NASA's announcement of the prime contractor for building the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) is expected "any day now," according to Project Manager Bernard Seery of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Lockheed Martin and TRW/Ball Aerospace lead the two industry teams competing to build NGST. The project also includes participation from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
DATE SET: The Missile Defense Agency named Aug. 24 as the date for the next test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program. The integrated test will include all the elements of the system, including the space-based missile-warning sensor; ground-based early warning radar; prototype X-Band radar at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific; and the GMD battle management, command, control and communications system at Kwajalein Atoll and the Joint National Integration Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo.
NORAD AT SEA: Adm. Vernon Clark, the chief of naval operations, wants the United States to form a unified command for maritime security. Clark says the Navy should extend its role in homeland defense by working on maritime interdiction with the Coast Guard and intelligence agencies. But the broader mission of maritime security requires a centralized command, he says. "I'm convinced we need a NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] for maritime forces."
LONDON - Austria will reduce its planned buy of Eurofighters to free money for civic funding in the wake of recent heavy flooding in Central Europe, the Austrian government said Aug. 15. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said the country can't buy the full requirement of 24 Eurofighters. The government still hopes to acquire 18 Eurofighters, but this is the most that could be funded, he said.
On Aug. 20, International Launch Services (ILS) will launch the EchoStar VIII direct broadcast satellite on a Proton K/Block DM rocket, the company announced Aug. 15. The launch, the fifth for ILS so far this year, will take place at 11:15 a.m. local time (1:15 a.m. EDT) from Launch Complex 81, Pad 23, at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The total weight of the 188-foot rocket at liftoff, including the payload, will be 1.5 million pounds.
The Naval Sea Systems Command on Aug. 14 requested proposals from industry for a high-speed, stealthy ship capable of conducting a variety of missions in littoral waters. Called the Focused Mission Ship, the vessel appears to be the model for the Littoral Combat Ship, part of the Navy's next-generation DD(X) class of ships.
The Bush Administration has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging President Bush's authority to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty without congressional approval. In documents recently submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Administration argued that the president's authority to pull out of the missile defense-limiting treaty on his own is "beyond question."
TOROTEL INC., which builds precision magnetic components, will build component parts for the Longbow Hellfire missile system under $236,000 worth of orders, the company said. Monthly shipments of the components are expected to begin in January 2003. Torotel's products include transformers, inductors, reactors, chokes and toroidal coils, and are used in commercial and military electronics to modify and control electrical voltages and currents.
Mission controllers at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) in Laurel, Md., are attempting to regain contact with NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft, which went mysteriously silent Aug. 15 after it was scheduled to ignite its engine. CONTOUR's Star 30 solid-propellant rocket motor, built by ATK Thiokol Propulsion, was programmed to ignite at 4:49 a.m. EDT and burn for 50 seconds to move the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and into an orbit around the sun.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite took its first view of Earth in late June, NASA announced Aug. 15. On its first day of operations, MODIS observed Super Typhoon Chataan approaching Japan, severe flooding in southeast Texas, and a pall of smoke from Canadian wildfires over the East Coast of the U.S., NASA said. The instrument collected images of these events and beamed them to Earth in near-real time.
Final preparations are taking place at the Ronald Reagan Missile Site at Kwajalein Atoll as the Missile Defense Agency prepares for next week's missile defense test. Next week's planned test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system is Integrated Flight Test 9 (IFT 9). The Pentagon has not announced the test date, but sources told The DAILY that MDA is shooting for Aug. 24.
NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, addressing the nation on the 55th anniversary of independence, announced that the indigenously developed Agni missile has been inducted into the army, and the medium-range BrahMos missile has been inducted into the navy. A senior Indian defense ministry official told The DAILY Aug. 15 that the Indian army has ordered 700-kilometer (435 mile) range Agni missiles, to be delivered in the next two years. The Agnis began to be inducted in the army in April.
Air Force Col. Douglas Loverro, head of the Global Positioning System joint program office, is slated to take a high-level post in the National Reconnaissance Office's troubled Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) program, sources said Aug. 15. An NRO spokesman declined to describe what Loverro's exact role will be with the classified FIA program, but said his job title will be director of the data provider element within the imagery intelligence directorate, meaning he will have a leadership position in FIA.
The Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto, Calif., has delivered the High-Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HiRDLS) instrument for NASA's Aura satellite, the company said Aug. 15. The instrument is a joint development project between the U.S. and the United Kingdom. ATC developed four of its nine subsystems, and integrated those with other subsystems built in the U.K.
ARINC Inc. of Annapolis, Md., has tested a broadband receiver for aircraft that would use high-speed satellite Ku-band communications at high frequencies, the company said Aug. 15. Reception tests of the system, which the company said could receive data up to 10 times faster than other commercial designs, were conducted in flight from Wichita, Kan. The tests used a steerable, tail-mounted dish antenna on a Cessna Citation X aircraft.
The Boeing Co. has been awarded about $9.7 billion for a multiyear contract to produce 60 C-17 airlift aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, the Pentagon announced Aug. 15. The contract kicks off this year and will sustain C-17 production through the end of 2007 at a rate of 15 aircraft per year. Only $245.9 million of that amount is obligated as part of the first delivery order, according to the Pentagon announcement. The contract will bring the total delivery of C-17s to the U.S. Air Force up to 180 aircraft.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN's Information Technology sector will provide information technology (IT) services to U.S. Joint Forces Command under a five-year, $5.3 million contract. The contract has four one-year options that could increase its worth to $28.3 million, the company said. The work to be done includes conducting analyses for technology insertion, developing new business processes, and developing and maintaining customer databases.
NEW DELHI - India plans to buy an aircraft for the prime minister, along the lines of U.S. Air Force One. The aircraft would include a "nuclear button" for the prime minister, the head of the nuclear command and control structure, who has the ability to command the use of nuclear weapons. India has over 80 nuclear warheads and several delivery systems, including the Agni-2 and Agni-3 intermediate-range missiles, which have a range of up to 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles).
A report released Aug. 15 by Deutsche Bank says the current financial problems at US Airways, American Airlines and United Airlines could result in lower aircraft deliveries for the Boeing Co. and Airbus Industrie. Before filing for bankruptcy protection, US Airways had nearly 40 commercial jets on order from Airbus through 2009, according to the report. Most of the deliveries already have been deferred to 2004-2005.
DRONES: Dornier GmbH, a business unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), has developed a family of low cost, jet-powered target drones. The DO-DT25 and DO-DT35 drones will expand EADS' capabilities in the field of aerial target systems, according to the company.
BAE Systems C4ISR has provided advanced, commercial-off-the-shelf equipment to improve communications for British forces stationed in Nepal, the company said. The company adapted the systems for military purposes. The equipment included multiplexers to provide satellite communications links to allow a local military exchange.
NEW DELHI - Even as New Delhi continues to negotiate the acquisition of the Arrow missile defense system from Israel, the Indian air force has asked the Indian ministry of defense to buy Python-4 and Derby air-to-air missile systems from Israel. The missiles would be mounted on the Indian air force's Jaguar and Mirage aircraft. The air force is seeking about 100 missiles.
