NASA and the Russian Space Agency hope to settle on a new, lower-cost role for Russia in the International Station before the end of the month. That's when Vice President Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin are scheduled to hold the latest in their series of meetings on U.S.-Russian cooperation.
Yuri Koptiev, head of the Russian Space Agency, will visit Washington next week to press U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor for an easing of quotas on Russian commercial launches. Sensenbrenner and Lewis were in Moscow last week for top-level talks on Russia's financial difficulties meeting its Space Station responsibilities (DAILY, Jan. 12), and got an earful about the launch quotas.
Sixteen Republican senators, including many active on defense issues, have told Defense Secretary William J. Perry that they intend to stick to the fiscal 1996 schedule and funding commitments for key theater missile defense programs in fiscal 1997, a factor they say he should consider as he makes FY '97 budget decisions.
The F-22 is facing a tight schedule to make its first flight, now scheduled for May 31, 1997, says Lt. Gen. George Muellner, the Air Force's principal deputy secretary for acquisition. Muellner told Association of Old Crows that the biggest challenge in the program now is staying on schedule and "clearly, the Boeing strike gave us a real challenge to doing that." But he noted that the aircraft to be used for first flight was kept on schedule even during the strike, although the schedule for the second and third prototypes had to be slipped.
Vienna, Va.-based BTG Inc., one of two companies to share a $929 million Air Force contract to supply C4I hardware and services throughout the Defense Dept. for the next five years (DAILY, Dec. 4), has begun deliveries, but the the other, Reston, Va.-based Cordant Inc., is still on hold pending a General Accounting Office protest filed by one of the losing bidders.
The U.S. Air Force has delayed the release of first draft of the Joint Air- to-Surface Stand-off Missile request for proposals, but is still on schedule for release of the final RFP and contract award, a spokesman for Eglin AFB, Fla., said Friday.
NASA plans to start shutting down the Space Shuttle program if it doesn't get some sort of long-term funding commitment by the end of this week, according to a spokesman at Kennedy Space Center. The U.S. space agency is funded through Jan. 26 under the latest congressionalresolution, but putting the Shuttle fleet in "caretaker status" will take about a week and agency managers want to get that job done before the money to pay the contractors who will do most of the hands-on work runs out.
Muellner says he expects the Defense authorization bill "a couple of weeks downstream," but notes candidly that its absence hasn't had much impact on the Pentagon's day-to-day operations. "In all honesty, not having an authorization bill really does not inhibit us all that much," he says, noting that "there's adequate [guiding] language in the appropriations bill."
Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch will decide who is going to make up the panel that later this year is slated to decide how to proceed on small spy satellites. Congress decided in its fiscal 1996 intelligence authorization conference to defer the smallsat decision to a panel of experts, but it still must choose between starting to build smallsats or studying the issue in greater detail, one House official says. Deutch has promised the House Intelligence Committee that it will be consulted on the composition of the review panel.
NASA has awarded a $3.3 million contract to Litton's Amecom Div. in College Park., Md., to develop high-resolution voice radios for communications among the U.S. Space Shuttle, the planned International Space Station, and spacewalking astronauts at work on the orbiting laboratory. The Litton unit plans to use a combination of ultra-high-frequency radios and time division multiple access frequency sharing technology to provide high quality voice communications with minimal interference among radios, according to a company statement.
Losses in the third quarter and the expectation of troubles to come forced Lansdale, Pa.-based electronics house AEL Industries to take $16 million off its asking price as it prepares to be acquired by Tracor, Inc.
A top official of the Russian government has told two key members of Congress that Russia will fulfill its obligations on the International Space Station despite financial difficulties, and NASA is working with its European Station partners to ease some of Russia's burden by taking over the job of building a "lifeboat" for the orbiting laboratory.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour roared into space early yesterday, erasing fears that cold weather over Florida would force a delay. Liftoff of Endeavour and the five U.S. and one Japanese astronauts aboard for mission STS-72 came at 4:41 a.m. EST after a 23-minute delay to iron out communications problems.
ADM. JOSEPH W. PRUEHER, vice chief of naval operations, was nominated by Defense Secretary Perry to be commander in chief, U.S. Pacific Command, Honolulu. He has also been reappointed to the grade of admiral.
The U.S. Air Force is going to try to talk the Pentagon out of rescinding money Congress provided for F-15Es and F-16s above what the administration requested. Over the past few days the services have been negotiating with Defense Dept. Comptroller John Hamre over the proposed rescission list. Lt. Gen. George Muellner, the AF's principal deputy for acquisition, said yesterday that "our highest priority has been the F-15s and the F-16s."
Hewlett-Packard has introduced a single, reusable device that simulates the performance of solar arrays for satellite-makers and other aerospace applications. The company said its HP E4350A simulator uses a digital signal processor operating in two modes to program the I-V curve, which represents the output characteristics of a solar array or panel. It operates in both a table mode, generating and recalling I-V curves, and a simulation mode that generates close approximations of I-V curves to ensure that a satellite will power up correctly.
F-22 program officials plan to use the modified F-16/VISTA airplane to allow test pilots to full-motion test the new fighter's handling characteristics. The test program will evaluate F-22 handling qualities in offset approach to landing, formation flying and in simulated air refueling with a KC-135, according to F-22 prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The F-22's flight control laws will be fed into the F-16D modified as the Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA), which will then be able to emulate F-22 handling characteristics.
David Clark, the shadow defense minister of Britain's Labour Party, staged a turn of the year attack on what Labour claims is the government's mismanagement of defense finances, tabling an extensive review of recent program overruns. It also may signal Labour's approach to defense issues - a more traditional, anti-defense spending posture - as the existing Conservative government looks increasingly shaky.
The Pentagon's acquisition chief Paul Kaminski was scheduled to decide this week how to proceed with the Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle program, but the need to work out some remaining details has delayed that decision until at the earliest next week, sources say. Initial expectations called for Kaminski to sign off on an acquisition decision memorandum on Monday, but the ADM was never sent.
G. PORTER BRIDWELL will retire as director of Marshall Space Flight Center by Feb. 3 after 34 years with the U.S. space agency, NASA reported yesterday. Named director of the Alabama center in January 1994, Bridwell has also served as acting director of Stennis Space Center, Miss., and headed the redesign team that handled the initial integration of Russian elements into the International Space Station program.
Arianespace will attempt to launch two Hughes-built communications satellites Friday after a one-week delay caused by problem preparing one of the platforms for liftoff. The lift-off is scheduled to occur at the Kourou launch center between 6:10 a.m. EST and 6:25 a.m. EST with a second window of opportunity later that day between 8:38 p.m. and 9:16 p.m, according to Arianespace.
The Joint Direct Attack Munition program office expects to deliver software this week to Northrop Grumman's Pico Rivera, Calif., B-2 facility so that simulation testing originally slated to begin last year can start on Friday.
Federal Trade Commission lawyers have approved AlliedSignal Aerospace's acquisition of Northrop Grumman's Precision Products business and the deal has been consummated, the two companies reported yesterday.
While calling NATO's eastward expansion "inevitable," Defense Secretary William J. Perry said yesterday that it does not pose a threat to Russia. "Russia will understand that NATO is not a threat and that even the inevitable enlargement of NATO does not threaten Russia because Russia will be working with NATO as a partner," Perry told a symposium in Washington marking the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.
