NEW DIRECTOR: Simon P. (Pete) Worden was named director of NASA's Ames Research Center on April 21. The retired Air Force brigadier general, who has wide experience in military space, will replace Scott Hubbard, who left office in January (DAILY, Jan. 26).
NASA's aeronautics mission directorate is reviewing an integrated proposal for continuing the agency's work in hypersonics that was crafted jointly by its Dryden, Langley, Glenn, and Ames research centers.
PRECISION ARTILLERY: The U.S. military is on the verge of having a precise, ground-based small artillery capability that could be used in urban combat, says Maj. Gen. David Ralston, chief of the Army Field Artillery Center. One system, the Precision Strike Suite for Special Operations Forces, will become a program of record for all services. Ground troops could deliver a 200-pound warhead within 10 meters accuracy against mostly permanent structures - such as buildings that insurgents have run into - as mapped by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
WAR SUPPLEMENTAL: The Senate will debate the latest fiscal 2006 supplemental spending request for up to two weeks after reconvening April 24 from its Easter break. In their committee markup of the bill, Senate appropriators boosted funding for C-17 and V-22 aircraft (DAILY, April 5). But debate, which Republican leaders had hoped to keep to a week, could be prolonged with internal-GOP arguments over nonmilitary earmarks, as well as Democratic efforts to use the bill to highlight election-year claims.
Wind tunnel tests at the U.S. Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) are beginning to show that potential new foam problem areas on the shuttle external tank can be corrected with minor changes and minimal risk to a July launch schedule. The new concerns arose this month when modified tank foam components blew off an external tank mockup undergoing wind tunnel tests at AEDC.
Input, a federal information technology consulting agency, expects a draft or even formal request for proposals for the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial system in October or November, said Brian Haney, director of member services. Haney, at an Input conference April 20 featuring the Navy's chief information officer (CIO), said the total program could be worth $2 billion. The Naval Air Systems Command should conduct a full and open competition for the BAMS UAS, he said.
Heightened concern over the threat of micrometeoroid or space debris damage to the space shuttle's re-entry thermal protection system will force the crew of the next space shuttle mission to make extra inspections of Discovery's wings and belly in orbit. Those inspections, to be made from inside the shuttle and International Space Station vehicles, will add to the workload of the STS-121 mission plan.
NOT WAITING: National Intelligence Director John Negroponte says he isn't waiting until fiscal 2008 to exercise the budget authority congressional reform legislation gave him. "My first major programmatic decision was based on an in-depth analysis of present and future imagery capabilities and requirements, and the technical risks associated with acquisition strategy to meet those requirements," Negroponte said April 20 in a speech at the National Press Club. "I decided that we were on the wrong track.
MSX ANNIVERSARY: On April 24 Air Force Space Command will mark the 10th anniversary of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite built by Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. MSX originally was a missile defense experiment with a design life of five years. The Space Based Visible (SBV) sensor aboard MSX is a crucial element of the Air Force's space surveillance network, which also includes ground-based radars and optical telescopes. The MSX/SBV currently supports U.S.
Gen. Bernard P. Randolph (USAF Ret.) has been elected to the boardTaji1234567 of directors. Randolph is a former executive at the TRW Space and Electronics Group.
AIRCRAFT SUPPORT: France is outsourcing support for aircraft used for basic training of all pilots in its military. The aircraft are based at a facility in Cognac. A 10-year deal valued at about 75 million euros ($92.5 million) was inked recently between the government and an EADS team involving its subsidiaries Socata and EADS Services. Socata originally built the single-engine TB-30 Epsilon trainers. Military personnel reductions at the facility are being offset by a decision to base unmanned aircraft there starting next year.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin "probably" will visit China this year at the behest of President Bush to discuss lunar exploration and other topics, taking the newest spacefaring nation up on a longstanding invitation that predates his tenure as head of the U.S. space agency. President Bush offered to send Griffin to China during his summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, according to Dennis Wilder, acting director for Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council.
SKY WAR: A senior Naval officer says it's still important to consider the next U.S. war, which could be in the skies, while the Pentagon currently focuses on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and concentrates on finding and destroying improvised explosive devices. "We've got to continue planning for the future, which will be a different war. It could very well be one back in the skies," says Rear Adm. Timothy Heely, program executive officer for strike weapons and unmanned aviation at Naval Air Systems Command. "I do air-to-air stuff.
Chineta K. Davis has been appointed vice president of corporate business development, effective May 1. Diane Murray has been appointed sector vice president of mission assurance. Kelley Zelickson has been named sector vice president and general manager of the tactical systems division, a business unit in the mission systems sector.
Michael V. Schrock has been named to the board of directors. Schrock is president and chief operating officer of filtration and technical products at Pentair Inc.
The Japanese space agency JAXA says a HyShot-IV scramjet flight-test failed last month when a nose cone malfunctioned during the launch at Australia's Woomera test range.
A major new U.S. built European direct broadcast spacecraft is undergoing checkout in space following launch from Cape Canaveral April 20 on a Lockheed Martin/International Launch Services Atlas V. The 9,950-pound SES Astra 1KR satellite replaces the original Alcatel Astra 1K lost in November 2002 when its ILS/Russian Proton booster put that spacecraft into a useless orbit, followed by a fiery re-entry that destroyed what at the time was the largest satcom ever built.
April 24 - 26 -- ATCA/FAA/NASA Technical Symposium & Golf Outing, Atlantic City, 703-299-2430 ext. 303, Fax 703-299-2437, email [email protected]. April 24 - 27 -- Aerial Refueling Systems Advisory Group International's Annual Conference, Westin Horton Plaza, San Diego, Calif. For more information call (937) 429-7014 or go to www.arsaginc.com.
