Scientists mapping deposits of potentially valuable helium-3 on the moon expect to refine their work with data generated by NASA's Lunar Prospector probe, now orbiting the moon to gather information on the composition of the surface below. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and the University of Hawaii's Institute of Geophysics and Planetology have mapped likely deposits of the helium isotope based on analysis of the processes by which helium-3 winds up in the lunar regolith.
An "Americanized" version of Russia's Zvezda K-36 aircraft ejection seat will be produced in East Hartford, Conn., by IBP Aerospace Group Inc., which said yesterday that it plans to hire 200 people over the next three years to assemble the seat for U.S. and foreign fighter aircraft. First seats from the Connecticut plant will be available in the fall of 1999. The K-36 allowed a Russian pilot to safely eject at 200 feet from a disabled MiG-29 at the 1989 Paris Air Show. The U.S. Air Force has just completed an evaluation of the seat at Holloman AFB, N.M.
Boeing, citing the Asian economic crisis, said it will cut production rates of some of its airliners. It said the production rate of the 747 will drop from 3.5 a month to 2 a month in late 1999, and then to 1 a month in early 2000 "if market conditions fail to improve." The company plans to slow production of the 757 from 5 to 4 a month and the 767 from 4 to 3.5 per month in early 2000.
DANIEL P. BURNHAM, president and chief operating officer of Raytheon Co. since July, yesterday assumed the additional role of chief executive officer, succeeding Dennis J. Picard, who has served as CEO since 1991. Raytheon said Picard will remain chairman of the board for a period of time. Burnham, 52, joined Raytheon in July from AlliedSignal, where he most recently served as vice chairman.
VIRTUAL PROTOTYPES INC., Montreal, said Boeing Co.'s Phantom Works used its software to prototype, simulate and flight test avionics displays on the F-15E aircraft. In flight tests on July 22 and Oct. 20, Virtual said, the software provided the same capabilities and display functions as the legacy systems. The commercial off-the-shelf Advanced Display Core Processor (ADCP) software is an "example of how Boeing is introducing more affordable computer technology into military aircraft," said Reg Varga, head of the Bold Stroke project at the Phantom Works.
LOCKHEED MARTIN won a $6.4 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory for work on the Advanced Tactical Targeting Technology program. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon - which received its contract several weeks ago - are doing development work for the advanced Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses program. AT3 is intended to network radar warning receivers and other sensors of various aircraft to get a precise targeting solution for enemy radar sites.
'Destiny' was the name chosen for the U.S. Laboratory Module for the International Space Station, denoting the prominent role the pressurized facility will play as a research center once the Station begins research operations. NASA announced the name yesterday at Kennedy Space Center, where the module is being completed in preparation for a launch in 2000.
The U.K.'s first squadron of Merlin HM Mk 1 helicopters was commissioned yesterday at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose. The squadron, 700M, is the Intensive Flying Trials unit for the Merlin. The U.K. Ministry of Defense said it will be equipped with four aircraft, whose primary task will be establishment of in-service operating procedures and practices.
INTELSAT DIRECTOR GENERAL and CEO Conny Kullman has signed over control of five operational satellites, plus another under construction, to New Skies Satellites N.V., which was established earlier this year as a commercial spinoff from the international satellite communications consortium (DAILY, April 1). CEO Bob Ross signed for New Skies, which will be based in The Hague.
Scott Technologies Inc. said it has retained Quarterdeck Investment Partners to help it identify a buyer for its Interstate Electronics subsidiary. Scott, based in Cleveland, said in October that it planned to divest IEC, which designs and manufactures satellite-based guidance, navigation and instrument systems and displays for the defense and commercial markets.
Planners at the U.S. Atlantic Command have highlighted interoperability problems between key missile defense programs that the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is trying to resolve. Two years ago, the Pentagon chartered ACOM to develop the Capstone Requirements Document for missile defense. The document was to specify the requirements commanders would have for missile defense systems in addition to basic intercept performance.
Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) has been named to fill the lone Democratic vacancy on the Senate Armed Services in the new Congress, Senate Democratic sources said yesterday. With fellow Louisianan Rep. Bob Livingston (R) set to be named Speaker of the House in January, the combination puts Louisiana law makers in a position to exert leverage for the state's relatively small defense industry.
The Northrop Grumman - British Aerospace team competing for the U.K.'s Airborne Standoff Radar (ASTOR) program says its bid of an improved Joint STARS radar means the U.K. government will be spared the planned expense of a costly radar upgrade in several years.
The first operational Arrow missile was delivered to the Israeli Ministry of Defense in a ceremony on Nov. 29. Israel Aircraft Industries said its MLM Div. delivered the missile to the ministry's "Homa," or Wall, project and that "Additional missiles will be delivered in the near future." The missile is ready for operational use against other missiles in any attack on Israel, but will be used for firing tests, as will several
NASA's inspector general has concluded the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center allowed a total of $56 million in year-end obligations for the X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype to go unrecorded in fiscal years 1996 and 1997, giving Congress an inaccurate picture of the program's status at the ends of those two years.
Orbital Sciences Corp. is scheduled to orbit NASA's Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) today with a Pegasus XL rocket air-launched off the California coast. Weighing only 625 pounds, SWAS is designed to study the composition and cooling mechanisms of interstellar clouds, which collapse to form stars and planets. Designed and built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, it will spend two years in a 370-mile polar orbit observing regions where stars are formed as part of NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) program.
Pacific Aerospace&Electronics Inc., which makes components for the aerospace and defense industries, has signed a letter of intent to acquire Nova-Tech Engineering Inc., a maker of specialized aerospace manufacturing equipment, for about $7 million in cash and stock. The companies are both in Washington state, PA&E in Wenatchee and Nova-Tech in Edmonds. The deal is expected to close in several months.
Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley have won NASA support for an extreme ultraviolet instrument that will probe the "local bubble" around the sun from a vantage point on a commercial communications satellite. Dubbed the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) mission, the probe will fly piggyback on a satellite to be built by Maryland-based Final Analysis Inc. for launch in 2001, probably on a Russian Cosmos rocket.
The U.S. Navy is asking for help from the Pentagon to keep alive the Shared Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP) program, intended to provide a future tactical reconnaissance capability for the F/A-18F and other aircraft. "We are working right now with [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] to get money" for the program, Rear Adm. John Nathman, the Navy's director of air warfare programs, said in an interview last week. The goal is to sustain the program, which got funding this fiscal year.
Researchers at the U.S. Air Force Space Battlelab have demonstrated a system capable of passively tracking satellites in low earth orbit, and say it could also be used to detect satellites that are designed to avoid detection by active tracking systems.
BOEING is slated to receive a contract soon from the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to test the automatic target acquisition capability being developed for the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER). The Navy said in a Dec. 1 Commerce Business Daily notice that it plans to award a contract to SLAM-ER prime contractor Boeing for captive and live fire tests.
The European Commission questioned Airbus and Boeing about alleged price fixing. Boeing had no immediate comment, but Airbus denied any such collusion. A spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert said "simultaneous declarations" by Airbus and Boeing on prices at the Farnboroough Air Show in September prompted the commission to query the companies. Airbus was said to have announced that it was raising the prices of its airliners by 3%, and Boeing reportedly said its prices would increase by 5%.
Ground controllers have cleared Russia's Zarya control module for its part in the first International Space Station assembly flight coming up Thursday, but weather over NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., could force a delay in the planned 3:59 a.m. EST launch. Forecasters predicted only a 40% chance the weather would meet launch commit criteria on Thursday morning, with similar cloudy conditions expected until Saturday. However, the countdown to launch began at 7 a.m. EST yesterday as planned (DAILY, Nov. 30).
November 24, 1998 Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Inc., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $10,759,257 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for test and integration of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) onto the B-1B aircraft. This effort supports the JASSM engineering and manufacturing development program. Expected contract completion date is May 2002. Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-96-C-0002-P00039).
