Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space has delivered the first solar array wing for the International Space Station to Station prime contractor Boeing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., following testing at the company's Sunnyvale, Calif., facility. The array wing, which measures 108 by 38 feet, is one of eight Lockheed Martin has contracted to build for the orbiting laboratory. Each wing will consist of a mast and two solar array blankets with 82 panels each containing 200 solar cells.
U.S. Air Force Space Command has officially grounded all Titan space launch vehicles as it continues to investigate the spectacular failure of a Titan IVA over Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. in August. A command spokesman at Peterson AFB, Colo., told reporters the stand-down was issued last week. He said it was not issued earlier because there were no Titans in line for launch.
The U.S. Air Force is grappling with a substantial budget shortfall in its Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Low and High programs and needs $200 million to avoid a two-year slip in both efforts, industry sources told The DAILY. During a high level Office of the Secretary of Defense meeting this month, Air Force program officials reported they needed to slip SBIRS High and SBIRS Low missile launch detection programs by two years to save money, industry officials said.
The latest sign that the Pentagon's computer systems are under constant threat of attack occurred a couple of weeks ago when Mexico's Zapatista rebels tried to hack into Defense Dept. networks, according to Art Money, the Pentagon's chief information officer.
NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery boosted Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) back to orbit yesterday on a nine-day mission crammed with experiments on subjects ranging from how the oldest space traveler's body handles free-fall to the performance of an automatic docking system for the Shuttle's replacement.
South Africa has selected the Saab/British Aerospace JAS 39 Gripen as the first item in a $5.28 billion National Defense Force modernization program, according to press reports from Pretoria. BAe, which has a 35% share of the Saab Aerospace group, had no comment on the reports. However, the Gripen was known to have been short-listed with the Dassault Mirage 2000-5 for the South African Air Force's requirement for up to 38 new combat jets.
SPS Technologies, maker of high-strength fasteners based in Jenkintown, Pa., has acquired Chevron Aerospace Group Ltd. of Nottingham, England, for $54 million. SPS said yesterday that the acquisition expands its product offering to the European aerospace market, which is growing because of Airbus orders.
Raytheon Co. said a Land Attack Standard Missile (LASM) met all objectives during a test last month at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The test evaluated performance of the LASM Mk. 125 warhead, which successfully detonated above the ground after the missile flew more than 50 nautical miles to a specific target area, according to Raytheon Systems Co. LASM, the naval surface fire support version of the Standard Missile, is being developed by Raytheon for the U.S. Navy.
Military planners for U.S. Forces in Korea want the Pentagon to accelerate the purchase of an uplink so they can feed data directly over the satellite-based Global Broadcast System, but the request is being largely rebuffed in part for lack of funding.
DOW CHEMICAL AND UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP. are selling their 50-50 joint venture, Dow-United Technologies Composite Products Inc., to GKN Westland Aerospace. The unit had revenues of $80.2 million in 1997. Operating in more than 40 countries, GKN produces flight-critical structures, systems and equipment. The joint venture company manufacturers composites for complex aircraft structures and engines.
A Hall thruster built near Moscow has been tested repeatedly on a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite, demonstrating the electric-propulsion system can be used for station keeping and reboost on future spacecraft. The Electric Propulsion Demonstration Module (EPDM) was operated by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory aboard the NRO's Space Technology Experiment (STEX) satellite, launched earlier this month aboard an Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus rocket (DAILY, Oct. 6).
The 1998 Leonid meteor storm coming up Nov. 17 will threaten all of the 500 to 600 satellites in Earth orbit, but even though the storm is expected to be the worst since 1966 the odds are that only one or two satellites will suffer a "major" impact, according to the top expert in orbital debris at The Aerospace Corp.
NASA has picked the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to develop the whole-Earth satellite suggested by Vice President Al Gore, selecting the La Jolla, Calif.-based research center's proposal from nine received for the $75 million "Triana" mission.
Iridium LLC posted a $364.4 million loss in its 1998 third quarter, during which the company delayed the startup of its global telephone service. Iridium executives said yesterday, however, that the system is ready to begin operation on Sunday.
During the third quarter of 1998 a total of 19 space launches with 55 satellites were attempted worldwide. Only 15 of these were successful, with four launch failures resulting in the loss of 15 satellites.
A transceiver chip set developed by Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Defensive Systems business unit has been selected for use in Local to Multi-point Distribution Systems (LMDS) solutions of Belstar Systems Corp., a San Diego company that designs, manufactures and integrates high frequency point-to-point systems. Belstar said the MMIC chip set operates in the Ka-band from 26.35 GHz to 31.3 GHz. It is capable of one watt transmit power and has a built-in L-band interface.
The GOES-8 weather satellite was commanded back to normal on-orbit mode Tuesday night with the satellite's redundant Earth sensor in control, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported yesterday. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite was put into safe-hold mode about 4 a.m. EST Tuesday after developing problems with its attitude sensor. GOES-10 switched to full disk mode to provide coverage of both Hurricane Mitch and Kennedy Space Center, which is preparing for the today of the Space Shuttle Discovery (DAILY, Oct. 28).
The No. 1 Boeing Sikorsky Comanche helicopter prototype resumed flight testing Oct. 24 after a four-month period for inspections and installation of various systems, the companies said yesterday. The first RAH-66 prototype made a one-hour flight from Sikorsky's Development Flight Test Center at West Palm Beach, Fla. The helicopter was flown to evaluate flight and system performance following a 100-hour inspection.
Major aerospace political action committees for the most part steered clear of high visibility, costly and close Senate races in favor of contributions to strategically placed members of committees important to them. An examination of the Oct. 20 monthly and final pre-election reports filed with the Federal Election Commission showed this to be the case for the PACs of the big three U.S. aerospace companies - Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
Lockheed Martin Vought Systems said its Low Cost Autonomous Attack System (LOCASS) located a Scud missile launcher target in an Oct. 19 test at Eglin AFB, Fla.
The Pentagon has decided to extend the Foreign Comparative Test assessment of the Swedish Bol chaff dispensing system for the U.S. Air Force's F-15 as the U.S. Navy considers expanding its use of the system from F-14s to F/A-18s. The Defense Dept. began a one year FCT program involving the Celsius Tech system for F-15s last fiscal year, following successful completion of a similar program for F-14s.
First flight of the X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype has been pushed back from July to early December 1999 because Boeing's Rocketdyne unit has taken longer than originally planned to assemble the innovative linear aerospike engine that will power the suborbital testbed.
The U.S. Air Force on Nov. 4 plans to launch the first rocket from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Kodiak, Alaska. The rocket will be launched as part of the Air Force's Atmospheric Interceptor Technology (AIT) program to test missile defense radar tracking systems, according to Alaska Aerospace Development Corp., a public corporation based in Anchorage to develop aerospace-related economic and technical opportunities for Alaska. The corporation funds and operates the Kodiak complex.
The GOES-8 weather satellite, which is tracking Hurricane Mitch in the Gulf of Mexico as well as weather around Kennedy Space Center for Thursday's Space Shuttle launch, was put in safe-hold mode yesterday after malfunctioning. GOES-8 experienced an anomaly which caused it to "point away from the earth in a way the attitude and control electronics did not recognize," a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in an interview yesterday afternoon.
