NASA has developed an 11-pound instrument suite for Delta-class missions to Pluto and other solar system objects by combining the optics and electronics used by all of the instruments in the suite.
Sikorsky is pitching to the Defense Dept. a multi-service, multi-year buy of the Black Hawk helicopter that would meet military requirements and keep the company's core product alive into the next decade, a company official said.
AEROJET will supply NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center four more Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) temperature and humidity satellite instruments under an $82.4 million contract modification. The change brings to five the number of instruments the company will deliver for installation on Earth Observing System (EOS) and NASA/NOAA Tiros weather satellites, and boosts the total contract value to $128 million, Aerojet said.
RADARSAT, Canada's synthetic aperture radar Earth-imaging spacecraft, will be launched one day later than planned to allow more time for repairs to its Delta II launch vehicle, NASA reported. Liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., is now scheduled for 9:22 a.m. EST Saturday, Nov. 4, to give launch crews more time to install redesigned umbilical fairings linking the Delta first stage and its nine solid boosters. The fairings were strengthened after a Delta failed to place a Korean satellite in the proper orbit in August.
GE AMERICAN COMMUNICATIONS (GE Americom) has signed a long term agreement to provide multiple Ku-band transponders for Qualcomm, Inc.'s satellite- based messaging and tracking/positioning service. Qualcomm will switch its service from GE's GSTAR 1 Ku-band satellite to the new GE-1 hybrid satellite in 1996.
ASIASAT 2 satellite has arrived at its launch site in Xichang, China, according to the spacecraft's owner, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong. The satellite, built in New Jersey by Lockheed Martin Astro Space, is currently scheduled for the Long March rocket's return to flight, probably in December. The Long March has not flown since a mishap in January that destroyed one of the Chinese rockets and its payload, a Hughes-built satellite.
THE DEFENSE ACQUISITION BOARD recommended a full buy of 80 McDonnell Douglas C-17 airlifters in addition to the 40 C-17s already authorized following the DAB's airlift review, congressional sources told The DAILY yesterday. Sources said the recommendation had the support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the warfighting commanders-in-chief. Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski has the final decision authority.
The Dept. of Defense plans to award multiple contracts for qualification of the Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) data link terminal for the F-15 fighter. The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which is leading the joint service program, said in a Nov. 2 Commerce Business Daily notice that it is seeking multiple sources for the 16-month qualification effort. Contracts will include planning options for pilot production of 50 systems and rate production of 400 to 450 systems.
The U.S. Air Force will try to resolve in the 1998 program objective memorandum the impending shortfall of fighter aircraft it is facing with little or no attrition reserve for F-15E and F-16 Block 40 and 50 fighters, a senior AF official said yesterday.
A commercial reusable launch vehicle (RLV) won't fly in the next century without strong government support, including anchor tenant guarantees, that industry can take to the bank now, bidders in NASA's X-33 RLV prototype competition have warned Congress.
NASA managers yesterday issued a suspension notice to Orbital Sciences Corp. shutting down the $70 million X-34 small reusable launch vehicle program for 14 days to allow time for the agency to review progress in the program. Ed Henke, director of procurement at the Marshall Space Flight Center, told The DAILY in a telephone interview that he issued the suspension notice because the program had missed two milestones. "We wanted them to stand down and we're going to take a look at it," Henke said.
The identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) systems of the three Predator unmanned aerial vehicles that have been operating over Bosnia will be upgraded after the UAVs are returned to the U.S. this weekend, and the five Predators already in the U.S. will also get the modification, a Defense Dept. official said.
AMERICAN MOBILE SATELLITE CORP. said two solid state power amplifiers (SSPAs) on its A+MSC-1 geostationary mobile satellite have shut down for unknown reasons. The amplifiers had served the Mountain/Central/Alaska/Hawaii and Caribbean spot beams. An AMSC spokeswoman said it is now operating with seven SSPAs and one spare instead of its original configuration of eight SSPAs and two spares, but added that the change is not affecting service. AMSC-1 already provides data services to U.S. customers and plans to begin offering voice services by the end of the year.
