As NASA awaits the results of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), the agency is forming a team to begin planning for the space shuttle's return to flight. Working toward a notional schedule of launching as early as September, the team will examine issues regarding Columbia's flight, including foam insulation on the external tank, policies concerning photographic and radar coverage of shuttle flights, and the possibility of on-orbit tile repair.
C-130J AWARD: The U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin Aeronautics a six-year contract worth $4 billion to build 60 C-130J Hercules transport aircraft, the Defense Department said March 14. Forty CC-130Js will be delivered to the Air Force and 20 KC-130Js will be delivered to the Marine Corps by calendar year 2009.
SPENDING GROWTH: Large defense spending increases probably are a thing of the past, according to Steven Grundman, director of aerospace and defense consulting for Charles River Associates. DOD spending authorization for operations and maintenance, procurement, and research and development rose $60 billion between 1996 and 2003. From 2003 to 2013, that increase is expected to total just $17 billion. "This high period of growth in the budget authority is behind us now," he says.
The first test of the $877 million cost estimate for the Global Information Grid Bandwidth Expansion (GIG BE) comes next month, but program officials already expect the price of the baseline system could go up or down by more than $150 million. The program aims to create a ground-based voice, data and imagery network at about 90 locations worldwide with 10-Gigabit per second OC-192 connections. The network would serve as the backbone for the intelligence community and the Pentagon's command-and-control centers well into the next decade.
FLAME: An unusual-looking flame seen apparently clinging to the bottom of Boeing's Delta IV rocket during its ascent from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 10 was an expected and "well understood" phenomenon resulting from the burning of hydrogen exhaust off of the rocket's thermal shield, according to Boeing. "The thermal shield shroud protecting the RS-68 engine and other vehicle components from the heat and flame performed as designed," the company says in a statement.
The Bush Administration is considering including about $90 million in a fiscal 2003 supplemental appropriations proposal to help keep the Coast Guard's Eagle Eye vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (VUAV) on track, according to industry sources.
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S first deep space ground station has opened in New Norcia, north of Perth, Australia. The facility, ESA's first ground station, will play a major role in the agency's deep space missions, including the Rosetta comet rendezvous mission and Mars Express, scheduled to launch in May. The ground station's antenna weighs more than 600 tons and stands more than 40 meters (131 feet). The station is the first of a series that ESA plans to build around the world to make up a European deep space network, ESA said.
Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) said March 13 it will trim 1,125 employee positions by 2010. The cuts, it said, are part of a larger Air Force plan to cut some 13,000 active duty and civilian positions in the next seven years.
The Defense Department should consider putting missile defense systems on flatbed ships to protect the U.S. coastline against attacks from the sea, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said March 13. The military has been using the Aegis weapon system to develop sea-based missile defenses that would protect the U.S., allies and deployed troops. Because Aegis is based on cruisers, it easily could be moved around the globe to be near potential missile threats.
The Army needs quick congressional approval of a fiscal 2003 supplemental appropriations bill to pay for ongoing military operations, Army Secretary Thomas White told a House panel March 12. White testified before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that the Army will run out of operations and maintenance (O&M) funds by the end of April and will exhaust its personnel accounts around June. Those funds have been depleted by the worldwide war on terrorism and the buildup for a possible invasion of Iraq.
LONDON - The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MOD) picked Thales U.K. on March 12 for the assessment phase (AP) of the army's Future Integrated Soldier Technology (FIST) program. FIST is intended to equip British infantry for the computerized network-centric battlefield of the future by integrating improvements in C4I, target acquisition, navigation, survivability and lethality.
The United States has resumed reconnaissance flights near North Korea, although without fighter escorts, according to a senior U.S. military official. The resumption follows a March 2 incident in which four North Korean MiG-29 fighters intercepted a RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft over the Sea of Japan. "We retain the right to fly unarmed flights over international airspace," Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee March 13. "The flights have recommenced."
SHARP WORK: Raytheon Co. will produce low-rate initial production Shared Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP) systems under a U.S. Navy contract worth up to $19.2 million, the company said March 13. Raytheon Technical Services will produce eight SHARP systems for delivery in 2004. The SHARP is to be deployed soon as an early operational capability for the F/A-18F Super Hornet on the USS Nimitz.
NEW DELHI - India has again postponed the launch of its second developmental Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D2). The launch had been planned for February, then was moved to the last week of March and now has been scheduled for May, according to an official with the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO). The launch was delayed because of the rescheduling of the launch of the INSAT-3A satellite. A month's gap is needed between the two launches to allow ground stations to track them, the official said.
Although the U.S. Air Force is buying Litening II ER targeting pods from Northrop Grumman Corp. for the F-15E strike aircraft, "there's no plan to go further down that path," an Air Force official said March 13. The pods "were bought for F-15Es as an interim measure pending the full production ramp-up of [Lockheed Martin Corp.] Sniper pods and the long-term program for Sniper for the Air Force," said Russell Bone, director of the Precision Attack System Program Office at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins Air Force Base, Ga.
MOSCOW - Khrunichev Space Center has significantly cut the cost of its Proton launch vehicle for International Launch Services to cover its debt to ILS partner Lockheed Martin. In late February, the minutes from a December 2002 roundtable discussion became available, providing financial and status information on the Proton's launch market.
During a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing March 12, chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said he will begin an "all-out push" to get the State Department to take some older helicopters off the munitions list to allow their sale in China and other markets. "I'm going to make an all-out push, and I'll put the [State Department] on notice ... that this is denying U.S. workers jobs, denying us market share," Weldon said during a hearing of the tactical air and land forces subcommittee devoted to the U.S. rotorcraft industrial base.
The U.S. Air Force is studying what it will take to accelerate the GPS III satellite constellation from its currently scheduled 2012 first launch, according to Air Force Undersecretary for Space Peter Teets. The study follows a recent memo from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to senior Defense Department officials, in which he suggested it might be appropriate to accelerate GPS III rather than delay it, as the Air Force had planned to (DAILY, Feb. 27).
BOEING, Brussels, Belgium Joris M. Vos has been named president for European Union and NATO relations. COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP., El Segundo, Calif. Mike Laphen has been named president and chief operating officer, effective April 1, replacing Edward P. Boykin, who will retire later this year. DIMENSIONS INTERNATIONAL, Alexandria, Va.
WORK RESUMES: Boeing has resumed development of its ultra-long-range 777 aircraft, the 777-200LR (longer range), the company said March 12. Work on the aircraft was halted after the aviation market downturn following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when engineers had completed only about 10 percent of the design. "We believe there is a strong market for both the 777-200LR and 777-300ER [extended range] airplanes," Boeing 777 Longer Range Program Manager Lars Andersen said in a statement.
