PROGRESS M-39 unmanned cargo vehicle was launched to the Mir space station on May 14. The launch, by the Russian Space Agency on a Soyuz-U booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan at 22:12:59 UTC, inserted the vehicle into initial orbit with an apogee of 238 kilometers, a perigee of 194 kilometers, an inclination of 51.64 degrees and a period of 88.52 minutes. The 7,135 kg Progress M-39, made by Energia Rocket and Space Corp., was scheduled to dock with Mir early on May 16.
India is considering development of a hypersonic unmanned combat aerial vehicle capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the chief of India's defense research establishment, Abdul Kalam, is reported to have told the Press Trust of India.
India's nuclear tests, which surprised the U.S. intelligence community, apparently also caught China and Russia off guard, because neither had reconnaissance satellites in orbit at the time. Russia has flown two photo reconnaissance satellites this year. One, Cosmos 2349, flew from Feb. 17 to April 2. The other, Cosmos 2348, flew from Dec. 15, 1997, to April 14. China has not flown a recoverable satellite since 1996. India conducted three underground nuclear tests on May 11, and two more on May 13.
BOEING 737s with 30,000 to 40,000 flight hours were added by the FAA to an order requiring airlines to inspect fuel pump wires. They must be inspected within 45 days. FAA also extended the order to include center pump wires. The order now requires inspections of center pump wires and Teflon sleeves within five days on aircraft with 50,000 hours. Aircraft with 40,000 or more hours have 10 days and aircraft with 30,000 or more hours have 45 days.
American Airlines exercised rights under its long-term agreement with Boeing to purchase 25 more 737-800 aircraft, bringing its total firm 737 orders to 100. The aircraft are to be delivered between January 2000 and January 2002. Donald Carty, president of American, said the order will "allow us to continue the retirement of our 727-200 fleet that we began earlier this year as well as provide for modest growth." Carty said the additional 737s will enable American to meet a previously announced goal of retiring the last of its 727s by 2004.
SPACE TALK: English will be the official language for all air-to-ground communications between International Space Station crews and their controllers at the redundant mission control centers in Houston and Moscow, but don't be surprised if you hear a "da" or a "nyet." Mark Kirasich, who will be one of the first Station flight directors, says it is the "program intent" that Russian controllers speak to Russian cosmonauts on the Station in English.
Boeing is trying to keep on the original delivery schedule set out in its prime contract to build the International Space Station as a way to hold down cost overruns, but the strategy is hampered by hardware delays on the Russian side of the program, according to the company's Station program manager.
Dr. Peter Bukowick has been named president of Alliant Techsystems and elected to the board of directors, the company said Friday. It said Bukowick, who previously served as executive vice president, retains the title of chief operating officer. Richard Schwartz, chairman and chief executive officer, previously held the title of president.
SMART TLAMS: Shipboard operators will be able to communicate with the Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile, but the Office of Naval Research is developing technology that will allow cruise missiles to talk to each other and coordinate target engagements. However, Rear Adm. Daniel Murphy, the Navy's director of surface warfare programs, says such a high level of autonomy "is a step too far for me right now."
LOSING TIME: Limited flight time on the Global Hawk and the fact that a DarkStar still hasn't flown since the No. 1 vehicle crashed in April 1996 is cutting short the time the systems have to prove their worth. Although the Defense Dept. so far has opted for compressing flight test time rather than extending the demonstration program, that may change. Nagy said "we're all waiting to see if we can get enough flying done" for proper evaluations. If not, he suggests, the user evaluation at the end of the ACTD may be extended.
UAV PLAN: The DarkStar and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles left over at the end of the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration won't go to waste. Although officials expect production variants to look different, the U.S. Air Force is already carving out a mission for UAVs. "My guess is that we use those to iterate on the concept of operations" for endurance UAVs, says Brig. Gen. David Nagy, the head of AF information dominance programs.
