O'GARA SATELLITE NETWORKS, Deer Park, N.Y., has teamed up with Morsviazsputnik, Russia's signatory to Intelsat, and MVS-USA, a marketer of Inmarsat satellite services in the U.S., to form a new satellite communications company known as OGM Communications, Ltd. Orbital Sciences Corp.'s recently-acquired Magellan Systems unit will take a major role in marketing OGM products and services internationally under a strategic alliance.
NASA managers have decided to accept an independent panel's recommendation to contract out Space Shuttle operations in a cost-saving move that could be the first step toward privatizing the reusable launch vehicle entirely.
Unisys Corp. will fit out some U.S. Navy P-3 patrol planes to fire the Maverick missile. U.S. Naval Air Systems Command announced in a May 17 Commerce Business Daily notice that it intends to procure supplies and services from Unisys to equip 22 Orions to launch the Hughes Aircraft air-to-surface missile. It didn't say why the work was being carried out, but it did say the P-3Cs will be pre-AIP, or Anti-Surface Warfare Improvement Program planes.
The U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center yesterday released a request for proposals for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The RFP release began early yesterday evening after Defense Secretary William Perry signed off on a policy regarding the use of foreign technology in the EELV program. The RFP had been slated for release last Friday or on Monday, but was held up until Perry approved the policy. Details of the final draft were not immediately available.
The House Budget Committee would pump about $6 billion of its proposed $9.7 billion increase in fiscal 1996 defense budget authority into procurement. In its report released yesterday, the committee said its resolution would provide for a national defense budget authority function of $267.3 billion and "would equate to approximately $45 billion in budget authority for procurement so as to reverse the long-term decline in that account." The Administration's procurement request is $39.4 billion.
COMSAT CORP. has established a joint venture in Turkey to provide VSAT services over the Turksat satellite network. The venture, Comsat Digital Services, is 51% owned by Comsat, while Koc-Unisys, part of Turkey's Koc Group conglomerate, and Japan's Sumitomo Corp. each own 24.5% of the venture. Initial customers include two of Turkey's largest banks. The VSAT network will use 1.2-meter antennas supplied by NEC Corp. of Japan.
The Navy's controversial plan to award General Dynamics' Electric Boat construction of the lead ship in the new attack submarine (NSSN) program without competition, and to build the third Seawolf sub as a bridge to NSSN construction starting in fiscal 1998, appeared Tuesday to be on shaky ground in the Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee. "This will be a floor issue," Sen. John W. Warner (Va.), a senior Republican on the subcommittee and full committee, told The DAILY.
The U.S. Air Force has exercised a $22.3 million option for TRW to build a fifth Space Test Experiment Platform (STEP) lightweight satellite, the company announced. The STEP Mission 4 satellite is expected to be launched in mid-1997 carrying two scientific experiments from the Air Force's Phillips Laboratory and one from the Naval Research Laboratory, the company said. The spacecraft will weigh 890 pounds and will be designed to operate for two years in low-Earth orbit.
Cosmonauts aboard Russia's Mir space station will perform an unscheduled extravehicular activity (EVA) Monday after they failed yesterday to complete the transfer of a solar array to make room for a new pressurized module set for launch on Saturday.
INTELSAT 705 spacecraft, launched March 22, has commenced full operations at its 310 degrees East location over the Atlantic Ocean. The satellite provides C- and Ku-band services to customers in Latin America.
A new Defense Dept. strategy on Middle East security is advising Middle Eastern countries not to overextend themselves to acquire weapons systems but otherwise breaks no new ground. The new strategy, released by DOD yesterday, states the nations in the Persian Gulf "must avoid over committing themselves financially or buying forces they cannot maintain and operate."
Boeing formally delivered its first 777 widebody twin to launch customer United Airlines, nearly two years after rival Airbus delivered its first competing A330, but it's a gap that Boeing President Phil Condit said yesterday won't hurt the program. Both Airbus Industrie and the European financial community have made much of the jetliner consortium's early entry into the big twin market, but Condit told reporters here that "a program is not made or broken in a year or two."
The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Div., China Lake, Calif., has rescheduled its annual industry briefing on classified and unclassified technology transfer projects from late May to October 17-19, according to a May 15 Commerce Business Daily notice.
House National Security Committee Chairman Floyd Spence's mark in the fiscal 1996 defense authorization that the committee will act on next week will provide $500 million in long-lead funding for a buy of three additional B-2 stealth bombers, congressional sources said yesterday. The three would be the first installment in a buy of 20 B-2s that the Administration doesn't want. The U.S. Air Force estimates that a buy of 20 additional B-2s would cost $18 billion in fiscal 1996 dollars.
LOCKHEED MARTIN SERVICES GROUP has won a contract from the U.S. Commerce Dept.'s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to provide primary support of Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). The contract runs for one year with four additional one-year options and is valued at $8 million.
NASA LAUNCHED a Super Loki-Dart sounding rocket with a payload built and managed entirely by junior and senior high school students on Friday. Four Florida schools took part in the launch, which used low-cost optical sensors to study atmospheric pollution from an altitude of 45 miles above Wallops Island, Va.
The U.S. Air Force wants to increase the readiness and sustainability of the E-3 AWACS aircraft under a five-year, $640 million contract to be awarded this month. The service's Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is trying to "buy back availability" of the plane, according to Col. James McTighe, ESC's contracting officer for the effort. The objective is boost availability by shortening depot time.
INTELSAT 706 spacecraft was successfully launched aboard an Ariane 44 LP launch vehicle on Wednesday at 2:34 a.m. EDT. The first of three new Intelsat VII-A model spacecraft, the 706 is designed to offer increased beam coverage and power in both C- and Ku-band. It will provide direct-to- home and video distribution services for broadcasters in Argentina, VSAT (very small aperture terminal) services for other Argentinean customers, and expanded rural network services for Guatemala.
A CHILEAN SATELLITE is scheduled for launch on a Russian rocket from the Plesetsk site in Russia on July 15, according to European press reports. The $5 million Fasat-Alfa satellite is designed to transmit meteorological data and measure the ozone layer.
A British Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft crashed in the North Sea off Scotland's northeast coast on Tuesday, but all aboard were rescued. The plane went down at 11:29 GMT about two nautical miles north of Lossiemouth, a U.K. defense ministry spokesman said. At least one of the aircraft's engines and possibly one of the wings are reported to have been on fire before the crash.
A delegation of senior officials from Hughes Space and Communications Co. will be heading back to China to try to iron out differences on the cause of a launch explosion that destroyed a Chinese Long March rocket and the Hughes-built satellite it was carrying. The high-level meeting will take place in Beijing "within a week's time," a Chinese official familiar with the talks said yesterday.
Russia is "still the country most dangerous to the United States," former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey said yesterday. While Russian strategic programs and military production have been "radically cut," Moscow is "still keeping enough of the design bureaus going with respect to ballistic missile development" to allow "a healthy program," he told an audience on Capitol Hill.
