The U.S. Navy has identified a requirement for another Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UFO) satellite that would have the same capability as the UFO satellites being launched this year. The Navy plans to buy the additional satellite on a sole-source basis from UFO-maker Hughes Space and Communications, El Segundo, Calif., the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) said in a July 13 Commerce Business Daily notice.
Kenneth J. Szalai, director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., since 1990, will retire from the agency Aug. 1 and become president and chief operating officer of IBP Aerospace Group Inc., which specializes in acquiring Russian flight hardware. Szalai joined the staff at Dryden in 1964, and as a research engineer was principal investigator on the first digital fly-by-wire aircraft, the F-8 DFBW. His deputy, Kevin L. Petersen, will take over as director on an acting basis while NASA seeks a replacement.
E-mail is likely to be the preferred means of personal communications with Earth for astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station according to Astronaut Andy Thomas, just back from more than four months on Russia's Mir orbital station. Thomas says e-mail messages can be read at leisure without disrupting orbital operations, and they can be kept and reread again and again.
SPACEDEV has signed an agreement to acquire Space Innovations Ltd., of Newbury England, for an undisclosed sum as it continues its efforts to develop commercial deep-space probes. The British firm specializes in designing and building small satellites and satellite payloads, and posted sales of about $2.2 million in 1997. It will become a wholly owned subsidiary of San Diego-based SpaceDev, which has plans to send a probe to an asteroid and sell the data to NASA and other buyers, and ultimately to mine asteroids for their minerals.
The International Space Station could wind up with a Ukrainian Research Module if preliminary discussions under way bear fruit. With Russia so strapped for cash that it's having trouble getting its early Station elements in orbit, the prospects for delivery of the four small Russian research modules scheduled late in assembly is problematic at best. Ukraine has offered to build a research module for the Russians as a way into the Station project, and is holding talks with Moscow to that end. NASA hasn't gotten directly involved yet, although top officials from the U.S.
A UH-1N weapon system trainer built by Raytheon Systems Co., Lexington, Mass., has been accepted by the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center's Training System Div., and is being used to train Marine pilots to fly the UH-1N, Raytheon said. The 24-foot, dome-on-motion simulator, installed at MCAS Camp Pendleton, Calif., provides two-man flight crews with full flight operations and weapon systems training, according to Raytheon. It said aircrews will view computer generated data base scenes over a 220-degree-
DIRECTV avoided loss of service to its more than 3.7 million customers when a spacecraft control processor aboard the DBS-1 satellite failed July 4. A spare processor took over control of the Hughes HS 601 spacecraft when the primary processor failed, and the satellite continued to operate normally. DirecTV said it will switch programming to the DBS-2 and DBS-3 satellites, colocated with DBS-1 at 101 degrees West longitude, if the remaining processor on DBS-1 should fail.
BALL AEROSPACE&Technologies Corp. will build the QuickBird 1 Earth remote sensing satellite under a contract with EarthWatch Inc. that also includes an options for a second spacecraft. The satellite will be based on Ball's BCP 2000 bus, and will carry a Ball High Resolution Camera capable of a 0.82-meter panchromatic resolution and 3.2 meters in multispectral. The Boulder, Colo., spacecraft house has now sold four BCP 2000s in the past six months.
The U.S. Army plans to create a medium weight strike force with armor heavier than that of its light forces but more mobile than its heavy units. "It's a bridging force," one Army official said. The service will spend this summer deciding exactly what the new force should look like. It hopes to achieve two objectives, the official said. One is to help define the so called "Army After Next." The other is help identify areas where science and technology investments should be made.
TRW INC. has completed thermal vacuum testing on NASA's Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), completing the final phase of environmental testing before it delivers the orbiting x-ray observatory for launch on the Space Shuttle Columbia in January 1999. The month-long test at TRW's satellite integration and test facilities in Redondo Beach, Calif., uncovered a mechanical problem with the CCD Imaging Spectrometer on the spacecraft, which TRW believes can be fixed in parallel with upcoming electrical testing.
BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE took delivery of the first PW150A engine from Pratt&Whitney Canada on July 2. The company said it intends to use the powerplant, designed for high-speed turboprops of the 50- to 80-passenger-seat class, on its de Havilland Dash 8Q-400 aircraft.
The next test of troubled Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile will be in the fall at the earliest, Lyles reports. Given problems in the program and the failure in May, the Army and BMDO won't be able to test the missile again before the end of the summer as they hoped, he says. He also says program officials are still planning to keep the 2006 deployment date. Others, however, say they expect the date to slip by at least a year.
The U.K. ministry of defense plans to issue a request for information that could lead to the purchase of a new aerial refueling capability. The need for more aerial tankers was highlighted in Britain's Strategic Defense Review, released last week. The tankers could augment or replace TriStar and VC-10 tankers. The SDR also said that all 10 U.K. attack submarines will be equipped with the Raytheon-built Tomahawk cruise missile, not just seven as initially planned.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. has started trading its share on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ORB. Previously the Dulles, Va., traded on the NASDAQ market under the symbol ORBI. The changeover occurred Friday.
Special Metals Corp. (SMC), New Hartford, N.Y., entered into a definitive agreement with Inco Ltd. to acquire its Inco Alloys International (IAI) business unit for $408 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close within 60 days. IAI, Huntington, W. Va., makes nickel-based alloys for a range of applications and markets. The unit also has operations in the U.K. and distribution centers and related businesses located in several countries, including Canada, France and Japan.
TRW Inc. will design, build and operate the Geosynchronous Lightweight Technology Experiment (GeoLITE) spacecraft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office under a $77.8 million contract announced Friday. Set for launch on a Boeing Delta II from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., early in 2001, GeoLITE was described by TRW as "an advanced technology demonstration satellite with a laser communications experiment and an operational UHF communications mission."
William Reinsch, under secretary of Commerce for export administration, tells a Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee that China's advantage over U.S. satellite launch services is not lower cost but quicker time to launch. He notes that a satellite is not a revenue producer until it is launched. The U.S. has two-thirds of the satellite market, but only 40% of the launch market, he says.
Just back from a trip to Israel, Lyles says BMDO is not looking at a variant of the Arrow missile as an alternative to the THAAD missile. The primary goal regarding Israel is to make Arrow work first, Lyles says. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) has suggested a hybrid Arrow be considered to fill the THAAD requirement.
Congressional sources say House-Senate fiscal 1999 defense authorization conferees could hold their first meeting Wednesday at the earliest. The House returns tomorrow and conferees could be named then, setting up a Wednesday session. Staffs of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House National Security Committee have been working on issues that are likely to be settled at the staff level. Expected Senate approval of the defense appropriations bill next week would send the Pentagon money bill to conference.
The U.S. Navy has moved its demonstration of vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicles to the next phase by exercising options with Bell Helicopter Textron and Bombardier for additional work with their respective UAVs.
DRS Technologies, Parsippany, N.J., won a $4 million contract from Northrop Grumman Corp. for additional wire harnesses, cable assemblies, panel boxes and related equipment for two of the U.S. Air Force's E-8C Joint STARS aircraft. The company, which has supplied wire harnesses for the Joint STARS program since 1992, said work for this contract will be carried out by DRS Laurel Technologies, Johnstown, Pa. The contract is from the Electronics and Systems Integration Div. of Northrop Grumman.
The U.K.'s General Electric Co. plc and Italy's Finmeccanica signed a definitive agreement to form a 50-50 joint venture between GEC-Marconi and Alenia Difesa to join their land-based and naval radar, command and control systems, missiles, simulation and training and air traffic control businesses, GEC announced Friday.
Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., has received about $1 billion in new orders for its space and ground infrastructure systems product lines during the first half of 1998, a jump of more than 80% over the same period in 1997, the company announced yesterday. Orbital said it now expects its firm backlog to be about $1.3 billion and its total backlog to reach $3.5 billion as of June 30.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN's Electronic Sensors and Systems Div. won a $6.75 million contract from the Canadian government for a Track Management System for Canadian Navy Iroquois class destroyers.
