PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The Army will achieve better performance and get multi-million dollar savings through the introduction of a new common avionics package (CAP) and redesigned forward and aft nodes for its MQM-107 aerial target vehicle, according to a service official. The CAP reduces the cost, size and complexity of the vehicles' control system.
Satellite communications company Teledesic has suspended work on a production contract with Italian satellite builder Alenia Spazio and will "significantly" cut its staff, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company said. The company had partnered with Alenia Spazio earlier this year to build the first two satellites for a planned 30-satellite network to provide broadband "Internet-in-the-Sky" services (DAILY, Feb. 4).
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Communication difficulties experienced by President Bush when he was aboard Air Force One on Sept. 11 are being addressed by a series of modifications, according to Adm. James O. Ellis Jr., commander of the new Strategic Command.
Boeing's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-I (TDRS-I), which had its orbit raising prolonged by several months due to a problem with a propellant tank, finally reached geosynchronous orbit Sept. 30, Boeing and NASA announced. NASA's TDRS satellite constellation provides continuous, high-data-rate communications for a variety of spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, including the space shuttle, the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, and scientific satellites. The constellation is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defense program is set to go before the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) late this month, where the Army and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will seek approval for the next two-year block of production on the system.
LOS ANGELES - Competing in today's marketplace requires aerospace companies to re-examine the speed with which they move programs from concept to launch, and how quickly they can deliver orders, according to James Womack, president and CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute. Companies that focus more on trying to manage their supplier relationships instead of working with suppliers to improve their concept-to-launch and order-to-delivery processes are more likely to fail due to inefficiencies, he said.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is opening its Commercialization Center on Oct. 4. The center will serve as a one-stop shop for U.S. companies that want to work with JPL's Commercial Technology Program to develop and transfer technologies for public use, according to NASA. "It will literally be the front door to companies who wish to work with us but who don't know quite where to go," Merle McKenzie, manager of the Commercial Technology Program, said in a statement.
As part of its Nuclear Systems Initiative (NSI), NASA has awarded a contract to a Boeing-led team to develop nuclear electric power systems for deep space exploration, Boeing announced Oct. 3. The team - consisting of Boeing's Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power Unit, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Glenn Research Center, Honeywell, Swales Aerospace, Auburn University, and Texas A&M - will work on power conversion technologies that will enable nuclear reactors to power highly efficient electric thrusters.
CONFIRMED: The Senate Oct. 1 approved the appointment of Navy Adm. James O. Ellis Jr. to remain head of U.S. Strategic Command following its recent merger with U.S. Space Command. The Senate also approved the appointment of Lt. Gen. Michael Hagee as Marine Corps commandant and general, and Marine Corps Gen. James Jones as commander of U.S. European Command. On Oct. 2, the Senate confirmed retired Navy Rear Adm. Thomas Hall as assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs.
LOS ANGELES - The U.S. government's export control regulations are hampering efforts to outsource products and services for the worldwide aerospace market, representatives of two major aerospace companies said Oct. 2. "The system is absolutely broke," Robert Rearden, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's F/A-22 program, said during a presentation at Aviation Week's Aerospace Expo conference here.
A new Air Force office is developing programs to equip U.S. forces with systems to leverage American military superiority in space, according to the office's chief. Col. Edward T. Alexander, director of the Space Superiority Systems Program Office at the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., said the unit is charged with developing "offensive and defensive counterspace systems, space situational awareness systems, and other selected, advanced capabilities that further exploit the advantages of space superiority."
NASA's Office of Space Science has assigned a group of scientists to determine what technology is needed to expand the search for asteroids and other objects that could collide with Earth. Edward Weiler, associate administrator for space science at NASA, testified before the House Science space subcommittee Oct. 3 that he expects to receive a report from the group, or Science Definition Team (SDT), in June 2003.