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP. said Vance D. Coffman has been elected to the new position of executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective Jan. 1, 1996. It also said that Daniel M. Tellep, chairman and chief executive officer, will retire Jan. 1, but continue throughout 1996 as chairman of the board. Norman R. Augustine, 60, who now serves as president, will also become CEO upon Tellep's retirement, the company said. Coffman, 51, now president of Lockheed Martin's Space&Strategic Missiles Sector, will be succeeded in his present position by Melvin R.
DIRECTV direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service has authorized three new manufacturers for its 18-inch receiver dishes. Samsung Electronics, Sanyo Electric Co. and Daewoo Electronics Co. have all been authorized to manufacture and distribute the receivers. DirecTV also announced it has begun selling its satellite-to-home broadcasting service in Alaska.
LUNAR ENTERPRISE CORP., Burlingame, Calif., announced plans to launch a spacecraft that will allow it to offer real-time video images of lunar surfaces and of Earthrise. The Lunar Video Orbiter will be equipped with cameras that will monitor the moon's landscape and Earthrises and beam back a 24-hour live video feed. The video will be sold to television networks and others for about $40 a minute, the company said. The company's satellite is scheduled to be orbited on a Russian-made rocket in 1997.
EOSAT has installed a portable satellite remote sensing ground station in Alaska, the first civilian unit in North America. In a deal with Alaska Aerospace Development Corp., the joint venture of Hughes and Lockheed Martin set up to operate the Landsat spacecraft is working with the state- owned Alaskan corporation to develop a remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) for use by Alaskan businesses and schools. The system will draw Earth remote sensing data from Landsat and two Indian Remote Sensing Satellites.
Singapore Airlines expects to decide next week who will supply at least 33 "medium-sized, medium-range" jetliners worth some $5 billion, Boeing or Airbus Industrie.
A top U.S. Air Force general said yesterday that development of the F- 22 fighter wasn't skewed by faulty intelligence. Gen. Joseph Ralston, commander of Air Combat Command, said "intelligence input was a factor" in early stages of the project, but "was not the only factor."
As part of a new contract for AN/ALQ-162 defensive electronic countermeasures systems, Northrop Grumman is being asked to look at upgrading the system to provide enhanced capability, the company said. Northrop Grumman on Sept. 29 won $12.3 million for the production of 32 ALQ-162 countermeasures systems for the U.S. Air Force and for Italy (DAILY, Oct. 3, page 15). Options could boost the contract to $39 million, Northrop Grumman said.
With the possibility that airborne early warning functions of its E-2C may be flying on C-130s and electronic warfare capabilities of its EA-6B on F/A-18s, and possibly even F-15s, Northrop Grumman is increasingly less concerned about platforms than about the high-value electronics that go into them, according to John Harrison, corporate vice president and general manager of the company's Electronics&Systems Integration Div.
Britain and Germany failed to reach agreement on revising Eurofighter production workshares among the four partner nations to account for slimmer planned production buys, despite another meeting this week to resolve differences.
THE AIRLIFT REVIEW by the Defense Acquisition Board wraps up today, with no full DAB sessions scheduled, Pentagon sources told The DAILY yesterday. Instead, acquisition chief Paul Kaminski is expected to meet in a series of one-on-one sessions with DAB participants before making final decisions on lifting the 40-airplane production cap on McDonnell Douglas' C-17 and whether the U.S. should stick to plans to buy 120 C-17s or a mix of fewer C-17s and some number of militarized Boeing 747s. Public briefings on the decision are expected tomorrow.
The U.S. Air Force's acquisition executive on Monday approved the acquisition strategy for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, but program and AF officials nonetheless face a budget shortfall in fiscal year 1997. A team of AF and DOD officials are working out the funding and how best to resolve the anticipated shortfall, JASSM program director Oscar Soler told The DAILY yesterday.
NASA has selected lightweight cameras and geochemistry instruments for the orbiter and lander scheduled for its Mars '98 missions to the Red Planet. The U.S. space agency said Monday it will fly a 2.2-pound camera aboard the orbiter that will provide both wide angle and medium angle coverage of the planet's atmosphere surface, permitting daily weather mapping and study of alterations to the planet's surface from wind and other weather.
