauts” who will need to tend their experiments during the roughly 3 min. of microgravity it will provide.
The Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority (Catsa), under a C$27-million ($25.7-million) contract with Smiths Detection, plans to install 140 advanced checkpoint X-ray systems at the nation’s airports by February. Major airports—the first being Vancouver, host to the Winter Olympic Games Feb. 12-28—will receive the Advanced Threat Identification X-ray (aTiX) units. The order includes training costs and involves two sizes of scanners, the HI-SCAN 6040 and the slightly larger HI-SCAN 7555, which can accommodate big objects such as strollers.
A Boeing 737NG full-flight simulator in Texas is to be used to test whether actual flight-recorder data can be employed for improved pilot training. The U.S. military is fronting the research, but its results could have significant ramifications for civil aviation as it moves to training based on performance standards instead of prescriptive tasks.
Industry groups want to make sure aviation is not forgotten if another bill to stimulate the economy and create jobs is drafted by Congress. A coalition of 19 aviation associations has written to lawmakers urging them to include funding for air traffic control modernization in any such bill. “Congress should seize this opportunity to expedite NextGen capabilities and to provide a platform for domestic job creation,” the letter says. Separately, Airports Council International-North America is calling for Congress to consider airport infrastructure projects.
Astronomers plan to use data from NASA’s upcoming Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission for decades to come as a pointer to objects in the sky that deserve closer study.
Centrifuge-based simulation is expanding the flight envelope and providing what’s missing in upset recovery training—a realistic encounter with the violent forces generated during airliner upsets.
Unlike most other international airlines, Emirates continued to grow in spite of the global economic downturn. In the first six months of its financial year, 2009-10, which ended Sept. 30, passenger numbers grew by 18%.
Why there is so much excitement over M3 and Lcross “discoveries?” It has been known for a long time that the solar wind included protons—the common isotopes of hydrogen—and solar wind has impacted the Moon since it formed. Is anyone surprised that as a result, there is interaction with oxygen in the regolith—a ubiquitous element in lunar minerals—resulting in H2O? To get excited over the fact that processing a ton of lunar regolith may yield a pint or two of water seems unrealistic, considering the investment.
Defense technology company Qinetiq is reflecting uncertainty in its two key markets, the U.K .and the U.S., warning it is unlikely to meet its financial expectations for the year. Announcing first-half results, Qinetiq cautions that its “main geographic markets are experiencing short-term uncertainties in specific areas.
Gen. Xu Qiliang, head of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, caused a stir in November with his declaration that “competition between military forces [in space] is a historical inevitability and cannot be undone.” Picked up by news outlets worldwide, Xu’s remarks in an interview with the Xinhua news agency did not sit well with the mandarins at China’s foreign ministry, who were getting ready to host President Barack Obama in Beijing. “I want to point out China has all along upheld the peaceful uses of outer space,” said Ma Zhaoxu, the ministry spokesman.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
France and the U.K. are working on a deal that would make it easier for them to acquire each other’s military equipment and to undertake joint procurements. Under the agreement, which is to be signed in the next few months, the two nations will be able to exchange information and use each other’s procedures in meeting urgent operating requests (UOR), according to Vice Adm. Bernard Rogel, assistant chief of defense for operations within the French defense ministry.
The FAA, following a review of icing accidents and incidents, has proposed a rule that would require Part 121 scheduled carriers to retrofit existing fleets with ice detection equipment, or make changes in an airplane’s flight manual to ensure timely activation of an existing system. The rule applies only to in-service aircraft with a takeoff weight less than 60,000 lb. The FAA anticipates the rule to become final in December 2010. Comments on the proposed rule are to be made by Feb. 22, 2010.
