LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY has set up a new "Center for Space Science and Exploration" to broaden its work in the field of space research. The Dept. of Energy facility, operated by the University of California, already has about $9 million in annual funding from NASA, and plans to add another $5 million of its own funds to apply the unique capabilities it has developed in the U.S. nuclear weapons program to space.
DECRANE AIRCRAFT HOLDINGS INC., El Segundo, Calif., signed a definitive agreement to acquire San Antonio-based MSA Aircraft Interior Products Inc., a designer and provider of cabin interior products. The deal is structured as an all-cash transaction, with funding to be provided from internal cash flow and borrowings under the company's new credit facility. Other terms were not disclosed. MSA will operate as a separate subsidiary, and Mike Spraggins, president and founder, will continue to lead the operation.
Look for the FAA to publish its plans for controlling commercial space launches and reentries early next year. Experts in the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation have been working with the conventional air traffic control community to produce concepts for a "seamless integration" of exotic space launchers and commercial jetliners by 2005. A first draft reached Administrator Jane Garvey Sept. 30.
EG&G INC., Wellesley, Mass., was placed on CreditWatch with negative implications by Standard and Poor's. EG&G has agreed to acquire unrated Lumen Technologies Inc. for about $250 million in cash and assumed debt, and the transaction "substantially raises EG&G's debt levels and materially weakens credit protection measures near term," S&P said.
Senate Republican Policy Committee says the $9.2 billion fiscal 1999 defense supplemental "demanded by the Republican Congress" is the first real-inflation-adjusted-spending increase since President Clinton has been in office. Without this increase, the Policy Committee says, Clinton's proposed spending would have been the lowest in real terms ($226 billion in constant 1992 dollars) since President Carter's fiscal 1979 outlay of $221.9 billion in FY '92 dollars.
An Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket launched the Brazilian SCD-2 environmental monitoring satellite last week, with one of the air-launched rocket's wings fitted with a NASA experiment to study hypersonic flight conditions.
The U.S. Air Force has stood up four expeditionary wings in Europe in case NATO decided to conduct air operations against Serbia. The 16th Air Expeditionary Wing included B-52Hs, RC-135 Rivet Joints, F-15C fighters, and KC-135 tankers. The 32st AEW consists of LANTIRN-equipped F-16 fighters, A-10s, EC-130 ABCCCs, and KC-135s. C-130s and KC-10 make up the 86th AEW and the 100th Expeditionary Air Refueling Wing included only KC-135s. The forces report to Lt. Gen. Michael Short, commander, 16th Air Force.
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER, working with researchers from Stanford University, has applied advanced computer techniques to two different medical tasks. Its "Virtual Surgery Cutting Tool" software allows physicians to "operate" on an accurate three-dimensional representation of the human head to practice reconstructive surgery and predict its results. And another government/university team is in the preliminary stages of developing a "smart probe" that uses pattern recognition software to make instant diagnoses of cancer in breast lumps.
The top U.S. military officer overseeing the pacific theater says China's missile and rocket industry benefited from recent transfers of technology by the U.S. aerospace industry, but he characterized the impact as marginal.
AAR CORP., Wood Dale, Ill., acquired the assets of Tempco Hydraulics Inc., a privately held regional aircraft landing gear repair and overhaul business. Terms were not disclosed. Tempco will remain in Miami Lakes, Fla., and will be integrated into AAR's landing gear repair business in Miami. Bill Fondriest, the current general manager and son of the founder of Tempco, will remain general manager. AAR expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings per share within the first year.
A bipartisan group of House members sent a letter to the White House warning President Clinton to better fund defense science and technology (S&T) in the Pentagon's future budget requests. "The continued erosion of defense science and technology funding will have a devastating effect on the future capabilities of the armed forces of the United States," the lawmakers said.
The Defense Dept. should "thoroughly analyze" proposals to address the pay gap between the military and the private sector or to change the present military retirement system to account for "significant long-term costs," Senate Armed Services Chairman Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and ranking SASC Democrat Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.) have warned Defense Secretary William S. Cohen in a letter.
