The world's leading launchers have banded together to discuss the idea of forming an association to promote their common interests. Senior executives from Arianespace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin-led International Launch Services, Orbital Sciences Corp., Sea Launch, China Great Wall Industries Corp., Japan's Rocket Systems Corp. and the European/Russian Starsem venture have met three times since last October to discuss the idea.
Bruce H.S. Anderson has become chief counsel of the Kennedy Space Center. He held the same position with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers TransAtlantic Programs Center, Winchester, Va.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE IS CHANGING the name of Falcon AFB, Colo., to Schriever AFB in honor of Gen. Bernard A. Schriever (Ret.), who has been credited with pioneering the nation's ballistic missile program. Falcon AFB is a high-security facility near Colorado Springs that provides on-orbit command and control, and day-to-day operation of approximately 66 surveillance, weather, navigation and com- munications satellites. The Joint National Test Facility and Space Warfare Center also are based at Falcon.
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) plans to change the orbit of its Comets communications research spacecraft to avoid the possibility it will collide with the burnt-out second stage of an earlier H-2 mission and create hazardous space debris. Comets was put into a nearly useless orbit on Feb. 21 after the LE-5A second stage on an H-2 shut down prematurely (AW&ST Mar. 2, p. 34). The failure was the first for the H-2 program in six launches.
James Stowell has become segment director for GPS reference stations for Leica Geosystems Inc., Torrance, Calif. He was senior program manager for reference stations for Ashtech Inc.
A three-fold increase in earnings, record orders and a surge in cash flow will give Thomson-CSF a strong bargaining position in upcoming negotiations to build a giant French, and later European, defense contractor around the Paris-based electronics company.
Francis Avanzi has been appointed chairman/CEO of France's Hurel-Dubois group. He succeeds Jacques Dubois, who has retired. Avanzi, a former Snecma vice president and CFM International president, was CEO of Arianespace in 1996-97.
WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS have asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency defense budget supplement to offset the costs of prolonging the U.S. presence in Bosnia and the recent buildup of forces in the Persian Gulf region. Of the total, $1.84 billion is for Fiscal 1998 and $1.85 billion for Fiscal 1999. The U.S. manpower commitment in Bosnia is expected to drop to 6,900 from 8,500. However, NATO has not finalized its follow-on force deployment plans, so precise composition and basing of U.S. forces after June is not yet known.
Inmarsat is on track to reinvent itself as a private company as early as the end of the year, a move that will help it to raise capital for new projects such as Horizons, a new generation of communication satellites aimed at the high-speed data market for laptop computers.
When U.S. Air Force planners decided to move ahead with new Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs), they anticipated that a heavy-lift variant would be needed for only a handful of launches of large, specialized government spacecraft. The demand was projected to shrink even more as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a main heavy-lift customer, shifted to smaller satellites.
A COLEMAN RESEARCH CORP. Hera target vehicle completed a successful demonstration flight from Ft. Wingate, N.M., to the White Sands Missile Range on Mar. 2. The firing repeated a failed test conducted last November, which was to reach a 60-65-km. (37-40-mi.) altitude. The latest flight comprised a first-stage burn, long ``coast'' period, separation and second-stage firing, and landing within the WSMR boundaries 345 km. downrange.
European aerospace and defense companies, resentful of the historical imbalance in joint ventures with their American counterparts, are cool to the U.S. idea of international consortiums that would compete against each other for major procurements.
Karl Zogg has been appointed avionics sales manager for Stevens Aviation's facility at Jeffco Airport, Broomfield, Colo. He was sales manager for Flight Visions Inc., Sugar Grove, Ill.
The FAA has found shortcomings in the oversight of maintenance conducted by ValuJet and its contractors and in training provided to the carrier's flight attendants after a 3.5-month-long, unprecedented review of the airline and the agency inspectors scrutinizing it.
Paul M. Johnstone has been awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal posthumously. Johnstone was senior vice president-operations services for Eastern Airlines before retiring. He then was chairman of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel and vice president of the Society of Senior Aerospace Executives.
Sextant Avionique and SFIM Industries have begun marketing a new-generation avionics suite for light and medium helicopters. The new suite, dubbed Meghas, is a fully modular, lightweight system combining autopilot, primary flight, navigation and engine data display and other functions into a single system designed to replace 30 or so mechanical indicators.
Helen Muir, professor of aerospace psychology at Cranfield (England) University's College of Aeronautics, has received the Award for Excellence in Cabin Safety from the International Aircraft Cabin Safety Symposium.
A $6-million grant from computer chip-maker Intel Corp. will help the University of California's Institute of Transportation Studies run multilayered simulations of air traffic across the U.S. The National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research (Nextor) will use five workstations and 20 computer processors provided by Intel to realistically recreate, using advanced parallel processing, air traffic at different altitudes and locations.
The head of U.S. military forces in the Persian Gulf is pressing for tighter enforcement of international sanctions against Iraq, but Congress is worried the latest U.N./Iraq accord will weaken the sanctions instead.
Unmanned aerial vehicles, thermal imagers and commercial explosive detection devices are being evaluated by the U.S. Air Force under a dedicated program to improve the physical security of deployed military personnel.
A new facility will begin producing large round turbine engine components next month using the Spraycast-X process developed by Howmet Corp. A joint venture between Howmet and Pratt&Whitney, Sprayform Technologies International's (STI) new A2 production unit in Whitehall, Mich., will have a 1,000-lb. melt capacity and be capable of forming parts up to 30 in. in diameter. The components are formed by spraying atomized superalloys in a vacuum onto a mandrel. A 6,000-lb.-capacity unit, designated A3, is set to open in Whitehall later this year.
A European direct-to-home television satellite equipped with on-board multiplexing capability was successfully launched into geosynchronous transfer orbit by an Ariane 42P booster.
Michael S. Francis has been named vice president-advanced technology of the Aurora Flight Sciences Corp., Manassas, Va. A recently retired U.S. Air Force colonel, he was director of architecture and integration for the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office.
Yielding to strong resistance from several U.S. major airlines, the computer reservations systems provider Galileo International has canceled a 50-cent fee it was intending to impose on airlines for processing an electronic ticket. Northwest, Continental and US Airways thwarted Galileo's plans using tactical maneuvers directed for the most part at the travel agent middleman.
Robert J. Stevens has been appointed president/chief operating officer of the Lockheed Martin Energy and Environment Sector, Bethesda, Md. He was president of Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management. Stevens succeeds Albert Narath, who is scheduled to retire this year.
