Sen. J. Robert Kerrey (D-Neb.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, has advocated that the president and Congress work to remove congressional restrictions on reducing deployed U.S. strategic forces below the START I level of 6,000 warheads and cut the U.S. arsenal immediately to the 2,000-2,500 warheads proposed for START III. Kerrey would leapfrog over the 3,000-3,500-warhead ceiling set by START II when fully implemented in 2007.
Litton Industries has entered into an agreement to acquire Denro Inc. for about $60 million. The subsidiary of Firan Corp., based in Gaithersburg, Md., makes voice and data electronic switching equipment, and data recorders used in air traffic control. It would become part of the Amecom Div. of Litton Systems Inc.
SEN. JOHN GLENN (D-Ohio) and some of his crewmates had to swallow a large "pill" during the STS-95 mission that contained sensors and a transmitter to monitor their internal body temperature during spaceflight. Now the same technology may be used to monitor body temperature, pressure and other vital signs in the wombs of women whose fetuses have undergone corrective surgery. Under development at NASA's Ames Research Center, the encapsulated transmitter will be implanted during fetal surgery to help doctors monitor the pre-term labor such surgery usually triggers.
LOGICON SYSCON INC. of Falls Church, Va., has won a six-year contract worth $90.8 million including options to support aeronautical simulation facilities at NASA Ames. Logicon will operate and maintain Ames' flight simulators, including the Vertical Motion Simulator and the Crew-Vehicle Systems Research Facility. The cost-plus-incentive-fee contract includes a 23-month base period and two two-year options.
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon announced yesterday that they will share the in-development work for the U.S. Air Force's radar upgrade to the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System. The companies have settled on a 50-50 work share as they move the Joint STARS radar from an mechanically scanned system to an electronically scanned radar, Northrop Grumman said. Although the work split is shared equally, Raytheon will operate as a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector.
Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have jointly decided to discontinue Lockheed Martin's work on the agency's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles program, leaving Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon as the remaining competitors for the $110 million demonstration.
GENCORP said the Titan program of its Aerojet unit won an overall "excellent" performance rating of 100% from Lockheed Martin Astronautics for its work in developing new solid propellant start cartridges for the first and second stage engines of the Titan II and Titan IV space launch vehicles.
The U.S. Navy has completed the first live target tracking exercise involving two ships specially configured for theater missile defense testing. The USS Lake Erie and USS Port Royal tracked the missiles with their Aegis radars at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, the Navy said. The ships also showed that they could exchange target cueing and tracking information.
CHINESE ACADEMY OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY (CAST) plans to launch a network of six Earth-observing satellites that will use optical sensors and radar to monitor the environment and guide recovery from natural disasters. Xu Fuiang, president of CAST, told the Xinhua news agency Chinese researchers have achieved the "technological breakthroughs" that will allow them to deploy networks of satellites in the 1,000-kilogram class.
SATMEX-5, another HS 601 satellite that Hughes built for Mexico's Satmex, is scheduled for launch Friday from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou aboard an Ariane 4 rocket. The SATMEX 5 platform will replace the Morelos II satellite, launched in 1985, at 116.8 degrees West longitude. It will support business communications, television distribution and education programming throughout the length of the Americas with 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders.
The U.S. Navy is beginning to lean towards upgrading and modifying its fleet of P-3 patrol planes rather than developing a new system, known as the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA). "There is probably a lot of attractiveness in a [remanufacturing program] because of the cost avoidance issues you are going to get," Rear Adm. John Nathman, the Navy's director of air warfare, said in an interview.
Orbcomm Global L.P., the "little LEO" low Earth orbit satellite communications company started by Orbital Sciences Corp., kicked off commercial service yesterday with an e-mail sent through the Orbcomm constellation to its international partners on five continents. Scott L. Webster, chairman and CEO, sent the message from a handheld communicator through Orbcomm satellite No. 16. "A new era of ubiquitous data communications has begun," the message said in part.
HUGHES SPACE&COMMUNICATIONS has been cleared by its customer to build a backup for AsiaSat 3S in case the satellite is lost during its planned launch in the first quarter of 1999. Under the arrangement, Hughes will deliver AsiaSat 3SB by the end of 1999, and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. would make launch arrangements. If AsiaSat 3S makes it to orbit, the backup order would be modified to cover a future AsiaSat spacecraft.
Israel Aircraft Industries yesterday reported a $30.8 million profit for the first nine months of the year - more than twice the amount it earned in the same period last year. The profit was booked on $1.42 billion in sales, a 22% increase over the $1.17 billion in sales the company recorded between January and September, 1997. The majority of the sales, $1.1 billion (a $223 million increase over last year) were registered in exports.
PRIMEX AEROSPACE COMPANY has won a contract from Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space for Hall thrusters that will be used on next-generation commercial communications satellites. Primex and Busek Co., which licensed its Hall thruster technology to the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based company, have patents pending for Hall thruster technology developed in the U.S. as a more efficient electric propulsion system than the xenon ion systems already in use. The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office is currently testing Russian-made Hall thrusters on its STEX orbital testbed (DAILY, Oct.
Pemco Aeroplex has decided to withdraw its lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force. The suit challenged the service's decision to award the Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah, a contract to take over maintenance work being outsourced from the Sacramento ALC in California. Pemco asked the judge for the Federal District Court in Birmingham, Ala., to dismiss the challenge without prejudice. The company didn't say why it took the unusual step after a fierce legal battle.
Aerospatiale and the European Space Agency have signed a $468.6 million contract for development of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Europe's answer to the Russian Progress cargo capsule as a resupply and reboost spacecraft for the International Space Station.
BOEING COMPLETED the first four tests of its XRS-2200 linear aerospike engine for NASA's X-33 reusable launch vehicle testbed, pushing the turbomachinery and gas generator for the innovative engine to full power and then throttling back to 57% power. The Nov.
