Boeing is predicting a $200 billion market for network-centric warfare (NCW) systems from 2003 through 2013, according to Roger Roberts, senior vice president at Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. The company arrived at that estimate by tallying DOD contract awards from the past few years as well as expected awards in programs such as the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), the Air Force's Transformational Communications MILSATCOM (TCM) effort, and the Global Information Grid Bandwidth Expansion (GIG-BE), among others.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or the Department of Defense general counsel should appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee to explain the agency's continued refusal to turn over emails and documents related to the KC-767 tanker lease negotiations, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told U.S. Air Force leaders March 2. "There is no way any self-respecting Congress cannot insist on these documents unless there is executive privilege here," said Levin, the committee's ranking Democrat, and he said even that would not apply in this case.
INFORMATION NETWORK INC. (Infonetic) of Lanham, Md., will provide technical information services to Goddard Space Flight Center under a five-year, $34 million contract, NASA said. The company will provide management and communications support, among other work, and is teamed with Zimmerman Associates Inc. of Fairfax, Va., and Maslow Media Group Inc. of Washington.
The U.S. Air Force has made a slight increase in the number of F/A-22 Raptors it plans to buy, reflecting cost savings identified last year, according to documents and a service spokeswoman. Documents recently prepared for Congress to explain the Bush Administration's fiscal 2005 budget request show that the "current program estimate supports procurement of 277" F/A-22s, up from the 276 figure the Air Force had previously presented as its purchase target.
ALCATEL, FINMECCANICA and VINCI CONCESSIONS has formed a consortium that has been shortlisted for the concession for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system, the companies said. The Galileo Joint Undertaking is expected to award the concession in early 2005 to a company or consortium that would be responsible for financing, deploying and operating the program.
JACOBS SVERDRUP of Tullahoma, Tenn., will provide operations, maintenance and engineering services to support research and institutional facilities at NASA's Langley Research Center. The work will be done under a contract that consolidates eight existing support service contracts and includes work from three others. It is worth more than $950 million over a decade, NASA said. Major subcontractors on the work are Analytical Services & Materials Inc., of Hampton, Va., Sierra Lobo Inc. of Fremont, Ohio and Tessada & Associates Inc. of Springfield, Va.
ROSETTA AWAY: After more than a year of delays, the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet rendezvous mission successfully launched March 2. Rosetta is to be the first mission to land on a comet when it visits Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014.
The upcoming retirement of Vance Coffman as chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, announced March 1, may signal the beginnings of a new challenge to its position as the top U.S. defense contractor from Northrop Grumman, analysts said. "They've got to be very concerned with Northrop targeting them, because much like Boeing targeted Lockheed to become number two, my view is that Northrop is clearly targeting Lockheed to become number two," Robbin Laird of International Communications and Strategic Assessments, Arlington, Va., said in an interview.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is considering putting some of the interceptors for the Ground-based Mid-course Defense (GMD) system on a sea-based platform instead of on land.
AiASIA SATELLITE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CO. LTD. (AsiaSat) will provide backup facilities and services to Asian broadcaster Star, using AsiaSat's new Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong. AsiaSat will provide facilities to house Star's backup broadcast and radio frequency equipment for downlinking and emergency uplinking to the AsiaSat 3S satellite, and other services, the company said.
GOODRICH CORP. will supply a high-temperature, composite flaperon control surface to be tested on Boeing's X-37 reusable launch vehicle under a contract from NASA's Langley Research Center. The flaperon helps steer the vehicle, Goodrich said. The work is expected to be worth $1.4 million in revenue over the next two years.
NASA's new Office of Exploration Systems (Code T) will apply lessons learned from U.S. Defense Department acquisition programs to the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and other space technologies, according to Rear Adm. Craig Steidle.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The Czech cabinet will discuss next week a proposed text for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sweden on the lease of 14 new JAS-39 Gripens, according to senior Czech defense officials. The decision by the defense ministry to present a MOU for discussion at the scheduled March 11 government meeting has ended recent press speculation that talks between the two countries had run into trouble.
NASA's Opportunity Mars rover landed in a place where "liquid water once drenched the area," associate administrator Ed Weiler said March 2, which makes it clear that a mission to return martian samples to Earth is needed. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, the Mars Exploration Rover principal investigator, said at a press briefing that evidence found in a rock outcropping near the rover's Meridiani Planum landing site led to that conclusion.
NASA has selected 43 consortia to receive funding in 2004 under the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. The consortia were selected based on their plans to enlarge and enhance the pool of higher education graduates and faculty involved with NASA as employees, contractors or principal investigators. "These efforts advance our commitment, in President Bush's words, to inspire a new generation of innovators and pioneers," Adena Loston, NASA's associate administrator for education, said in a statement.
International Launch Services (ILS), a Lockheed Martin Corp. joint venture with the Russian companies Khrunichev and RSC Energia, will conduct its first Atlas V launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the company announced March 2. The launch will be from Space Launch Complex 3-East (SLC-3E), which is being refurbished to support a late 2005 launch for a national security mission.
ALCATEL SPACE has been named the prime contractor for the MAESTRO program (Mobile Applications & Services based on Satellite & Terrestrial Networking), under a contract worth 10.2 million euros ($12.6 million). The program is aimed at encouraging the adoption of multimedia in Europe through the use of Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcast technology.
SPECTRUM ASTRO said the Revuen Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite has completed its second year of on-orbit operations. The company built the satellite for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., and the University of California, Berkeley. RHESSI was launched on Feb. 5, 2002, and has observed more than 8,000 solar activity events, the company said.
ACCENTURE of Reston, Va., will provide support services for NASA's Integrated Financial Management Program (IFMP), which is aimed at improving the financial, physical and human resources management process throughout the aerospace agency. The work will be done under a five-year contract that could be worth up to $200 million, NASA said.
DRS Technologies Inc. will design, integrate and manufacture an Altitude Hold and Hover Stabilization (AHHS) system for U.S. Air Force MH-53M Pave Low Helicopters, the company announced March 1. The AHHS system is installed on Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk Rescue Helicopters.
