A 100-ft. rock traveling at 18,000 mph. passed 26,500 mi. over the South Atlantic on Mar. 18 at 5:08 p.m. EST. It had the energy equivalent of a 0.5-megaton bomb, though much of this would have dissipated in the atmosphere if it had struck Earth. The object was first detected only three days earlier by the NASA-funded Linear asteroid survey, and was named 2004 FH. The rock is the closest such object ever detected that didn't hit Earth. Statistics suggest such encounters occur once every two years but are undetected.
The Missile Defense Agency appears impervious to criticism that the missile system it is getting ready to field is unproven, but MDA heads are nonetheless rearranging test plans to better characterize system performance.
After a year of trials and marketing, Lufthansa will put Boeing's Connexion Internet service into revenue operations next month on a 747-400 flight using the first wireless antenna certified for commercial use.
Israel and the European Union have reached agreement on Israeli participation in Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system. China also plans to join Galileo, and India is negotiating to do so.
Riding the 19% growth of the Persian Gulf and Middle East region, Gulf Air is increasingly confident that 2004 will be the year it makes a profit, said President and CEO James Hogan (AW&ST Dec. 15, 2003, p. 84). Year-end figures showed passenger traffic increased 11% to more than 6 million, and January's figures were up 25% over the same month last year. Gulf Air has been whittling down annual losses over the past three years on the back of a $238-million recapitalization plan. On. Mar.
NASA will rely on a cold-gas thruster that consumes less than 1 watt of electricity at peak operations for its Space Technology 5 smallsat constellation testbed. Built by Marotta Controls Inc. of Montville, N.J., the thrusters weigh less than 70 grams and produce thrust in the 0.105-2.360-Newton range, either continuously or pulsed, opening and closing in less than 5 millisec. The thrusters will control a constellation of three 47-lb.
Paris-headquartered Q International Airlines, an all-new Franco-African carrier, is scheduled to begin operations in September. The proposed startup's strategy will focus on routes between Ghana, European points and, at a later stage, North America, according to company officials. Although no contract has been signed yet, Q International has near-term plans to acquire two 295-seat Airbus A340-300s under a multiyear dry lease, and gradually expand its fleet to about 10 aircraft.
General Electric is buying InVision, the leading maker of explosive detection systems, in a move that highlights how far aviation security has come since the startup company began adapting medical technology to find bombs in luggage more than a decade ago. The purchase agreement, subject to regulatory approval, was announced on Mar. 15, four days after terrorists bombed trains in Madrid, leaving 200 dead and more than a thousand wounded.
India and BAE Systems late last week appeared on the brink of finally inking a deal for the purchase of the Hawk advanced jet trainer. India is expected to acquire 66 of the type.
NASA's new lunar exploration program will start modestly with a $300-million orbiter using recycled planetary instruments to scout a landing site for future humans, but experts believe it could evolve into a surface complex that private industry would operate after NASA moves on to Mars.
As aerospace companies wrestle with adapting to uncertain markets and resolving myriad financial challenges, several small ones are trying new, potentially risky business models that put people at the top of their priority lists. If they work, these strategies may be adopted by others, rebuilding the global aerospace industry's fortunes one person at a time.
Eutelsat is still laboring to determine the ultimate impact of problems affecting its new e-Bird dedicated broadband satellite. Officials said tests were still proceeding on the Boeing-built spacecraft, which was launched in September and was supposed to enter service in November.
Now that the FAA's airport grant program has shed a 2003-04 drain on its resources--stopgap funding for baggage-screening equipment installations, now being budgeted by the Transportation Security Administration--along comes what Transportation Dept. Inspector General Kenneth Mead terms the agency's next "major emerging issue," this time of its own making.
The U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater contractor has chosen the Turbomeca Arriel 2C2 turboshaft engine to power the HH-65 Dolphin helicopter in an urgent program to replace the existing powerplant and fuel control system.
General Dynamics, which recently announced plans to purchase U.K. defense contractor Alvis plc, also expects to buy Gilbert, Ariz.-based Spectrum Astro Inc., a privately held space systems integrator for the U.S. government. Spectrum Astro's capabilities include manufacturing and integration of spacecraft subsystem hardware, software and ground-support equipment. It will become part of GD's C4Systems, which is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Gilles Bouctot (see photo) has become chairman/CEO of Paris-based Messier Services. He succeeds Benoit Gosset, who will take another position within the Snecma Group. Bouctot was special project director for strategic analysis for Messier-Dowty and Messier Services.
Pierre Sparaco (Toulouse, France), Michael A. Taverna (Toulouse, France)
Europe's three major satellite makers--Alcatel Space, Alenia Spazio and EADS Astrium--still see European linkups as the ultimate goal, but are hunkering down in the meantime to derive maximum benefit from meager market opportunities.
As a reply to Philippe Cauchi (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 6), thanks to the madness of Europeans, Boeing and others had good conditions for establishing a strong commercial base during World War II. When peace returned, thanks to help from the U.S., European industry was almost nothing. So, it's not surprising that some industries needed government aid to restart, and even the U.S. had nothing to say against that at the beginning. As for the Future Strategic Tanker Program, if EADS seems better off with the Airbus A330-200, maybe it can thank Boeing. And when I read on p.
After nearly 40 years of claiming that the Great Wall of China can easily be seen from the Moon, the Chinese government has acknowledged the truth and ordered that its school textbooks be edited to remove the assertion. Astronauts and cosmonauts have been telling the Chinese for years that the Great Wall is virtually invisible from low-Earth orbit, let alone the Moon. But it wasn't until China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, reported after his 14-orbit flight that he couldn't see the wall that the government switched its stance.
Pierre Sparaco Michael A. Taverna (Toulouse, FranceToulouse, France )
Europe's three major satellite makers--Alcatel Space, Alenia Spazio and EADS Astrium--still see European linkups as the ultimate goal, but are hunkering down in the meantime to derive maximum benefit from meager market opportunities.
A 100-ft. rock traveling at 18,000 mph. passed 26,500 mi. over the South Atlantic on Mar. 18 at 5:08 p.m. EST. It had the energy equivalent of a 0.5-megaton bomb, though much of this would have dissipated in the atmosphere if it had struck Earth. The object was first detected only three days earlier by the NASA-funded Linear asteroid survey, and was named 2004 FH. The rock is the closest such object ever detected that didn't hit Earth. Statistics suggest such encounters occur once every two years but are undetected.
As the Pentagon embarks this month on its latest year-long mobility assessment, there are growing signs airlift demands will go up significantly. USAF Gen. John W. Handy, commander of U.S. Transportation Command, notes that airlift in recent operations topped 60 million ton-mi., compared with the 54-million-ton-mi. goal of the most recent, pre-Sept. 11, 2001, mobility study. And that report didn't include missions that have developed since, including homeland security and mobility for the more maneuverable Army.
The European Parliament's Citizens' Rights Committee adopted a draft resolution objecting to the agreement by the European Commission last year to provide U.S. authorities with 34 items of passenger name record data on air passengers bound for America.
Scientists have identified a source of the mineral hematite seen at the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landing site, and it is the BB-sized spherules affectionately known as blueberries.
Northrop Grumman is planning to establish a new UAV production facility in Mississippi for production of the pending Fire Scout helicopter. Groundbreaking is scheduled for next month.