The commercial space industry deserves to rank among the nation's critical infrastructures needing increased protection, according to a General Accounting Office report released Oct. 3. Commercial satellites provide communications and imagery to military and civilian agencies, but do not receive the in-orbit and ground-station security afforded to strictly military spacecraft, concluded the GAO report, "Commercial Satellite Security Should Be More Fully Addressed."
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The Department of Defense has launched a "hurry up" effort to put in place a training transformation to bring all the military services together in exercises where they will "train as they fight," according to John Walsh, the assistant director for collective training in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Readiness).
The space shuttle orbiter Discovery will receive a new glass cockpit during an 11-month maintenance period that began in August, according to officials at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Discovery is undergoing routine major maintenance work at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., mainly for a thorough structural inspection. But the sidelining of Discovery will give NASA the opportunity to install a new Honeywell cockpit, which will replace mechanical instruments with full-color, flat-panel display screens.
LOS ANGELES - The aerospace industry needs to attract more young employees to rejuvenate its graying workforce, industry representatives said Oct. 3. More than 54 percent of workers in the science and engineering fields are over 45 years old, former Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters said at Aviation Week's Aerospace Expo conference here.
LOS ANGELES - Lockheed Martin Corp. would have developed the F/A-22 Raptor differently had it known in previous years what it knows now about supplier management, a senior Lockheed program official said Oct. 2. Many of the lessons about supplier management the company learned over the past 11 years had to be learned the hard way, Bob Rearden, vice president and general manager of the F/A-22 program, told an audience at Aviation Week's Aerospace Expo conference here.
The House late Oct. 1 approved a bill aimed at giving local and state governments greater access to satellite imagery to help them deal with urban growth, homeland security and forest fires. The bill would authorize NASA to award $15 million in grants a year for several years for pilot projects integrating federal and commercial satellite data for use by state, regional, local and tribal agencies.
WINGS: Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will supply composite parts to Vought Aircraft Industries for enhanced wings for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. The work will be done under a $13 million contract, the company said Oct. 2. ATK will provide upper and lower wing skins, spars, ribs and leading-edge, control-surface and trailing-edge components. Northrop Grumman announced earlier this month it is building a larger, multi-mission Global Hawk, and as part of that effort awarded Vought and ATK a contract to design and develop the enhanced wings (DAILY, Sept. 18).
DELAY: Fearful of a potential Hurricane Lili threat to the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA has bumped the launch of shuttle Atlantis to Monday, Oct. 7.
Goodrich Corp. has completed its buy of TRW Inc.'s Aeronautical Systems business for $1.5 billion in cash, both companies said Oct. 2. Aeronautical Systems, headquartered in Solihull, England, designs and builds commercial and military aerospace systems and equipment. It has 6,200 employees in 22 facilities worldwide.
NASA hopes that a mix of Defense Department, state and local government and other customers will make its newly established National Institute for Aerospace (NIA) largely self-sufficient within five years, according to NIA Management Office Director Charlie Harris. Last week, NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., announced a partnership with several universities and non-profit groups to create NIA - a research and education institute to be located near Langley that will collaborate with it on aerospace R&D.
Lawmakers are making limited progress on major aerospace-related bills as they hurry to get work done before heading to campaign trails for the Nov. 5 elections. After months of delay caused by disputes over overall government spending levels, the House Appropriations Committee tentatively has scheduled a meeting Oct. 8 to consider NASA's fiscal 2003 appropriations bill, according to a committee source. The tentative plan calls for bypassing the Appropriations Committee panel that funds NASA, in an effort to save time.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark unveiled the broad outlines of Sea Power 21, the Navy's new operational blueprint, on Oct. 2, saying the plan will drive the Navy's investment strategy and could lead to program changes in fiscal 2004. Sea Power 21 is led by three new operational concepts - "Sea Strike" for projecting power, "Sea Shield" for homeland and missile defense and "Sea Basing" for minimizing shore support - all tied together by a "ForceNet" of networks, sensors and communications.
