Loral Space&Communications has joined with France's Alcatel Alsthom to develop and operate a three-satellite Ku-band relay between Europe and Asia, Loral announced yesterday. Dubbed "Europe*Star," the system will consist of satellites at 43, 45 and 47.5 degrees East longitude that will provide telecommunications, television and high-rate data services to Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, south Africa, India and Southeast Asia.
Boeing Co. today intends to announce a plan to establish a major logistics and support center for large commercial and military aircraft at Kelly AFB, Tex., under a 20-year lease agreement. Kelly was targeted for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 1995. The new Boeing Aerospace Support Center will handle such large aircraft as the C-17, KC-10, KC-135 and DC-10/MD-11. The C-17 support program will be among the first to be introduced into the facility.
Pacific Aerospace&Electronics' Cashmere Manufacturing Co. subsidiary, Wenatchee, Wash., has received a multi-million dollar contract extension to supply parts that will be used to manufacture aerostructure subassemblies for the Boeing 747s. Under the contract, Cashmere will provide the parts to Northrop Grumman's Commercial Aircraft Div. in Hawthorne, Calif. Cashmere estimates that the contract could exceed $10 million over its three-year period.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS' Conventional Munitions Group, Minneapolis, won a $91 million contract from the U.S. Army Industrial Operations Command, Rock Island, Ill., to make 120mm training ammunition for the M1A1/A2 Abrams tank. The final annual procurement under a four-year basic contract brings the total award since 1995 to $333 million. The government is expected to solicit bids for the next multi-year procurement later this year.
Boeing launched another five Iridium low Earth orbit communications satellites aboard a Delta II rocket yesterday, bringing to 49 the number of functioning satellites in the "Big LEO" constellation. Liftoff of the Delta II from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., came at 8:58 a.m. EST, with satellite separation about 80 minutes after liftoff. The launch had been delayed repeatedly because of bad weather at the launch site, which also delayed the first launch from Florida for the competing Globalstar system (DAILY, Feb. 18).
ARIANESPACE has signed a contract with the French Space Agency (CNES) to launch the Stentor telecommunications technology satellite aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. Launch on the new vehicle is scheduled for the second quarter of 2000. The new satellite, built jointly by Aerospatiale, Alcatel Espace and Matra Marconi Space, will demonstrate such new technologies as wideband and multimedia services beamed to miniature terminals. France Telecom and DGA, the French defense procurement agency, is joining CNES in supporting development of the experimental platform.
B-1B BOMBER CRASHED yesterday during a training mission, but all four crew members ejected safely. The B-1, from Dyess AFB, Tex., crashed near Mattoon, Ky., around 2:45 p.m. EST.
WESLEY T. HUNTRESS JR., NASA's longtime associate administrator for space science, yesterday announced he will leave the agency "in the near future." "I have served in this position for more than five years now, and it is simply time to move on," Huntress said in an agency announcement released after he informed his staff in a telephone conference call from California. Agency spokesmen said the exact timing of Huntress' departure was uncertain.
KHRUNICHEV Space Production Center in Moscow will Modify the upper stage and payload fairing of the Rockot space launch vehicle, which is derived from the SS-19 ICBM, to boost usable payload volume while reducing flight dynamic loads. The fairing will be expanded to a diameter of 2.6 meters and a length of 3.6 meters through the cylindrical section. The reignitable Breeze upper stage will be modified to accommodate multiple satellites. Rockot launches are marketed in the West by Eurockot, a joint venture of Khrunichev and Daimler-Benz Aerospace.
NASA's top 100 contractors for fiscal year 1997 are listed in this table, included in the agency's "Annual Procurement Report" for fiscal '97. These contractors received the largest dollar value of direct awards by NASA during FY '97. The awards accounted for 90% of the direct awards to businesses during the year. (S = Small Business; D = Disadvantaged Business). AWARDS CONTRACTOR (THOUSANDS) PERCENT
SPACEDEV, which is developing a scheme to send a privately financed scientific spacecraft to an asteroid as the first step in an extraterrestrial mining venture (DAILY, Sept. 10, 1997), has completed acquisition of Integrated Space Systems of San Diego for $3 million. The privately held aerospace, engineering and technical services firm had estimated sales of $1.8 million in 1997, and will provide SpaceDev with the engineering skills it needs to built its proposed Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) spacecraft.
