A Long March LM-2E launcher carrying a Hughes HS 601 satellite blew up about a minute after a predawn liftoff here Jan. 26, at this Chinese space center. The 164-ft. launcher lifted off about 6:40 a.m. carrying the 3,800-lb. Apstar 2 telecommunications satellite for APT Satellite Company of Hong Kong. APT has raised $110 million in project financing for construction, launch and insurance.
Martin Marietta Astronautics has transferred Atlas launch system engineering and program offices from San Diego to Denver over the past few months, consolidating much of the company's booster development and production. More than half of the approximately 550 former General Dynamics Space Systems Div. employees who accepted positions after Martin acquired the division have transferred to Denver. The rest will move this year. As a result, ``the centroid of the Atlas program is definitely in Denver now,'' a Martin Marietta official said.
International Lease Finance Corp., Century City, Calif., has promoted both Alan H. Lund and John L. Plueger to executive vice president/chief operating officer. Lund was senior vice president/chief financial officer/treasurer. He remains CFO. Plueger was executive vice president-marketing.
Raytheon Aircraft, Wichita, Kan., has named Karl Childs vice president-domestic business jet sales. He was a senior sales executive with Raytheon Corporate Jets. Keith Nadolski, who was a senior sales executive with Beech Aircraft, has been named vice president-domestic Beech sales for Raytheon Aircraft.
INDONESIA IS TURNING TO THE NETHERLANDS for expertise and cooperation in airline and airport operations. Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport will supply management support for landside commercial operations at Soekarna-Hatta Airport in Jakarta and other airports. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Garuda Indonesia plan closer cooperation in commercial and operational activities.
The 702 Computer Workstation manages total data collection requirements and functions as an inspection station for dimensional statistical process control. The unit features a multiplexer built into its drive bay, which reduces the need for patch cords and other cables. The system is IBM compatible, allowing it to use industry standard software. Workstations also are available with Ethernet and other network cards. Eight ports allow for connecting digital and analog measuring devices directly into the system. The 702 comes with a 14-in.
Spacecraft health monitoring may be made easier, and the number of mission controllers reduced, by a new graphic tool that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory plans to start testing during the next month. The Cyberspace Data Monitoring System presents a 3-D view of how telemetered spacecraft parameters are moving beyond normal ranges. JPL currently uses software to detect such out-of-range parameters, but the results are listed in a table of numbers with little high-level visibility, according to Robert Angelino, the lead software engineer for the project.
Transport Ministry officials are hoping 1995 will bring a breakthrough in their long-standing complaint that U.S. carriers abuse their fifth-freedom rights, but the U.S. says the Japanese are out of step with market forces. As a result, the long-standing disagreement is unlikely to be settled soon, officials from both countries agreed.
CHINA YUNNAN AIRLINES has ordered three Boeing 767-300s and placed options on an additional three. First deliveries to the Kunming, China-based airline are scheduled for May, 1996. Total value of the order, including options and spares, is about $600 million.
After months of negotiations, NASA and Boeing have signed a $5.63-billion space station contract--one of the largest and most novel pacts in the history of the U.S. space agency. The agreement, which brings U.S. station development costs down from the $6.2-billion cap Boeing and NASA had announced last August, includes an involved set of incentives and penalties.
TO NO ONE'S SURPRISE ON CAPITOL HILL, Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) has been tapped as Top Gun of the influential Senate aviation subcommittee. As chairman, McCain is likely to have it out with the minority Democrats on a series of vexing issues. Three of them are taking the aviation trust fund off budget, privatizing the nation's air traffic control system and severing the Federal Aviation Administration from the Transportation Dept. McCain is known for his pro-aviation and hawkish defense views.
WILCOX WILL SUPPLY VOR/DME systems at seven sites in Colombia, and a CAT 2, Mark 10 ILS/DME at El Dorado Airport in Bogota. The turnkey ICAO contracts are worth more than $3.5 million.
