Orbital Imaging Corp. (Orbimage), the earth imaging subsidiary of Orbital Sciences Corp., won a $41.5 million contract to provide the U.S. Air Force with hyperspectral imagery. The imagery will be obtained by the company's OrbView-3 high resolution imaging satellite system. The contract from the Air Force Phillips Laboratory's Warfighting-1 advanced technology demonstration program covers imagery purchases during the first three years of the satellite's five-year lifetime.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin is slated to be briefed today by officials at the Khrunichev Space Center on plans for repairing the Mir space station, building the International Space Station and Proton and Rokot booster rockets, the Itar-Tass news service reported.
Defense Secretary William Cohen yesterday sent congressional authorizers a letter laying out his concerns about proposed actions in the fiscal 1998 defense bills of the House and Senate.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is requiring an estimated $316 million-plus retrofit of digital flight data recorders (DFDR) in passenger-carrying aircraft with 10 or more passenger seats, but is exempting 10- to 19-seat aircraft registered in the U.S. before Oct. 11, 1991. The new requirement, contained in the agency's recently published final rule, expands data parameters from 11 to 17 or 18 for older aircraft and up to 88 for new aircraft. The rule establishes four categories:
Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., yesterday at 10:41 a.m. EDT carrying six astronauts on an 11-day mission to study the Earth's middle atmosphere with deployment and retrieval of a satellite, and to test equipment for possible future use on the International Space Station. The crew was scheduled to release the prime payload for the flight, the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere Shuttle Pallet Satellite-2 (CRISTA-SPAS-2) satellite, yesterday at 6:56 p.m. EDT, a NASA spokeswoman said.
Northrop Grumman Corp. this month plans to demonstrate to the Dutch air force a reconnaissance pod built around the infrared sensor that is being deployed by the U.S. Army to Bosnia as part of the company's Airborne Standoff Minefield Detection System (ASTAMIDS).
The crew aboard the Mir space station worked yesterday to fix a broken oxygen generator as they waited for arrival of a new crew on a Soyuz capsule which was slated to dock with Mir today. In preparation for the arrival, the Progress resupply vehicle, which had been attached to the Kvant-1 module docked to Mir, was undocked at 7 :46 a.m. EDT yesterday to free up a docking spot for Soyuz. Soyuz is slated to dock with Mir today at 1:03 p.m. EDT.
Urging congressional authorizers to restore proposed funding cuts to advanced concept technology demonstrations (ACTDs), the Pentagon says criticism is "unfounded."
Concerns about the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger reducing competition in the commercial airplane market are unfounded, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service. "The global aircraft market - even under the most favorable outlook - cannot profitably sustain more than two commercial aircraft manufacturers because of ongoing pricing pressures," the New York firm said in a report titled "The Global Commercial Aircraft Industry Moves Toward Duopoly: Does This Kill Competition?"
The Lewis scientific satellite, built by TRW for NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI), is scheduled for launch Saturday from Vandenberg AFB. TRW said the satellite's booster, a Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle-1, is set for lift off at 11:51 p.m. PDT, and will place the satellite in a 300-kilometer, sun-synchronous orbit. TRW built the $64.8 million satellite, named for explorer Meriwether Lewis, in 24 months. It said the cost includes the launch vehicle operations and applications team support.
The U.S. Air Force is considering leasing rather than buying helicopters as it looks to replace the aging fleet of Bell UH-1Ns it now uses for support of ICBM fields and other operations. The average age of the UH-1Ns is over 20 years and the AF has now begun to aggressively look at other options. In a Aug. 7 Commerce Business Daily notice, AF Space Command asked industry to submit information about lease options to support the UH-1N Helicopter Upgrade/Replacement analysis of alternatives.
General Dynamics Ordnance Systems, Burlington, Vt., and Mason&Hanger Corp., Lexington, Ky., will form a joint venture with their Milan and Iowa Army Ammunition Plants, the companies announced yesterday. General Dynamics operates the Milan plant, Milan, Tenn. It employs 1,000 people and produces 40mm grenade cartridges, mortars and fuzes.
Russia's third international aerospace show, to be held Aug. 15-24 at the Zhukovsky airfield near Moscow, will feature 328 leading aerospace companies from 24 countries, the Itar-Tass news agency reported yesterday. It quoted Yakov Urinson, chairman of the show's organizing committee, as saying that 250 Russian enterprises and organizations will participate, and that 150 aircraft will be featured, including Boeing and Airbus Imdustrie airliners.
The Conventional Munitions Group of Alliant Techsystems, Minneapolis, will move its medium caliber ammunition load, assemble and pack (LAP) operations from the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant (JAAP), Wilmington, Ill., to the Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RAAP), Radford, Va., the company announced yesterday.
KAMAN AEROSPACE CORP., Bloomfield, Conn., delivered a K-Max helicopter to Central Copters Inc., Bozeman, Mont. Kaman said the company plans to use the helicopter for logging operations in Montana and Idaho.
AYDIN, Horsham, Pa., is working under a $6 million subcontract from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, Palmdale, Calif., to provide flight test instrumentation for the Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstration program. Delivery will extend through 1998. Aydin Telemetry will integrate the data acquisition system and equipment of other subcontractors.
With the U.K.'s formal endorsement of the European Staff Requirement (ESR) and Statement of Principles governing commercial management of the Future Large Aircraft program (DAILY, Aug. 1), Airbus Industrie is touting its commercial approach to the program.
National Research Council space scientists have asked NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin to use any slack in the Space Shuttle manifest that develops as a result of delays in International Space Station assembly to fly microgravity and life sciences missions, possibly on the new Spacehab Double Module.
DRS TECHNOLOGIES INC., Parsippany, N.J., received an award of about $64 million from Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems in Eagan, Minn., to manufacture AN/UYQ-70 Advanced Display System tactical workstations for the U.S. Navy. The workstations will be produced at the conpany's DRS Laurel Technologies unit in Johnstown, Pa.
While renewed B-2 production, the rivalry between the SLAM-ER+ and JASSM missiles, and full funding for the F-22 and F/A-18E/F fighters have been hot issues in the weapon arena for the fiscal 1998 House-Senate defense authorization conference, the House National Security Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee are as far apart as they can be on the subject of bonuses for pilots who re-enlist.
Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to lift off on an 11-day mission at 10:41 a.m. EDT today from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The agency reported a 40% chance of bad weather that could delay the STS-85 mission. There is a one hour and 39 minute launch window. The six-member crew's main mission will be to deploy and retrieve a satellite designed to study Earth's middle atmosphere, and to test potential hardware for use on the International Space Station.
The U.S. Army Communications and Electronic Command plans to award a contract to Sikorsky Aircraft for use of the Cypher unmanned aerial vehicle. The five-month effort will support a look at a variety of missions, the Army said in an Aug. 5 Commerce Business Daily notice. The UAV will support the Army's weapon system manager for physical security equipment.
JANE F. GARVEY was sworn in Aug. 4 as administrator the FAA by Vice President Al Gore and Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. She is the first FAA administrator to serve a five-year term. Previous administrators served at the pleasure of the president.
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP. yesterday was awarded two U.S. Air Force contracts totaling $462.3 million for 10 C-130J transports. It got $273 million for six of the planes that will be converted to the weather reconnaissance WC- 130Js. And it received $188.4 million for four more. Deliveries are to be completed by next December.
