Col. Eileen Collins (USAF, Ret.), Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Pat Condon (USAF, Ret.), Dr. Edward David, Dr. Owen Garriott, Dr. Thomas Jones, Benjamin Montoya, Dr. C. Paul Robinson, Dr. Alan Stern, and Dr. John Sullivan have been named to the NASA Advisory Council.
The iRobot RedOwl robot prototype, which uses acoustic signatures to pinpoint the location of snipers, is under evaluation by the U.S. Army at Ft. Benning, Ga., as part of the ongoing Air Assault Expeditionary Force Experiment. A modified version of iRobot's PackBot, the RedOwl project includes participation by Boston University and Insight Technologies of New Hampshire, which provides tactical lighting and laser systems to U.S. Special Operations Command.
SHADOWS: AAI Corp. has been awarded a $32.6 million contract modification to produce SHADOW unmanned aerial vehicle systems and related support equipment, the Defense Department said Oct. 5. The work will be done in Hunt Valley, Md., and is expected to be finished by Dec. 31, 2009. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
LASER FIRED: The Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate has conducted the world's first firing of a laser using recycled fuel at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. A chemical laser was supplied Aug. 24 with its two main fuels - basic hydrogen peroxide and chlorine - which were regenerated from waste products produced during prior laser operations. Testers fired the laser at high power, on the order of several kilowatts.
Nanette M. Bouchard has been named vice president of engineering and mission assurance for integrated defense systems. Jim Jamieson has been appointed chief operating officer for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. John J. Tracy has been named senior vice president of engineering, operations and technology.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of 24 King Air 360ERs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The Pentagon has identified airborne ISR as one of the most desired capabilities in securing Iraqi borders and other parts of the country.
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) plans to recommend that NASA adopt a new method of categorizing and distributing information during flight safety reviews that will give more latitude to lower-level managers to solve simpler problems on their own, while leaving senior managers free to focus on larger, thornier issues.
Skepticism inside Washington's Beltway continues over the Defense Department's desire to refit some Trident nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with conventional warheads for a prompt global strike capability, with opponents and influential lawmakers suggesting the Pentagon stick with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their precision-strike munitions.
Thomas Canfield has been named general counsel and corporate secretary. John Siemer has been appointed COO and chief of staff. Sam White has been named head of global sales.
European Space Agency recruiters will soon begin placing help-wanted ads for new astronauts to staff its Columbus laboratory, now set for launch to the International Space Station in October 2007. "Today we have only seven astronauts ready to fly,'' Daniel Sacotte, ESA human spaceflight chief, tells the International Astronautical Congress in Valencia, Spain. "We are planning after the launch of Columbus to start a new recruitment campaign.''
V-22 Ospreys will help the Pentagon in its current battles, Lexington Institute military analyst Loren Thompson says. "There is at least one new military system about to enter the force that is relevant right now, and badly needed in places like Iraq," Thompson wrote in his briefing, "V-22 Osprey Is One System the Military Needs Right Now," released Oct. 4. "That is the Marine Corps' V-22 Osprey, the world's first operational tilt-rotor aircraft."
The U.S. government's approval of Lockheed Martin and Boeing's United Launch Alliance (ULA) came through on the basis of its anticipated benefits to national security, despite the expectation that it will damage competition and yield little or no savings to the government in the long run, according to documents released by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
