CMD ROADMAP: Lyles also says BMDO and the Joint Theater Air and Missile Defense Organization next month will release an acquisition roadmap and investment strategy for cruise missile defense (CMD). Its biggest program will be development of a system to provide a "common picture for any shooter that's going to be a potential player in either theater missile defense or cruise missile defense."
WILBUR C. TRAFTON, who resigned abruptly last month as NASA's associate administrator for space flight, will become executive vice president of International Launch Services effective today, ILS announced Friday. In his new position Trafton will help President Charles H. Lloyd in strategic planning and day-to-day operations of ILS, which jointly markets launch services on Russia's Proton and Lockheed Martin's Atlas launch vehicles. Trafton's NASA deputy, Richard J. Wisniewski, is acting in his stead until a replacement is named (DAILY, Nov. 14).
STICKING WITH THAAD: Despite failure of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor to hit a target in tests so far, the U.S. Army will stick with it, says Lt. Gen. Edward G. Anderson, commander of the service's Space and Missile Defense Command. "I don't see that we are going to walk away from THAAD, that's for sure," he says. If additional attempts fail and the program is delayed, it will be to make it successful. Anderson says he's confident the next test will be a success.
Honeywell Space and Aviation Control Counsel John Leshinski said the company was "quite surprised" to learn that the European Commission will provide 140 million French francs (US$23.6 million) to Airbus to finance new flight control systems by two Honeywell competitors - Sextant Avionique of France and Smiths Industries of the U.K.
...BUYING LAUNCHERS: Bourne adds that German and U.S. officials decided at the last RAM steering committee meeting that new customers will be able to buy launchers through direct commercial sales channels. In addition to the regular 21-round RAM launcher, the U.S. Navy is developing a 11-round launcher for its Aegis cruisers. That system is expected to be of greater interest to many international customers.
NEW CUSTOMER: The Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) program office is expecting its first international sale outside the U.S./German alliance developing and buying the missile. U.S. Navy Capt. Mickey Bourne, the RAM program manager, tells The DAILY he expects the sale this fiscal year. "There's been a significant amount of interest," he says. The first orders would be for the Block 0 missile. The Block 1, which will be able to engage helicopters and ships, is still in development.
Lufthansa signed an agreement to buy 10 A340-600s, becoming a launch customer for the long-haul, stretched version of the A340-300. The aircraft will be powered by Rolls-Royce engines. The program was launched last June, along with the A340-500. The carrier also is ordering five 747-400s from Boeing for delivery between 2000 and 2003, bringing its 747 fleet to 37.
If the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile again fails to intercept a target in its next flight test, some changes may be made to the plan to move a User Operational Evaluation System (UOES) to soldiers in the field, according to Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Director Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles.
Shareholders of Talley Industries Inc., Phoenix, tendered a majority of the company's outstanding shares to Score Acquisition Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carpenter Technology Corp. Based on a preliminary count, 11.4 million shares, or 74% of Talley's aggregate voting power, were tendered and accepted for payment before the midnight Thursday deadline, Talley said Friday. The tender occurred despite the opposition of some major Talley shareholders (DAILY, Dec. 4).
AAR Corp., Wood Dale, Ill., will be Delta Airlines' only source of engine parts and bare engine accessories, except for parts from original equipment manufacturers, AAR said. It said its contract includes a joint marketing program in which it will help the carrier dispose of excess engine parts. Delta engine overhaul facilities service more than 700 powerplants a year from all the major manufacturers.
PROTON PLANS: International Launch Services, the U.S./Russian joint venture that markets Russia's Proton launcher, plans to grow to 16 commercial Proton launches a year in the coming decade. The venture, which just launched a Hughes satellite for Societe Europeenne des Satelites (DAILY, Dec. 5), intends to launch eight or nine commercial missions beginning next year when a second pad becomes available. In 2001 and beyond ILS plans to offer 12 launches a year, and to move to 16 a year when another pad is refurbished.
