Norway’s Thor 5 telecommunications satellite is undergoing several weeks of in-orbit checkout following its launch on board a Proton M/Breeze M rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Feb. 11. The satellite will spend several days executing a planned drift to its operational orbital location at operator Telenor’s 1 deg. W. Long. orbital slot. It will provide Ku-band fixed telecommunications and direct-to-home television broadcasting services with its 24 transponders, improving Telenor’s service coverage in the Nordic countries and Europe.
Asia-Pacific air traffic is growing rapidly, and air navigation service providers are moving just as fast to adopt satellite-based navigation—which should be easy to do because so little has been invested in radar infrastructure.
The British government could reveal as early as mid-March how it will address significant military funding shortfalls. Many in industry view the pending decisions as a litmus test of ministerial commitment to key tenets of its Defense Industrial Strategy.
Former astronaut Steve Oswald (see photos) has been named vice president and general manager of Boeing ’s Washington-based Intelligence and Security Systems Div. Brian Knutsen has become vice president of the division’s Boeing Mission Systems, Springfield, Va.
KLM took delivery of its first Boeing 777-300ER on Feb. 13, adding the long-range aircraft to its 15 777-200ERs. The aircraft is the first of six due to be delivered, and made its Boeing-acceptance flight on Jan. 24. The aircraft will bolster KLM’s long-haul capacity from the Netherlands to Asia and the Americas, and is expected to fly its inaugural services to Sao Paulo, Dubai, New York and Manila.
General Electric’s “more-electric” GEnx-1B engine has racked up 3,500 trouble-free ground starts using Hamilton Sundstrand variable frequency starter generators as part of validation tests for the Boeing 787. The generators collectively provide almost 1.5 megawatts of power for each 787. During flight tests on GE’s 747 flying testbed (FTB), the engine has also completed an additional 694 air starts. To date, the engine has accumulated more than 3,400 hr. and 4,500 cycles. Certification is anticipated later this quarter.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
The U.S. Navy is specially modifying three advanced SM3 anti-ballistic missile interceptors to shoot down an electronically dead, intelligence-gathering satellite that was launched into space for the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO). Aviation Week broke the news on AviationWeek.com Feb. 12 that the U.S. was planning the shootdown.
Barely weeks after ordering an all-Ka-band broadband satellite, Eutelsat says it is poised to buy a big Ku-/Ka-band spacecraft for a new TV neighborhood established to serve emerging markets in Eastern Europe.
Any development or testing of antisatellite weapons in space is fraught with geopolitical implications, as China found in January 2007, when it destroyed one of its own weather satellites. The issue is again on the doorsteps of the White House and State Dept. this week as China and Russia press the U.S. to join in crafting a long-debated United Nations treaty to ban weapons in space. And the matter gets even thornier with the U.S. saying it will try to shoot down one of its own ailing birds as early as this week (see p. 38).
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. (ret.) John (Mark) Curran has become vice president-Huntsville (Ala.) operations for New York-based L-3 Communications . He was deputy commanding general/futures director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center.
The U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) has reactivated the National Full Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) at Moffett Field, Calif., following a two-year refurbishment program. The facility, which has been declared fully operational, had been closed since 2003. Mark Betzina, acting site director for the Defense Dept., says NFAC will resume work on rotorcraft testing to meet demand from its chief customers—the U.S. Army, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and NASA.
Timothy Cantrell has become vice president-business development and global strategies for Aydin Displays Inc. of Atlanta. He was an executive at Barco Federal Systems and the Avionic Displays Corp.
Bob Watt, who is Boeing’s vice president-state and local government relations and global corporate citizenship in the Northwest U.S., has received the Edwin T. Pratt Award from the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle . The annual award recognizes support to the league’s services.
France’s CNES space agency has made a high-energy astrophysics mission with China a priority for its near-term science program. The SVOM probe, intended to study gamma-ray bursts, is scheduled to be approved this autumn, along with the Simbol-X-Ray mission to be carried out with Italy and a spectrometer for the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe.
The Indian air force is interested in purchasing a further 40 BAE Systems Hawk jet trainers to complement the 66 it already has on order. BAE officials confirm that initial talks are underway about the acquisition of additional aircraft. BAE has almost completed its build element of the Indian order. The aircraft above is the 22nd of the 24 to be built by BAE’s Brough site in England. Ironically, although Brough has long been the manufacturing site for the Hawk, this aircraft represents the first Hawk to make its maiden flight from the plant.
Alan Stern, NASA’s top science official, says long-range plans call for spending almost $3 billion in U.S. funds to return a sample from Mars by around 2020. Talks also are underway with the European Space Agency and various national space agencies about a partnership, which could include installing sample caches on upcoming missions like ESA’s ExoMars (AW&ST Oct. 1, 2007, p. 18). There’s a lot of work to be done, but if a sample-return mission is launched, the valleys in this image could be a likely target.
Thousands of new air traffic controllers will be trained in Adacel’s Tower Simulation System, which the FAA plans to deploy in the next 18 months at 19 key facilities, including New York-JFK, Atlanta and Denver. The new simulator provides interactive, real-life training scenarios and operates independently of ongoing air traffic operations.
Cessna last week formally unveiled its proposed Citation 850 Columbus—a large-cabin, 4,000 naut.-mi.-range business jet the company will develop at a projected cost of $780 million. Customer deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2014.
A preliminary report from the California Div. of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) on Feb. 7 into the explosion that killed three Scaled Composites workers during development tests of the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) rocket engine on July 26, 2007, points to oxidizer tank failure as a potential cause. Cal/OSHA’s bureau of investigation also submitted evidence for review to the Kern County District Attorney’s Office which is deciding whether to press criminal or civil charges against Scaled.
Thales Alenia Space says engineers have managed to place the Rascom-QAF1 satellite in final orbit, following a helium leak that occurred after its late December launch, but at the cost of a sharply reduced lifetime. Engineers say four weeks of apogee motor firings moved the pioneering African telecom spacecraft into its intended orbit at 2.85 deg. E. Long. However, barring further steps, satellite life will barely be more than two years, instead of the 15 years initially planned.
French armaments agency DGA has awarded EADS Socata a contract to upgrade 28 TBM 700 turboprop-powered transport aircraft. The $2.5-million, five-year upgrade will center on installation of Mode S transponders with antenna diversity, hardening of VOR receivers, and replacement of chemically generated oxygen with a gaseous oxygen system and drop-down masks.
The U.S. Navy seems to be getting serious about replacing its EP-3E signals intelligence aircraft. It has awarded two concept refinement contracts for its EPX program, each worth $1.25 million, to Boeing and the team of Northrop Grumman/L-3 Communications. Boeing is expected to pitch a version of its 737-based P-8A Poseidon Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft. Northrop Grumman/L-3 hasn’t decided on an airframe yet, but their electronic attack and intelligence-gathering experience comes from the EP-3, E-8 Joint Stars, E-6B Prowler and EF-18G Growler.
BAE Systems will develop advanced air-vehicle capabilities for U.S. Strategic Command’s air-strike mission planning system. The $42.5-million contract will run through mid-2012. The new functions involve rapid, automated mission planning for bombers, cruise missiles, reconnaissance aircraft and tankers. It also would be used to develop plans for operational and test missions involving strategic strikes.
