NASA's X-43A hypersonic demonstrator is gearing up for its second Mach 7 flight attempt next month, the outcome of which may determine whether the program will make a third flight attempt at Mach 10.
SEARCH AND RESCUE: General Dynamics C4 Systems will provide 650 AN/PRC-112G HOOK2TM combat search and rescue radios to Greece-based TEOTEC S.A. for use by Greece's air force. The value of the contract was not disclosed but it includes an option for 300 additional radios, the company said Jan. 28. The radios provide two-way messaging and Global Positioning System location capabilities.
MOSCOW - Yuri Koptev, director of Rosaviakosmos, the Russian aviation and space agency, said his agency has requested documentation from NASA on President Bush's new plan to go back to the moon and on to Mars. Russia could submit proposals for the program as early as this month, Koptev said, and will promote its extensive space experience. However, Koptev said the president's schedule and initial $12 billion budget for the program (DAILY, Jan. 15) could be unrealistic, although the mission itself is "very attractive."
At the request of NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, former Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) Chairman Hal Gehman will offer a "second opinion" on O'Keefe's decision to cancel the fourth and final scheduled space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. During a press roundtable in Washington Jan. 29, O'Keefe said he expects an "expeditious" response from Gehman, although no deadline has been set.
NEW DELHI - India will begin technology demonstrations this year of its Geo-Aided Navigation (GAGAN) system to bolster air traffic safety, according to an official with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Launch of the GSAT-4 satellite carrying the GAGAN signal is scheduled for 2005 or 2006, with the system expected to begin operation in 2006 or 2007, the official said.
A House panel has scheduled a March 9 hearing to scrutinize the effectiveness of U.S. and international export controls on cruise missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology, according to a congressional source. The hearing by the House Government Reform Committee's national security subcommittee is expected to examine the findings of the General Accounting Office, which has been studying the cruise missile/UAV issue at the request of the subcommittee's chairman, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.).
EDITOR'S NOTE: Electronic versions of Aerospace Daily dated Feb. 2 will not be sent out until shortly after 9 a.m. on Feb. 2, so that we can include a special section detailing the U.S. Department of Defense's fiscal year 2005 budget request, which is embargoed until then. Print subscribers will receive the special section as part of the Feb. 3 issue.
NATO CHIEF: Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee held a closed executive session meeting Jan. 29 with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, according to a committee spokesman. It was their first opportunity to meet him and they discussed "current issues facing NATO," the spokesman said.
The fiscal 2005 defense budget proposal could mark a significant year for procurement, analysts at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) said Jan. 29. President Bush will ask Congress for $401.7 billion in defense spending when the budget is released Feb. 2, according to the Department of Defense, an increase of about 7 percent over fiscal year 2004 (DAILY, Jan. 27). That figure does not include war costs, a funding request that may come later in the form of a supplemental appropriations package.
For the fourth quarter of 2003, The Boeing Company reported a net income of $1.1 billion, up from the fourth quarter 2002 net income of $590 million. Meanwhile, revenue for the fourth quarter of 2003 was $13.2 billion, down from fourth quarter 2002 revenue of $13.7 billion, the company said Jan. 29. The company's reported net income for 2003 totaled $698 million, on revenues of $50.5 billion. Net income for 2002 was $492 million, on revenues of $54.1 billion, the company said.
Space Imaging has extended its agreement with Antrix Corp., a division of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), to give Space Imaging exclusive rights to market and sell data from Indian remote sensing satellites outside India through 2010. Antrix Executive Director K.R. Sridhara Murthi and Space Imaging CEO Robert Dalal signed the new agreement Jan. 27 in Bangalore, India.
JAVELIN PICKED: Norway's ministry of defense has selected Raytheon-Lockheed Martin's Javelin as its medium-range, anti-armor missile with an $86 million contract. It becomes the fifth country to pick Javelin in 2003, after the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee questioned U.S. Army officials Jan. 28 about whether the military is taking aggressive enough steps to equip troop vehicles to sustain explosions from detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The first Lockheed Martin C-130J built for the active-duty U.S. Air Force had its first flight Jan. 28, a company spokesman said. The transport aircraft took off in Marietta, Ga., where it was assembled, and returned after a successful flight of five hours and seven minutes, said Lockheed Martin spokesman Peter Simmons. "Everything checked out A-okay," Simmons told The DAILY.
AEROASTRO, Ashburn, Va. Patricia Davis has been appointed vice president of programs. Lt. Col. Thomas E. Maultsby (USAF, ret.) has been appointed to the board of directors. AVICA U.S., Simi Valley, Calif. David Schmidt has been named vice president and general manager. BOUNDARY LAYER RESEARCH, Everett, Wash. Mike Carpenter has been named general aviation fixed wing manager. Tim Sestak has been appointed military program manager. EADS NORTH AMERICA, Washington
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Few officials here will be sorry if Boeing pulls out of aircraft producer Aero Vodochody, according to a key figure in the negotiations that led to the U.S. company joining Aero in 1998. Former finance minister Ivan Pilip told The DAILY in a Jan. 28 interview that Boeing's Czech wing, Boeing Ceska, had disappointed the Czech state by failing to live up to its promises to market Aero's L-159 light combat fighter and bring new business to the company.
The two teams competing to develop NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system have sent representatives to alliance headquarters in Brussels this week to make the case for the designs they are proposing, according to industry sources.
The U.S. Department of Defense and the military services have improved their business models to transition science and technology (S&T) to the warfighter more efficiently, according to Al Shaffer, director of plans and programs in the Pentagon's office of Defense Research and Engineering.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Defense and intelligence officials are competing to gain access to the capabilities of the U.S. Air Force's projected Space Based Radar, according to Brig. Gen. Robert P. Lennox, deputy commanding general for operations of Army Space and Missile Defense Command. "There are different interests and competing desires," Lennox said Jan. 28 in response to a question from the audience at a conference here.
Senate lawmakers expressed cautious support for the Administration's new space exploration vision during a hearing Jan. 28, tempering their enthusiasm with questions about the plan's fiscal viability.
