CHILLING OUT: Mars Pathfinder controllers are worried that the cold Martian nights have affected the way their spacecraft operates, knocking it so far out of whack that they can't seem to connect with signals to switch on the transmitter. The Pathfinder lander was last heard from on the morning of Oct. 7, when the main transmitter broadcast for about 15 minutes (DAILY, Oct. 9), but since then controllers have not been able to turn the transmitter back on.
The U.S. Navy has declared the Ship Self Defense System that will control anti-missile defenses for surface combatants operationally effective following testing earlier this year aboard the USS Ashland, an LSD-41 class amphibious warship.
OVERKILL: Development of a vessel like the proposed Arsenal Ship would reduce the need to send aircraft carriers to hot spots whenever trouble flares, says Rear Adm. Daniel Murphy, the Navy's director for surface warfare. Murphy says sending carriers to every contingency, no matter how small, diminishes their deterrent value. "It loses a little bit in terms of the diplomatic signal we are sending" if carriers are used in even the smallest of incidents, he says.
TWO ENGINES IS ENOUGH: Advances in engine technology should allow the next air mobility plane to be a twin-engine jet aircraft, says Richard Kirkland, vice president for business development at Lockheed Martin's Aeronautical Systems. He acknowledges, however, that there are certain communities that will always prefer a four-engine plane.
The Societe Europeenne de Propulsion (SEP) has proposed a new upper stage for Europe's Ariane 5 launcher that could be qualified as early as 2002. In a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress here earlier this month, SEP said the proposed stage would be fueled with hypergolic propellants (nitrogen tetroxide and monomethylhydrazine) and powered by a gas generator cycle engine. Currently the Ariane 5 second stage is equipped with a pressure-fed Aestus engine built by Daimler Benz Aerospace (DASA).
The Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Council has approved the Army's requirements for the Follow-On To TOW (FOTT) missile, allowing the Army to proceed with a competition for development and production of the $5 billion program. The JROC earlier this month approved the requirements without change, which allowed the Army to release the request for proposal for the $450 million engineering and manufacturing development phase. The Army is looking to buy 39,267 missiles at an approximate cost of $4.96 billion.
POINTS OF COMPARISON: Boeing and Sikorsky have come up with numbers to say how much less exposed the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter will be than the AH-64 Apache or OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. According to the contractor team's data, the Apache will have a radar signature 295 times greater, an infrared signature 3.9 times greater, and will be six times as loud as Comanche. The smaller Kiowa Warrior still will feature a 35-times-larger radar cross section, a 1.9-times-greater IR signature, and a 1.8-times-louder acoustic signature.
China's Long March 3B boosted Space Systems/Loral's APSTAR-IIR satellite into orbit at 3:13 p.m. EDT on Oct. 16 from the Xichang launch site in China's Sichuan Province. APSTAR-IIR is expected to begin commercial operations in mid- November. The satellite, along with the APSTAR-I and APSTAR-IA satellites already in orbit, will provide broadcasting and telecommunications service in more than 100 countries throughout Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia.
Ukraine's Yuzhnoe Design Bureau is developing an upgraded version of an engine from the Tsyklon-3 rocket for Italy's proposed Vega small satellite launcher. The RD-861 engine being studied by Italy's FiatAvio is used on the third stage of the medium-lift Tsyklon-3, which has flown 116 times since 1977 with only one third stage failure.
CHILE'S AIR FORCE CHIEF, Gen. Fernando Rojas Vender, last week flew Sweden's JAS-39 Gripen, according to Saab and British Aerospace, which jointly market the fighter internationally. The Gripen is competing against several other aircraft to become Chile's new tactical fighter. The flight took place at Saab's Linkoeping facility, using a two-seat Gripen.
The addition of the defense businesses of Texas Instrument led to record numbers for Raytheon's Electronics segment, helping Raytheon post third quarter earnings of $211.2 million on record sales of $3.4 billion, the company reported last week.
NICHE PLAYER: Even though the Navy has started exploring the concept of using uninhabited combat air vehicles, Murphy says he sees UCAVs mainly as a "niche player" for missions such as suppression of enemy air defenses. The UCAVs could be launched from smaller platforms such as destroyers. But Murphy revealed concern that UCAVs could threaten aircraft carriers, and stressed that carrier aviation will be retained. One of the UCAV issues that must be addressed, Murphy says, is how to return them to ships with ordnance aboard.
