"Frustrated" Advanced Research Projects Agency Director Larry Lynn plans an agency off-site meeting in September to figure out how to reorganize ARPA, which he feels has gotten too big, industry sources say. A former deputy ARPA director, Lynn is "upset about how things have grown," one source said. The off-site will include an evaluation of ARPA's approach to unmanned aerial vehicles, another source said.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program offices are "lobbying like hell to go" to Bosnia along with the Tier II Predator, which arrived in the theater last week, a Pentagon source tells The DAILY. A UAV spokesman confirms that top defense officials are considering sending the Hunter joint tactical UAV and the Pioneer as a fallback to the Tier II. Hunter and Pioneer "don't give the range or the coverage, but at least they're something," the spokesman says. The final decision will be made by the joint staff.
Raytheon Aircraft Co. and newly acquired E-Systems helped Raytheon report record second-quarter sales and earnings last Thursday, underscoring the success of the company's diversification strategy. Earnings rose a little less than 2%, to $195.5 million, on $2.8 billion in sales, which were some $300 million ahead of last year's pace.
Debut commercial flight, the launch of the Astra satellite, is expected around the first quarter of 1996. The satellite was built by Hughes for Luxembourg-based SES.
Launch of PAS-4, which will complete PanAmSat's global constellation, is scheduled for Aug. 1 from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite was built by Hughes.
NASA'S TDRS-G tracking and data relay satellite reached geosynchronous orbit as planned following its launch Thursday aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. An agency spokesman said Friday the satellite, which rode to GEO atop a Boeing Inertial Upper Stage, was "fine" and was being moved to its checkout position at 150 degrees West longitude, a process that will take about two weeks. Discovery was to remain in orbit to conduct a number of middeck experiments before landing July 27 (DAILY, July 14, page 59).
Orbital Sciences Corp. said its two on-orbit Orbcomm satellites have completed on-orbit tests, a major step in the company's plans to bring the communications system on line later this year. The two satellites are the first of 36 planned for the Orbcomm constellation, the first low-Earth orbit satellite system to provide two way commercial communications services. The system will transmit non-voice messages.
Alphonso V. Diaz, NASA's deputy associate administrator for space science, will head planning for the "science institutes" at agency field centers Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has proposed as a cost-saving measure.
NASA eliminated one of Lockheed Martin's two bids for the Earth Observing System (EOS) common satellite bus program from consideration last week, trimming to three the number of competitors for the last major new initiative on the space agency's horizon. Agency procurement officials dropped the bid by Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space in a July 12 downselect because they felt its cost estimates were unrealistic, an agency spokesman said. Lockheed Martin Astro Space, TRW and Hughes survived the cut.
Twenty-six months after its development was announced, the Lockheed Launch Vehicle (LLV) is set to make its debut on Thursday. The small commercial booster is scheduled to launch the 300-pound GemStar communications satellite in a test flight from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The satellite was built by CTA, Inc.
The large number of U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle suppliers are increasingly interested in the growing international market, but are facing reluctance on the part of potential buyers to commit to programs not endorsed by the Defense Dept.
Launch of Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) III is scheduled for launch July 26 from Cape Canaveral. The satellite was built for the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin Astro Space.
Two NK-33s arrived at Aerojet's Sacramento, Calif., facility on Friday, where one will be fired in early October to ensure that more than two decades of storage hasn't hampered performance. The second engine is serving as a spare. If the test is successful, Aerojet will begin modifications to the engines to make them compatible with the Atlas and Titan IV launchers. The engines could also be used on the Delta, but McDonnell Douglas has expressed no interest in them.
Launch of Koreasat-1, a commercial communications satellite is planned for Aug. 3 from Cape Canaveral. The satellite was built for Korea Telecom by Lockheed Martin Astro Space.
NASA has picked the name Sojourner for the 35-pound wheeled rover it plans to send exploring on the surface of Mars two years from now, when the Mars Pathfinder probe is scheduled to set down in the Ares Vallis region. Drawing from some 3,500 suggestions submitted to The Planetary Society by young people worldwide, the agency chose to honor Sojourner Truth, the 19th century civil rights activist.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has cautioned agency managers to be on the lookout for stress in the workplace as the agency struggles to downsize on its own under growing pressure from Capitol Hill to cut even deeper. "Neither individual nor program safety can be jeopardized by management or employees' preoccupation with shrinking resources," Goldin wrote in a memo to headquarters office chiefs and field center directors.
The authorization panel's bill will be "totally oriented to the basic research mission of NASA," a source says. That bodes ill for the Earth Observing System (EOS) program, which Walker doesn't consider a key part of that basic research mission. He's expected to target EOS (Continued) to deal with planned Republican cuts to NASA's budget. The VA/HUD panel fully funded EOS because some of the appropriators believe Walker's targeting of the program-a priority of Vice President Gore-was politically motivated.
White House tells NASA it won't have to suffer any more funding cuts at the hands of the Clinton Administration, after the agency turned itself inside out trying to accommodate the $5 billion cut imposed before the fiscal 1996 space agency budget was sent to Capitol Hill. The 10-year Office of Management and Budget spending plan doesn't open up NASA's budget until 2001. The House Budget Resolution is another story, of course, seeking another $5 billion on top of the Administration cut.
Three small springs pushed a 747-pound conical probe away from the Galileo Jupiter spacecraft right on time early last Thursday, setting up a Dec. 7 plunge into the cloudtops of the gas giant that should produce the first scientific measurements of the planet's atmosphere ever made.
National Guard officials and executives from three industry teams trying to do business with them hope to recapture lost momentum during the next few weeks by winning new congressional pressure on the Army to re-engine and modernize UH-1 Huey helicopters in Guard service throughout the U.S.
Launch of Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled for no earlier than Aug. 3 from Cape Canaveral. The mission will mark the second flight of the Wake Shield Facility.
The success of Newport News Shipbuilding so far in its congressional campaign to crack the New Attack Submarine production program that the Navy wanted to reserve initially for General Dynamics' Electric Boat is mirrored in political action committee contributions this year. The Center for Responsive Politics notes that PAC contributions of Tenneco, parent company of Newport News, "increased dramatically" from $500 in the first four months of 1993 to $51,500 during the first four months of this year. GD's PAC contributions were $92,312 in the first four months of 1993 vs.
Launch of NASA/commercial Meteor (formerly COMET) satellite is scheduled for launch on July 29 from Wallops Island, Va. Meteor was built by Westinghouse and Space Industries as part of the old COMET program.
The U.S. Navy is looking at how to modify EA-6B Prowler wave forms, says Capt. Rocco Caldarella, chief of Navy command and control warfare. "It's a very capable platform, very modifiable," he tells The DAILY. "If we can introduce some smart techniques, it would just make it a more effective platform." The electronic combat aircraft already employs smart techniques. The Navy "is just looking to add to it because basically [the EA-6B] has a very good capability. We want to take advantage of that."
