Russia moved the U.S.-funded "Zarya" control module for the International Space Station and its Proton booster to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday in preparation for its launch on Friday.
CHINA GREAT WALL INDUSTRY CORP. signed an agreement Saturday with Hong Kong's Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) to launch one of the company's platforms on a Long March 3B at an unspecified date, according to news accounts from China. Overall, China plans to launch six satellites in 1999, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Aerospatiale, British Aerospace, Construcciones Aeronauticas, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Finmeccanica-Alenia and Saab filed a joint confidential report yesterday in response to the common position paper issued by the governments of six European countries supporting the consolidation of the European aerospace and defense industry, BAe reported.
Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory returned the Deep Space 1 probe to normal cruise configuration Friday night and have made progress on understanding at least one of the anomalies that has plagued the inaugural "New Millennium" technology testbed over the past week.
U.S. Air Force space planners are asking for feedback from the commercial space industry to support a study for the AF leadership that could lead to greater reliance by the service on commercial space.
November 10, 1998 TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $9,148,039 face value increase to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for design and fabrication of the Uncooled Resonator in support of the Space Based Laser Readiness Demonstration program. Expected contract completion date is June 12, 1999. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, Calif., is the contracting activity (SDIO84-92-C-0002-P00048).
Boeing named Deborah Hopkins as its new chief financial officer, effective Dec. 14, the company reported yesterday. Hopkins, 44, joins Boeing after serving as vice president of finance and CFO for General Motors. She joined GM in 1995 as the general auditor. Before joining GM, she spent 13 years at Unisys Corp., reaching the level of vice president and general manager of Worldwide Information Systems.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. has been picked to build and launch two digital direct broadcast television satellites for Japan's Broadcasting Satellite System Corp. (BSAT). The Dulles, Va.-based company said it will base the platforms on its NovaStar lightweight geosynchronous spacecraft, three-axis stabilized satellite buses that weigh about 550 kilograms dry and provide more than 2 kilowatts of power.
November 13, 1998 Boeing Information, Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $6,898,955 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for maintenance and test support for the TS-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) test aircraft and associated development laboratories through September 1999. Expected contract completion date is Sept. 30, 1999. Solicitation issue date was May 29, 1998. Negotiation completion date was Oct. 1, 1998. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-94-C-0047-P00070).
A recent simulation to support development of an advanced air-to-ground missile for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps has shown the potential value of such a system and given the effort a big boost, according to military officials. The two services in parallel efforts that are due to be merged - the Army with the Modernized Hellfire and the Marines with the Joint Advanced Weapon System - stress better range, speed and seeker performance than they get with existing Hellfires.
November 13, 1998 Raytheon Missile Systems Company, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $17,585,189 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for development of a modification to modernize the Higher Order Language capability of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) using a commercial-off-the-shelf processor. Expected contract completion date is Dec. 31, 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-97-C-0001-P-00023).
SPACEDEV has signed a "non-binding letter of intent" with the University of Arizona for two instruments to be mounted on the San Diego-based commercial space venture's Near Earth Asteroid Prospector probe. Under the agreement the university would provide a multi-band CCD imaging camera and a neutron spectrometer to provide information about the composition of the target asteroid. Ultimately SpaceDev hopes to mine asteroids for the minerals they contain, but it intends to start by offering commercial data sales for the probes it develops commercially.
SATELLITE TV subscriptions in the U.S. have passed the 10 million mark, according to the Satellite Broadcasting&Communications Association, which reports there were 10,044,000 subscribers nationwide last week. DirecTV/U.S. Satellite Broadcasting service had 4,165,000 subscribers; EchoStar's DISH Network had 1,709,000; PRIMESTAR had 2,207,000 and about 1,963,000 users owned large-dish C-band systems, according to the trade group.
November 13, 1998 Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems, Inc., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $132,874,701 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program. The JASSM will support both Air Force and Navy requirements. Expected contract completion date is September 2001. Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-96-C-0002-P00037).
PANAMSAT CORP. has signed its first customer to use multiple satellites for Internet delivery worldwide. The Greenwich, Conn.-based private communications satellite company said InterPacket Group Inc. will use the equivalent of more than one 36-megahertz C-band transponder to relay its Internet protocol backbone for smaller service providers across the PAS-2, PAS-3 and PAS-4 satellites, covering the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions, respectively. PanAmSat has offered international Internet services since the early 1990s, giving customers access to the U.S.
Sundstrand Aerospace has acquired Keystone Engineering Co. of Los Angeles, which makes components for launch vehicles and satellites, and bearings for AWACS type aircraft. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Sundstrand Aerospace said yesterday that the business will remain in Los Angeles, operating under the name Keystone Engineering as part of its Missile, Space and Undersea Systems Enterprise, which is headquartered in Rockford, Ill. Sundstrand Aerospace makes turbine systems for torpedo propulsion units, launch systems and spacecraft.
The Pentagon today plans to release a list of potential sites for a future national missile defense (NMD) system, including some in Alaska that, if selected for deployment, would violate existing conditions of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. In making the announcement, DOD officials will stress that the sites are being chosen only for environmental impact studies, and in no way constitute a decision to deploy an NMD system.
Interest is growing in Congress, the military and at civil airports in the Transponder Landing System (TLS) developed by Advanced Navigation&Positioning Corp., Hood River, Ore., according to Dan Fisher, Washington representative of the company.
The last-minute U.S. decision not to strike Iraq and to cut short a build-up of forces in Gulf countries has left U.S. Air Force aircraft widely dispersed, and some uncertainty about how quickly they will return to their home bases.
Edward G. Weiler, the head of NASA's "Origins" program since its inception in 1996, has been named associate administrator for space science, effective immediately. Weiler had filled the post on an acting basis since Sept. 28, when his predecessor - Wesley T. Huntress Jr. - departed to become head of the Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin announced the appointment yesterday. In his new position Weiler will be responsible for the U.S. space agency's Space Science Enterprise.