American Superconductor Corp., Westborough, Mass., has appointed Ramesh L. Ratan executive vice president-corporate development/chief financial officer. He was senior vice president-administration/chief financial officer/corporate secretary at Repligen Corp.
Ecuador is expected to move ahead next month with the sale of its grounded flag carrier, Ecuatoriana de Aviacion. The South American nation plans to sell a 25% share of the airline on domestic stock markets by Mar. 1. Government and airline officials also are completing plans for a U.S. consortium to sell a 50.1% share to a strategic operating partner, according to individuals involved in the effort.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE has issued a precautionary stand down grounding approximately 225 General Electric F110-129 engines. The stand down, which covers powerplants both in the U.S. and foreign air forces, was recommended as a result of an F-16 crash on Jan. 13. The aircraft was a two-man Block 50 F-16 based at Spangdahlem, Germany, and assigned to the 52nd Fighter Wing. Both pilots ejected safely. Contributing to the decision to issue a stand down order was a crash last October of an F-16 based at Hill AFB, Utah (AW&ST Oct. 31, 1994, p. 28).
A software innovation by Intel Corporation's Scalable Systems Div. increases the speed at which its Paragon supercomputers can solve large systems of equations by more than an order of magnitude, which will be a significant help for aerospace designers.
McDonnell Douglas has completed assembly of the forward fuselage structure of the U.S. Navy's first F/A-18E/F strike fighter. It is to be mated with the center/aft fuselage being built by principal subcontractor Northrop Grumman in May after the electrical wiring and hydraulic tubing are installed. First flight is scheduled for December. The aircraft is 1,000 lb. under its contractual weight specification, according to the company.
Precision Standard, Inc., Birmingham, Ala., has elected J. Ben Shapiro, Jr., to its board of directors. He is a senior partner in the law firm of Shapiro, Fussell, Wedge, Smotherman&Martin.
Patrick J. Healy, Project Orbis operations director who led the refurbishment team for Orbis International's DC-10-10ER flying eye hospital. They have created a fully capable hospital in which doctors can perform delicate eye surgery and teach in remote locations. Healy led a team that included assists from Runge Industries, Schwartz Engineering and Avionics Engineering.
SENATE ARMED SERVICES Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond (R.-S.C.) called for freezing the Defense budget at the Fiscal 1995 level with adjustments for inflation. In a letter to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R.-N.M.), Thurmond and the 10 other Republicans on the panel proposed setting budget authority for Fiscal 1996 military spending at $270 billion and outlays at $273 billion. Those figures represent $13 billion and $10 billion more, respectively, than the Clinton Administration has planned for.
Contractors have begun working in earnest on design concepts for aircraft and related subsystems under contracts recently let by the Pentagon's Joint Advanced Strike Technology program office.
SPACE SHUTTLE Mission 63 has been set for launch Feb. 2 at 12:49 a.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39-B. But the time could change by several minutes, based on the position of Russia's Mir space station, with which Discovery is to rendezvous.
THE ADMINISTRATION HAS SIGNED an ``Agreed Minute on Defense Relations'' with India that promotes cooperation in research and production, particularly on the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project. However, U.S. officials said no specific programs were discussed in terms of future defense production or technology transfers. The LCA is India's effort to build a low-cost replacement for its aging MiG-21s and a potential export aircraft to boost its aviation industry. Activities are to be guided by a Joint Technical Group of senior professionals that will meet in the spring.
NASA CHIEF DANIEL S. GOLDIN IS ON THE QUI VIVE to cut staff even more than what has already been ordered. Both the President and Congress want an even smaller government, Goldin told employees, adding that politicians ``are talking about it very seriously.'' Under Administration orders to date, NASA must trim 16.5% from the agency's 1993 civil servant employment of some 25,000 by the end of Fiscal 1999 (AW&ST Dec. 12/19, 1994, p. 19). ``We have about 2,500 more people to go,'' and ``it's not clear we can rely solely on attrition,'' Goldin said.