The U.K. and U.S. governments are working on a memorandum of understanding that would allow Britain to join the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) program. The MOU is still in staffing, although both sides are committed to bring the U.K. into the program, according to U.S. and U.K. government officials. The scope of U.K. participation is still being worked out.
SLIPPERY SCHEDULE: Republicans have set a Nov. 7 target date for adjourning Congress for the year, but Democratic congressional leaders have other ideas. In the Senate, Democrats are insisting on taking up campaign finance legislation again, which could push back adjournment. In the House the Democratic leadership is threatening to block adjournment until Republicans end their investigation of the 1996 election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D- Calif.), who upset former Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Calif.) last year and replaced him on the House National Security Committee.
MIR REPAIRS: Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov will return to the depressurized Spektr module on Russia's Mir orbital station today in an attempt to gain more power from the three undamaged solar arrays on the module. As originally feared, the Spektr "avionics box" that keeps the arrays pointed at the sun won't operate in a vacuum (DAILY, July 14), so the two cosmonauts will run a cable from the same device in the pressurized Kristall module through the new hatch they installed in August (DAILY, Aug. 25).
A TITAN IV-A LAUNCH with a National Reconnaissance Office payload aboard has been rescheduled for Oct. 23 after winds in the upper atmosphere over the pad at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., forced a delay on Oct. 11. The launch has been delayed since July 15 because of a flow-control valve problem and later because of brush fires around the launch site (DAILY, July 18, Oct. 7). The latest launch try is scheduled between 8 p.m. and midnight EDT.
The U.S. Army and Boeing Co. are evaluating a new 130-gallon auxiliary fuel tank for the AH-64D Apache Longbow that would be more survivable than the 230-gallon tanks now being used. Boeing said it has been working with Robertson Aviation, LLC of Tempe, Ariz., on the tank, which would be carried in the Apache's ammunition bay and be interchangeable with the ammunition storage magazine, Boeing said.
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s vision of the future market for military transport and tanker aircraft centers on a family of affordable, modular planes that will become operational around 2007 to 2010, company officials said yesterday.
WHITE HOUSE denied claims that a letter sent by Russian President Yeltsin to President Clinton was related to Clinton's use of the line item veto on several defense appropriations programs. The Washington-based Center for Security Policy claimed the Sept. 26 letter led Clinton to veto funding for the Clementine II, Military Spaceplane and Kinetic Energy Anti-Satellite programs. It claimed Clinton vetoed the programs because Russia voiced concern about the planned test of a laser against an aging U.S. satellite, and that he wants new talks leading to a ban on ASATs.
Boeing Co. hopes by March to pick the winner of a competition for the cockpit upgrade portion of the Improved Cargo Helicopter program. The contract could be worth $300 million for the production phase, in which 300 helicopters would be built between 2002 and 2012. Boeing plans to begin the engineering and manufacturing development portion of the ICH in March and wants to have its cockpit provider onboard by then, according to a Boeing official. EMD will involve two production - representative ICHs. The helicopter will be based on the CH-47D.
Lockheed Martin Vought Systems has completed the first test firing with a new missile launcher that it says is more mobile than current systems. The test of the Rapid Deployment Launcher took place earlier this month at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. A missile was fired to verify functionality and interfaces, and to evaluate the effect of missile launch on the vehicle. Lockheed Martin said all test objectives were met. It said the launcher can fire several types of missiles, including the Patriot and Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3).
Britain's new Labor government has ordered seven more Lockheed Martin Trident D5 missiles for the Royal Navy's fleet of Trident ballistic missile submarines. The decision ensures continuation of the British submarine-based nuclear deterrent force well into the next century, and increases the overall total of U.K. D5 missiles to 58. The $22.5 million missiles will be fitted with British multiple warheads after delivery to the U.K. Each of the Royal Navy's four Vanguard class submarines can carry up to six D5s.
A move by the U.S. Dept. of Defense to phase out military specifications has had some unintended consequences that the Aerospace Industries Association is moving to control. The Washington-based association has established a group to give early warning of any of the 5,000 milspecs that may be canceled by DOD under the Single Process Initiative, which is aimed at streamlining the acquisition process.
