Air Force Aero Vodochody L-39 (10) Aerostar Yak-52 (11) Antonov An-26 (6) Mikoyan MiG-29 (10) Mikoyan MiG-29UB (2) Mil Mi-8 (16) Mil Mi-17 (7) Mil Mi-24D (8) Mil Mi-24V (9) Saab JAS 39C (12) Saab JAS 39D (2)
A key instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is poised to begin integration, marking a milestone in this $4.5-billion international mission, intended to replace the aging Hubble observatory.
William J. Alibrandi (Forecast International/www.forecastinternational.com)
The world turbine engine market continued to show growth into 2008, with small percentage upticks anticipated through 2017 over predictions made a year ago.
Douglas Royce (Forecast International/www.forecastinternational.com)
Production of new fighter aircraft is set to rise during the next decade, and the landscape of this market overall is about to undergo a drastic change.
Rooseveltplantsoen 4 2517 KR The Hague, Netherlands Tel. (31-70) 306-4100; Fax (31-70) 306-4101 www.ses-newskies.com Astra 2B Broadcasting, direct-to-home TV broadcasting, multimedia. Orbital location is 28.2° E. Carries 28 Ku-band transponders. 2014 EOL. IS-603 Business services, Internet access, telecommunications. Orbital location is 340° E inclined. Carries 38 C-band and 10 Ku-band transponders. Launched 1990.
Edward H. Phillips (Aviation Week & Space Technology)
The worldwide airline maintenance, repair and overhaul business was projected to lose money in the fourth quarter of last year followed by a $1-billion downturn this year as the credit crunch and fear of a protracted recession take their toll on balance sheets.
Astra says its Astra 5A satellite, positioned at 31.5 deg. E. Long., has suffered a catastrophic failure and will be removed from service. The spacecraft would normally have had around three years of life remaining. The satellite operator, Swedish Space Corp., and manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space, are seeking the cause of the incident and are preparing to deorbit the spacecraft. Astrium says a substantial part of capacity was transferred to another spacecraft at 23.5 deg. E. Long. The company will later determine how to replace and develop capacity at the 31.5 deg.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman report that the SpaceWire data bus technology they are developing for USAF’s Transformational Satellite Communications Systems (TSAT) constellation has matured to the preliminary design review level. TSAT is to serve thousands of military users with wideband, mobile beyond line-of-sight range protected communications. SpaceWire, which hosts a scalable architecture, is to provide internal box-to-box and system-to-system data transfers as would a local area network in space.
1601 Dry Creek Drive, Suite 260 Longmont, CO 80503, USA Tel. (303) 684-4000; Fax (303) 684-4048 www.digitalglobe.com QuickBird Commercial remote sensing, environmental and Earth resources monitoring. Orbit is near-polar LEO. Carries one 61-cm.-resolution panchromatic and one 2.4-meter-resolution multispectral sensor. 2009 EOL. Worldview I Launched Sept. 18, 2007. Worldview II Under development with Ball Aerospace using the company’s BCP-5000 platform. Scheduled for launch in 2009.
Tired of repeated cost overruns on major defense programs, the Australian government is creating the Defense Systems Integration Technical Advisory (DSI-TA) body to try to identify potential problems early. The group will monitor programs, assess risk, and provide advice to decision makers and project leaders on how to manage systems complexity. The organization is to focus particularly on system integration risks.
All Nippon Airways has named Senior Executive Vice President Shinichiro Ito as president and CEO to succeed Mineo Yamamoto beginning Apr. 1. Regarded as a consensus-builder, Ito most recently led the airline and sales organization, but past management postings have included heading maintenance and engineering and corporate planning. He says improving ANA’s reliability and on-time performance are priorities. Yamamoto led the airline through four years of sustained growth and profits, despite high oil prices.
Despite a strong performance last year, Eurocopter expects a downturn in helicopter sales and plans to cut costs and beef up support for commercial customers to help cushion the fall. But research and development spending will be maintained and even increased.
