In an encore to its first manned spaceflight, China has launched a 3,400-lb. advanced multispectral remote-sensing spacecraft developed jointly with Brazil. The flight also carried a Chinese smallsat to test communications technology. The Oct. 21 mission followed launch of the Shenzhou manned flight by only six days, demonstrating the country's ability to check out and launch large complex vehicles at different sites in close succession. The flight also marked the 30th straight launch success for China's Long March series since 1996.
Max Rutherford has become president/chief operating officer of GasTOPS Ltd. of Ottawa. He was president of Adadel Inc. of Montreal and had been vice president-business development of CAE Electronics.
The 555-seat Airbus A380 is, by far, Europe's biggest peacetime aviation program. While the manufacturing of airframe subassemblies begins around Europe, additional production facilities are being completed in preparation for final assembly of the first aircraft and a maiden flight in early 2004 (see p. 48). The A380 is only one of several major aerospace development programs underway. Progress on Boeing's proposed 7E7 twinjet, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet also is reviewed in this issue. Airbus artist's rendering.
The major subsystems at the heart of the F/A-18E/F are finally fleet-ready, after years of development, although several key warfighting features will take a while longer before they are fielded.
FRANCO/RUSSO UAV DEAL French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has indicated that France may cooperate with Russia on development of unmanned aerial vehicles. The countries recently inked an exploratory cooperation agreement on advanced propulsion systems to go with previous accords covering advanced fighters, UAVs, systems and missiles (AW&ST Oct. 13, p. 28). Alliot-Marie also said leases or other "innovative financing mechanisms" might be employed to permit acquisition of long-range airlifters and multimission frigates envisioned to fill projected force needs.
China Spacesat, a unit of China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp., has set up a joint venture with Thales of France to develop vehicle tracking and other telematics services for the Chinese market. The venture, which will draw on both satellite navigation and GSM standard cell phone technologies, follows China's recent decision to join Europe's Galileo satnav system. Aerostrong Technology Co., a subsidiary of China Spacesat, will own 51% of the Beijing-based company, called AeroThales.
BACK IN BUSINESS European Space Agency member states have agreed to a 9-million-euro ($10-million) budget line to continue operating the Artemis technology satellite through April 2006. Artemis has been used to test innovative laser inter-satellite links, and is a critical element in the orbital system serving Europe's Egnos wide-area augmentation network, a forerunner of Galileo. ESA is still seeking a 2.4-million-euro commercial deal to operate the L-band payload on Artemis once an existing contract with Telespazio expires at year's end.
TIGHTENING UP NASA's space shuttle program is reviewing its mission operations practices to see how they can better catch signals like those missed before the Columbia accident. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) found top mission managers on STS-107 ignored or discounted warning signs from several directions that the foam strike on Columbia's left wing was serious, and attributed the failure to heed the warning in part to schedule pressure from headquarters.
Avborne Inc. will use Avexus' Impressa software to track labor costs and manage turn times for heavy maintenance, modifications and conversion operations at its overhaul and repair facility at Miami International Airport. Avborne will transition its component repair and parts sales businesses to Impressa in the future.
Advanced devices to detect explosives and snipers are expected to be on the way to U.S. troops in Iraq within the next two months. One sensor records electronic activity around truck convoy routes. The other uses a laser to form a virtual microphone high overhead to detect the origin of rifle fire, said Anthony J. Tether, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).
The Galileo Joint Undertaking, set up to oversee development and initial deployment of Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system, has officially begun accepting bids for a concession company that will manage final deployment and operation of the 3.2-billion-euro ($3.7-billion) 30-satellite system. Bids are due by Dec. 5, and a winner is expected to be picked early next year. More than 50 companies from Europe, the U.S. and Asia have expressed interest.
Former astronaut Tom Henricks (see photo) has been appointed vice president-government business development for Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth. He was deputy director of the V-22 program in Philadelphia on an exchange assignment with Bell's V-22 joint venture partner, Boeing.
NASA and the White House are too focused on the short-term goal of returning the space shuttle to flight to give thoughtful consideration to how and, more importantly, why to replace it, according to a growing group of U.S. lawmakers and the experts who advise them on space issues.
Will the second century of flight see Americans landing on Mars, despite the difficulties of getting there and back, and the distance and hostility of the place? We should be planning human flights to Mars now, while seeking every way to make them technically manageable, safe and affordable. But we are not. Possibly this is because no charismatic personality has emerged to articulate and champion them. We need a road map and driver.
California's XCOR Aerospace will develop a flight-configured prototype rocket engine propellant pump as part of a $750,000 Phase II contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The FAA's Flight Plan for Fiscal 2004-08 finally got off the ground last week, six months and two drafts later--but just in time: Congress this week plans to say "yea" or "nay" to the delayed FAA reauthorization bill. The plan's initiatives, the implementation of which is tied to approval of the agency's budget request, are aimed at improving aviation safety and increasing system capacity. At the same time, the FAA's goal under the plan is to align performance and ensure accountability and transparency to stakeholders.
LOSING ALTITUDE The number of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters the Air Force plans to buy appears to be heading down as the service realigns its forces to more closely couple national guard and reserve units with active forces and as the fighter program moves into actual hardware, suggest services Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper. He characterized the procurement plan as "an open question," noting that the way the program handles several emerging issues, including weight, will be important in settling on a number.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), William Dennis (Jeju, South Korea)
European aerospace giant EADS is poised to establish a firm beachhead in China under a deal that would also give Chinese industry greater access to the global aerospace market. The Airbus parent company last week inked a cooperation agreement with AviChina Industry and Technology Co. Ltd. and said it would take a 5% stake in the unit. AviChina was spun off in May to house the bulk of the commercial aerospace and automotive activities of Aviation Industries of China/Second Group (AVIC 2).
DigitalGlobe has won a contract valued at more than $500 million from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency to ensure the availability of imagery from high-resolution satellites images.
WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP 14 Virgin Atlantic, Scaled in plans for circumnavigation 15 Expedition 8 crew at space station for handover WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS 20 EADS pact could offer new opportunities for Chinese 22 Airbus targets 50% of market share in China 22 Airbus snares agreement by Korean Air to buy five A380s 23 British battle for future RAF tanker enters homestretch 24 Pentagon to boost funds for select C2 equipment
The Irkutsk Scientific-Industrial Corp., which manufactures variants of the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, will conclude the purchase of the Yakovlev design bureau during the second quarter of 2004. This will give the privately held Irkutsk-based company a design capability to add to its large manufacturing facilities, as it attempts to create an aerospace company to rival Sukhoi and MiG.
With the U.K. Ministry of Defense moving toward downselect for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) contract, it is interesting to observe congressional criticisms of the U.S. Air Force's plan to lease Boeing KC-767s.
ARABSAT CONTRACTS Alcatel Space and EADS Astrium have been picked to build two fourth-generation Arabsat telecom satellites. Astrium will have overall responsibility for the 3.3-metric-ton, 6-kw. spacecraft, to be launched in 2006 to Arabsat's orbital neighborhood at 26 deg. E. Long. It will also provide the bus and a ground segment upgrade and deliver the spacecraft in orbit. Alcatel will supply the payload, consisting of 24 C-band and 16 K u-band transponders for Arabsat 4A and 12 K u-band/FSS and 16 K u-band/BSS units for Arabsat 4B.