LUH ATTENTION: The U.S. Army should stick to its schedule of trying to complete the Light Utility Helicopter requirements document by the end of this year and provide funding for the program in future budgets, the House National Security Committee says. Buying a new LUH to replace the UH-1s being flown by the Army Reserve is a priority. Fielding of the new helicopters is supposed to begin in 2001.
ALLIEDSIGNAL INC., Olathe, Kans., acquired Skyforce Avionics Ltd., a privately held company that designs, makes and sells portable and panel- mounted moving map display systems for use in general aviation aircraft. Skyforce, with engineering and production facilities in West Sussex, U.K., had $2 million in sales in 1997. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved interim subcommittee allocations, including $250.2 billion for defense budget authority and $245 billion in outlays for fiscal 1999. The allocations will clear the way for subcommittee markups, with the defense subcommittee likely to mark the first week in June, Senate sources said.
Lockheed Martin has won a $40.8 million U.S. Army contract to complete engineering and manufacturing development of the shoulder-fired Multipurpose Individual Munition/Short Range Assault Weapon (MPIM/SRAW). During the next 47 months, the company will complete development and build 50 qualified systems, 12 field handling trainers and 7 tactical engagement simulators for independent operational test and evaluation. Lockheed Martin has been working on the project under an initial $7 million EMD contract since 1996.
REAR ADM. DENNIS MCGINN is being promoted to vice admiral and will leave his slot as head of the U.S. Navy's air warfare directorate to become commander of the Third Fleet in San Diego. McGinn's replacement has not been named.
The Senate Armed Services Committee criticized the Pentagon for not moving fast enough on a national security space policy to improve the ability to monitor threats and verify arms control agreements around the world. Although DOD has begun work on a defense policy document, it has yet to be produced, SASC said in the report accompanying its fiscal year 1999 defense bill.
MAJ. GEN. GREGORY MARTIN has been named the new U.S. Air Force principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition at the rank of lieutenant general. He replaces Lt. Gen. George Muellner, who is retiring. Martin is currently the head of Air Force requirements.
HGS-1, the renamed communications satellite that Hughes is trying to rescue, circled the moon Wednesday afternoon before beginning its 3.75-day return to Earth. The maneuver, part of a plan to rescue the satellite (DAILY, April 30 and May 11), "went beautifully," according to project manager Mark Skidmore. Engineers lost contact with the satellite at 18:52:43 GMT as it went behind the moon, and reacquired the signal at 19:20:57 GMT.
The NOAA-K weather satellite was launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., at 8:52 a.m. PDT Wednesday aboard a Titan II rocket, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce said. NOAA-K, a joint project of the DOC's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA, will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world from a near-polar orbit of 516 miles (DAILY, April 17). NOAA-K is the first in a series of five satellites with improved imaging and sounding capabilities that will operate over the next 12 years.
The Pentagon announced a restructuring of its command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) organization that marries airborne and space reconnaissance, and that is intended to better address defense information and intelligence issues, and help achieve the Defense Dept. goal of information superiority.
Airport operators will become increasingly involved in the debate over the implementation of Communication, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) systems, according to the director general of the Airports Council International. Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the International Civil Aviation Organization's CNS/ATM Implementation Conference here, Jonathan Howe said airport operators "have a direct interest in air traffic control issues."
GROEN BROTHERS AVIATION INC., Salt Lake City, received confirmation that its European patent, awarded Nov. 26, 1997, has been expanded to include Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. It endorses GBA's collective pitch controlled rotor head with infinitely variable pitch in gyroplanes.
SpaceDev, San Diego, completed an agreement with J.P. Carey to raise about $900,000 in private financing to be used for its Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) program, the first privately financed mission to another planetary body. SpaceDev intends to use the proceeds to fill several key positions, including project manager and spacecraft engineer and begin construction of the spacecraft.
The financial community appears ready to back implementation of Communications, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) worldwide, Assad Kotaite, president of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), said at the opening of this week's global CNS/ATC conference here.