CSA ENGINEERING of Palo Alto, Calif., has built a passive shock absorbing system for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland AFB, N.M., designed to keep the vibrations of launch from damaging delicate satellite components. Tested on the recent launch of the Navy's Geosat Follow-On atop an Orbital Sciences Taurus booster (DAILY, Feb. 11), the whole-spacecraft isolation system consists of a ring of passive shock absorbers that replaces the bolts that normally attach a payload to its launch vehicle.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. earned a record $243 million in 1997, up sharply from $47 million in 1996, the company reported. Earnings included a one-time, non-cash income tax benefit of $65 million. Sales jumped from $1 billion in 1996 to $1.9 billion for 1997. In 1997, the Savannah, Ga., company delivered 51 aircraft - 22 GIV-SPs and 29 GVs - compared to 27 aircraft in 1996 - 24 GIV-SPs and 3 GVs. Gulfstream's backlog stands at 88 aircraft worth about $2.8 billion. Also reporting were:
The first of 20 Royal Air Force Harrier GR.7s carrying the Thermal Imaging and Laser Designation (TIALD) pod has arrived in the Arabian Gulf as part of U.K. reinforcements for the buildup of forces for possible attacks against Iraq.
Intelsat's proposed spinoff of a commercial communications satellite company drew sharp attacks from some of the new company's potential competitors yesterday, and an equally impassioned defense from top Intelsat and Comsat executives.
AMERICAN HELICOPTER SOCIETY'S 54th Annual Forum and Technology Display is slated for May 20-22 at the Sheraton Washington Hotel in Washington D.C. Included are a Joint Strike Fighter '98 symposium and briefings on VSTOL military programs and unmanned aerial vehicles. For information on registration and exhibits, contact Stacey Clark of AHS at 703-684-6777; fax 703-739-9279; e-mail [email protected].
The U.S. Air Force is planning to test the Low Cost Autonomous Attack System munition with a new seeker this spring before it begins an Advanced Technology Demonstration to prove the LOCAAS concept in greater detail. The target identification work, using a seeker called "Star," will be an entrance exam for the ATD, Ken Edwards, the Air Force's LOCAAS program director, said in a telephone interview from Eglin AFB, Fla.
With U.S. forces in Southwest Asia heavily reliant on space systems, Air Force Maj. Gen. Gerald F. Perryman said yesterday that the USAF has made great strides in the quality of information it can provide from space since Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization denied published reports that plans are being made to send Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) hit-to-kill missiles to the Persian Gulf, but it did say that several other configurations of the system are deployed in the region. "There are no PAC-3 Configuration-3 hit-to-kill missiles available," BMDO spokesman Lt. Col. Rick Lehner said yesterday when asked about the reports. "Those missiles do not even enter low rate initial production until the end of this year."
The U.S. Army may be opening the door for a new helicopter engine development effort as its considers a major upgrade to the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that would include increasing lift demands. The central issue that will determine whether the General Electric T700 engine that powers Black Hawks can be retained for the enhanced Black Hawk is lift requirement. The Army is considering requiring Black Hawks to routinely lift about 10,000 pounds externally, compared to about 9,000 pounds today for the UH-60L.
A prototype Eurocopter Tiger combat helicopter crashed in Australia during a night test flight, a Eurocopter spokesman confirmed yesterday. The aircraft hit a hill near an airbase at Townsville, Queensland, but the two pilots were uninjured. Eurocopter was quoted in a Feb. 17 wire service report as saying that the crash of the PT4 prototype "should have no significant impact on the schedule of the Franco-German program." Eurocopter didn't give the date of the crash.
AEROSPATIALE has won contracts to supply two new telecommunications satellites, Europe's Astra 1K and Turkey's Eurasiasat-1. Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) picked the French satellite-maker to build its 11th Astra broadcasting satellite after a worldwide competition. The company will base the spacecraft on its Spacebus 3000 platform, which will also form the basis for the new platform ordered by Turk Telecom.
Sabreliner Corp., St. Louis, Mo., was awarded on Feb. 10, 1998, a $6,832,008 increment as part of an estimated $24,080,415 (total if all options are exercised, base year plus four years) five year, firm-fixed- price/indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, for maintenance and overhaul of Cold Section Modules, applicable to the T700 and T701C turbine engines for the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Work will be performed in Neosha, Mo., and is expected to be completed by Jan. 28, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