In a story about Thiokol leaving the ICBM prime integration team of Alliant Techsystems (Dec. 5 issue, page 352), The DAILY incorrectly quoted a Thiokol spokesman. He was quoted as saying that Thiokol told Alliant that Alliant was "proposing to the Air Force in a manner which was inconsistent with our joint venture agreement, and with those inconsistencies it validated the agreement." The quote should have read, "...it invalidated the agreement."
A story in The DAILY of Dec. 5 incorrectly listed the launch time for NASA's Lunar Prospector. The Lockheed Martin Athena 2 is scheduled to lift off at 8:31 p.m. EST Jan. 5.
The International Air Transport Association called on the United Nations' environmental meeting last week in Kyoto, Japan, to confirm the what is said was the pre-eminent role of the International Civil Aviation Organization in aviation-related environmental issues. The move, last Thursday, followed by a day a go-it-alone approach by the European Commission concerning emissions from jet engines (see preceding story).
AXAF DELAY: Problems setting up the computer programs it needs to check out NASA's Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) have forced TRW to break its scheduled June 1, 1998, spacecraft delivery date at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. In meetings last week TRW and NASA managers couldn't agree on a new delivery date, raising the possibility that the planned Aug. 28 AXAF launch on the Space Shuttle Columbia may have to be slipped, with the attendant rise in program cost.
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force have teamed to provide worldwide depot repair services for the Low-Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared System for Night (LANTIRN), which is flown by 10 countries including the U.S.
What's Ahead in Aerospace: SCOURING FOR SBL FUNDS: The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization has been able to increase its POM funding for Space Based Laser (SBL) work, "but not up to the level we think is necessary for us to do a readiness demonstrator right now," says BMDO Director Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles. The Air Force is determining how much money it can include in the POM for SBL, he says at an Association of the U.S. Army symposium in El Paso, Tex.
NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia returned to a perfect landing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Friday, after a ragged 16-day mission that produced a wealth of microgravity science data but failed in a planned attempt to use a Spartan free-flyer in conjunction with a separate NASA satellite to study the sun's corona.
It will take Russia at least 10 years to rebuild its conventional military capabilities following a decline that has reduced manpower by 70%, tanks and other armored vehicles by two-thirds and artillery, combat aircraft and surface ships by one-third, according to the research arm of the U.S. Congress.
TOP SECRET: Don't expect it to be easy to find out how October tests of the MIRACL laser against the Air Force's MSTI-3 satellite affected the satellite's sensors. It will take at least six months to analyze the data, and then it will be top secret, Anderson says. "The information as to what the effect was on the satellite is classified and will be classified, and is extremely sensitive," he says. He won't say whether a similar test may be down the road. "It depends on what we learn," he says.
The European Commission's move last week to impose stricter emission standards on aircraft engines beginning in 2000 is dramatic, but should have only a minimal effect on the engineers - and balance sheets - of today's enginemakers, company executives said. Prompted by what it contends is slow going on a universal emission standards approach underway in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the EC Wednesday adopted a proposal for a Council Directive tightening standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 16% from today's ceilings.
JOYRIDE: Russian Space Agency planners have put Yuri Baturin, a defense aide to President Boris Yeltsin, on the manifest for a week-long visit to the Mir orbital station next August. Baturin started cosmonaut training at Star City this fall (DAILY, Sept. 22), and moved into the Star City training center Nov. 11. Observers in the Russian press believe Baturin may be lining himself up to take over RSA from Yuri Koptiev, who is expected to make it particularly difficult for the Yeltsin aide to pass a battery of qualification exams early next year.
TOMS ZAPPED: Engineers on NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) may have to install a more restrictive noise filter in the spacecraft's Earth sensor, after it put itself into an automatic safe mode for three days last month. Project engineers blame an unusually sustained burst of noise from an unidentified ground source that overwhelmed the Earth sensor and caused TOMS-EP to lose its attitude lock. The sensor has been sensitive to ground noise since TOMS-EP was launched in 1996, according to controllers at Goddard Space Flight Center, Md.
Lockheed Martin hopes to get Federal Aviation Administration certification of its C-130J transport aircraft in March so it can begin overdue deliveries to Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. Last week, during a demonstration of a stretched C-130J-30 to customers in the Washington, D.C., area, company officials said they were confident the schedule for certification won't slip.