ECHOSTAR COMMUNICATIONS has signed a letter of intent to buy Media4, Inc., a privately held supplier of broadband satellite networking equipment for personal computers. Under the arrangement EchoStar will gain 100% ownership of the Atlanta-based company in exchange for 400,000 shares of stock in its DISH direct-broadcasting network. EchoStar hopes to use the Media4 line of PC-based digital video products to offer broadband data delivery to its customers, while continuing to sell the Media4 products to private network operators and corporations worldwide.
The Air Force this week is expected to downselect to two contractors for the concept definition phase of the Space Based Infrared System-Low program, sources say. The program has experienced some delays due to haggling among the services about what requirements are critical for SBIRS Low and which ones could be added at later stages in the effort. A Lockheed Martin/Boeing/Aerojet team is competing against a TRW/Raytheon team and Spectrum Astro, of Ariz., for the program. The two contractors selected for the next phase will receive a contract valued at $100 million.
Congressional Research Service's Ronald O'Rourke says the Navy is falling further and further behind the shipbuilding rate needed to sustain a 300-ship Navy. At the current rate of buying six or seven ships a year and a 35-year service life, O'Rourke says that by the end of 2003 the Navy will be about 29 ships behind that goal.
Congress included in the omnibus appropriations package it passed prior to adjournment a provision calling for the White House to fully review U.S. policy toward North Korea on nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and other security matters. The appropriations report directs the president to name a senior presidential envoy to engage the North Korean government on weapons issues at the most senior levels. The president has until Jan. 1 to name a North Korea Policy Coordinator.
North Korea's military potential is steadily eroding, but the country maintains the capability to strike quickly against South Korea and inflict widespread damage, Adm. Joseph W. Prueher, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said Friday. "The North Korean forces are, owing to their [weak] economy, steadily degrading," Prueher told defense reporters in Washington. "North Korea's forces are not robust at all, but they still retain a lash-out capability."
ORBIMAGE has placed its catalogue of satellite Earth images online in its "OrbNet" product, available through the company's web site at www.orbimage.com. Full-color digital data sets collected by the OrbView-2 satellite, updated daily, are available from $500 at retail. Applications of the ocean- and surface-color data include fishing, maritime operations, coastal monitoring and agriculture.
SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL has won a contract worth more than $300 million to build two advanced Ka-band spot-beam satellites for KaStar Satellite Communications Corp. Both satellites will feature on-board processing for multimedia services to the U.S. and Latin America from orbital slots at 109.2 and 73 degrees West longitude. Loral said the first satellite is to be delivered on orbit no later than February 2002.
Bombardier continues to see significant strength in the burgeoning business aircraft market, and the company's Business Aircraft division is on track to meet its forecast of 50% growth this year, according to Michael Graff, president of the division. Challenger production in now at three aircraft per month, and production of the newly certified Global Express will hit the three-per-month rate early in 1999. In Wichita, the company is producing the new Learjet 45, as well as the Learjet 60 and 31A.
LOCKHEED MARTIN's board of directors declared a two-for-one split of the company's common stock. The split will have the effect of altering the exchange ratio contemplated by the Agreement and Plan of Merger between Lockheed Martin and Comsat Corp from 0.5 to 1.0, as previously announced, to a one-for-one exchange. The split will be in the form of a stock dividend and stockholders of record on Dec. 1 will receive one additional share for each share held. The new shares will be issued Dec. 31.
ALLIEDSIGNAL INC. is offering an airborne satellite telephone based on the planned Iridium system that it says will lower costs for private aircraft owners. The "Airsat 1" system will provide voice-only air-to-air, air-to ground and ground-to-air communications worldwide. The company plans to develop a multi-channel product to support the Free Flight operating environment.
Alliant Techsystems' Space and Strategic Systems Group won a contract from The Aerostructures Corp., Nashville, to make fiber-placed composite fuselage structures for the Bell 609, Alliant reported Thursday. If all production options are exercised, the work could be worth about $80 million for Alliant by 2010.
AlliedSignal Aerospace, The CIT Group and Rolls-Royce all circulated industry forecasts at the National Business Aviation Association convention in Las Vegas this week.
