Shareholders in Europe's Arianespace launch services consortium are digging in to resist a move by Francois Fillon, France's minister in charge of space, to make outgoing European Space Agency chief Jean-Marie Luton the next Arianespace chairman. The consortium's board has already designated Francis Avanzi, president of Arianespace, to succeed Charles Bigot at the helm, but Fillon is to present his position to shareholders on April 17. French interests, including the French Space Agency (CNES), French contractors and banks, own 55.54% of Arianespace.
Aerospatiale wants its Airbus Industrie partners to retain their own manufacturing and research facilities instead of combining them into one company after Airbus' restructuring. "Given the way the system works in Europe, we think this [manufacturing and research] has to be on a national basis," an Aerospatiale spokesman told The DAILY in a telephone interview from Paris Friday. "This doesn't mean we don't want them to be part of the system. They just have to be linked to the parent companies."
A decision by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott not to include the GOP's National Missile Defense Act on his priority list of legislation to be acted on in the period from today to the Memorial Day break doesn't mean Republicans are giving up on it for this year, a Senate Republican aide says. Originally assigned the number of S.7, indicating high priority, the bill directing deployment of a National Missile Defense by 2003 can come up in the Senate in the context of consideration of the fiscal 1998 defense authorization later this year, the aide says.
Russia plans to fire a second modified SS-25 ICBM "Start-1" space launch vehicle from its new territorial launch facility at Svobodny in the Far East despite continuing protests from Russia's Yakutia Republic, which lies downrange. EarthWatch's EarlyBird satellite is the scheduled payload, now that the launch site has been qualified with a test launch (DAILY, March 5). The Parliament of Yakutia is still protesting use of the site on grounds the Russian Space Forces haven't done an environmental impact study.
A Lockheed Martin Titan II launched a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., Friday in the first launch of a military weather satellite aboard a converted ICBM. Liftoff came at 11:47 a.m. EST, and a Vandenberg spokesperson said the satellite achieved nominal orbit. Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space built the satellite, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics refurbished the Titan II for space launch.
Britain, France and Italy resolved their differences on requirements for an advanced ship-based air defense missile system last week, finally allowing the $11.5 billion project to go ahead. The Horizon frigate project, already about four years behind schedule, was delayed further because of insistence by the U.K., based on its 1982 Falklands War experience, on area and missile interception capabilities of the Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS).
As the U.S. Navy works through the fiscal 1999 program review, also known as the mini-POM, "the vision of naval aviation is holding steadily," Adm. Johnson says. "The major programs are holding their own." Although not in his area of responsibility, Johnson says most activity is in the areas of safety enhancements and depot-level maintenance.
After a slow start with just three space launches performed during the first three months of the year, Russia plans as many as six launches for April. However, there is little if any hope that this schedule will be implemented as written. A similar January manifest included three launches, of which only one rocket made it to the pad and that launch was aborted. In February only two of five scheduled launches took place, with the rest delayed until later. Of those three only one was launched in March.
The U.S. Air Force's Airborne Laser could defend Hawaii from a limited number of North Korean long-range missiles, a capability that would defer for several years the need to deploy a National Missile Defense, says Robert Bell, the White House's arms control adviser. This "is one scenario that is very interesting," Bell said Thursday during an Air Force-sponsored briefing for reporters at the Pentagon on the ABL program.
Look for a formal announcement this week of the long- expected NASA decision to delay launch of the first International Space Station element from November until June (DAILY, Feb. 25, 27).Administrator Daniel S. Goldin spoke to his counterpart at the Russian Space Agency, Yuri Koptiev, last week and was to finish briefing the other Station partners before going public. Still undecided is whether to build at least one or perhaps two of the Interim Control Modules, based on previously classified U.S.
Although they have barely settled into their offices, two freshmen Democratic members of the House National Security Committee, Allen Boyd (Fla.) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.), have already been targeted by AFL-CIO TV spots in their districts urging them to end corporate tax breaks and spend more on school renovations. Seventeen other House members have been similarly targeted. A second termer on HNSC, John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.), is also the subject of these spots. All 19 members probably face close races in 1998.
When Congress returns this week there will be a big push between White House budget officials and the Hill Budget Committees to strike a deal for setting the FY '98 budget resolution. The annual resolution provides the topline spending levels for the Defense Dept., NASA and all other agencies. The defense authorization and appropriations committees use those toplines when marking up their spending bills.
The U.S. Air Force says it will save $600 million on its Airborne Laser program by using Boeing's worldwide commercial 747 support infrastructure. The concept helped the Boeing/TRW/Lockheed Martin team win the ABL competition last year over a team led by Rockwell International, says Air Force ABL program director Col. Michael Boone. Total ABL operations and support cost over 20 years are estimated at $4.9 billion for seven systems.
FIRST OVERSEAS DEPLOYMENT of a Japanese air force unit since World War II will come later this month when the service's aerial demonstration team travels to Nellis AFB, Nev., to participate in an air show there marking the U.S. Air Force's 50th anniversary.
Liquid-fueled, flyback boosters and other hardware improvements could cut the cost of launching a pound of payload to low Earth orbit on the U.S. Space Shuttle to $2,500 under a phased Shuttle improvement program NASA is contemplating as a backup to the proposed Lockheed Martin VentureStar reusable launch vehicle.
Although the U.S. would prefer that the Republic of South Korea not buy the Russian SA-12 surface-to-air missile system, a senior Defense Dept. official says the main concern centers on fielding of the system.
The ABL industry team and the Air Force are continuing to work on downsizing the flight weighted laser. The weight started out at about 5,500 pounds and has already come down to 3,100 pounds. The target weight is 2,900 pounds before mounting on the 747 in several years.
Backers of House legislation to repeal the writeoff of merger-related costs in defense contracts have urged the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee to hold hearings on their proposed repealer, and pressed the chairman of the House National Security procurement subcommittee to allow testimony on the subject from outside groups critical of current policy, which allows merger costs to be written off.
Pratt&Whitney has completed pre-flight testing of the F119 engine for the F-22 fighter and is now just waiting for the paperwork to clear for first flight in May, says Walt Bylciw, Pratt&Whitney's vice president for the F119. A total of 26 flight test engines are being built with 1,000 engines for the Air Force's planned buy of 438 F-22s.
The international program office running the Multifunction Information Distribution System (MIDS) datalink program wants to prepare several vendors for production. The readiness program should allow production and delivery "at moderate production rates within 15 months of a fixed priced production contract award," the U.S. Navy, which is the U.S. government agency responsible for MIDS, said in an April 7 Commerce Business Daily notice.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP., Los Angeles, received a $23.4 million contract from the U.S. Navy for 95 BQM-74E unmanned aerial target and associated air launch kits and technical support data. Delivery of the first vehicle under the FY '97 contract is expected to begin in spring 1998. The Navy has bought about 6,600 BQM-74s since 1966, and this is the seventh production order for the E series.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will travel to sites in the Pacific beginning this weekend, according to the Pentagon. It said Cohen will leave Washington, D.C., on April 5 for a trip that will include visits to Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii; Tokyo, Japan ; and Seoul, South Korea. He will return on April 11. Shalikashvili is slated to depart Washington April 6 on a trip to Korea and Japan, and is slated to return on April 12.
The U.S. Army has set aside funds to buy 40 early prototype Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) interceptors, as mandated by Congress, and intends to execute the buy once there is an intercept, a Defense Dept. spokeswoman said. The fiscal 1996 defense appropriations act directed the service to buy the 40 missiles for testing and a limited capability in the event of a national emergency. It has not dropped plans to buy the 40 THAADs, as reported in The DAILY of March 31 (p. 474).
