Procurement activity by NASA installation for FY 2001 Installation Award ($ in millions) Percent Total $12,748.1 100 Johnson Space Center 4,002.9 31.4 Goddard Space Flight Center 2,368.0 18.6 Marshall Space Flight Center 1,961.0 15.4 NASA Management Office/JPL 1,487.2 11.7
An article in the March 4 DAILY, on Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin's T-50 advanced trainer, said Lockheed Martin Training Systems would "adopt the T-50 as part of its solution" if the Lockheed training operation is selected for the United Kingdom's Military Flight Training System (MFTS) program. The aircraft selection will occur separately from the MFTS contractor selection and Lockheed Martin's offering would not be limited to a T-50 proposal, according to a company spokesman.
Louis Mancini has been named vice president, maintenance operations services. Pedro Salaverria has been named vice president of International Relations of Boeing-Spain. Bonnie Soodik has been named president of shared services, senior vice president of the company and a member of the Boeing executive council.
The U.S. aerospace and defense industry is about to enter a period of consolidation similar to the one that swept the industry in the mid-1990s following the end of the Cold War, according to one Wall Street analyst. "It's our sense today that we're really starting the consolidation game all over again," Petros Kitsos, a managing director at Salomon Smith Barney, said March 13 at the 2002 Defense&Aerospace Investor, Supplier and Customer Summit in Reston, Va.
The next flight test for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense Segment (GMDS), formerly known as the National Missile Defense program, is expected to take place as scheduled on March 15, said a spokesperson for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The March 15 test - designated Integrated Flight Test 8 (IFT 8) - will incorporate two smaller balloon decoys in addition to the large balloon decoy used in previous tests.
Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) said late March 12 that he will try to overcome the House Armed Services Committee's (HASC) recent rejection of his legislation to transfer licensing of commercial satellite exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department.
The Defense Department is considering several alternatives to the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey in case the tiltrotor transport aircraft program has to be canceled, but it has no intention of restarting production of the B-2 bomber, the Pentagon's acquisition chief said March 13.
DYNCORP TECHNICAL SERVICES (DTS) of Reston, Va., will provide base operation support services to NASA's Johnson Space Center, Ellington Field and Sonny Carter Training Facilities in Houston under a five-year, $148 million contract. The company will maintain the Mission Control Center's backup power supply and support training facilities for the International Space Station, space shuttle, Neutral Buoyancy Laboratories and other programs.
Harvey Baker has been named vice president of enterprise systems. Vernon Anderson has been named vice president of operations for contract electronics manufacturing.
TRW Inc.'s board of directors again has rejected Northrop Grumman Corporation's $5.9 billion buyout offer, calling it "financially inadequate and not in the best interests of TRW's shareholders," the company announced March 13.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) could develop a satellite to aid with telemedicine, depending on how a new telemedicine project progresses, according to ISRO Chairman K. Kasturirangan. Kasturirangan made his remarks at the inauguration of the Apollo-Sriharikota telemedicine project, which connects India's Apollo hospitals and the ISRO Hospital at Sriharikota using an INSAT satellite.
ASTRIUM GMBH of Bremen, Germany, said Europe's first research facility, the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG), has been integrated into the transport module Leonardo for delivery to the International Space Station during shuttle mission STS-111, slated to launch in May. The MSG will be installed in the U.S. research laboratory Destiny and will offer both manual and automatic controls and a permanent data exchange link to the ground. Astrium built the MSG under contract to the European Space Agency.
LORAL CYBERSTAR of Rockville, Md., has signed an agreement with Net4India to provide Internet services. Net4India has become a value-added reseller of Cyberstar's WorldCast Fast Internet service, which provides high-speed Internet connections and other web-based services to local area networks throughout India. WorldCast Fast Internet allows a range of connection speeds and satellite links.
PANAMSAT Corp. of Wilton, Conn., has reached a 10-year, multi-transponder sales agreement with Television&Radio Broadcasting Services (TARBS), an Australian broadcaster, to launch a new direct-to-home television platform in the United States. Under the agreement, TARBS will use PanAmSat satellites for direct-to-home and other services in the Asia Pacific region, and will broadcast more than 50 channels of multicultural television programming in the U.S. over the Galaxy XR North American satellite.
LOCKHEED MARTIN and IMAX CORP. will host the premiere of IMAX Corp.'s first three-dimensional space film, "Space Station," on April 17 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The movie, narrated by actor Tom Cruise, includes footage of astronauts floating through the interior of the International Space Station, and conducting spacewalks outside it.
ENGINE ORDER: Rolls-Royce will provide 24 to 30 engines, worth about $60 million, to the Greek armed forces, the company announced March 13. The engines will power C-27J Spartan transport aircraft the Greek government is buying from a Lockheed Martin Aeronautics-Alenia Aeronautica consortium (DAILY, March 6). Greece plans to buy 12 aircraft and has an option for three more. The AE 2100 engines are designed and produced at Rolls-Royce facilities in Indianapolis.
The market for consolidations among second- and third-tier defense contractors has not reached its peak and may involve non-defense related companies, according to several industry leaders. "I don't think we've had the level of consolidation, particularly in the second and third tiers, that we need to have," said Lucy Fitch, vice president of acquisitions and strategies for BAE Systems North America Inc.
COMANCHE SITE: The Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche team has picked an industrial site in Bridgeport, Conn., for the first phase of assembly and delivery of the helicopter, the companies announced March 12.The site will also house the program's office headquarters. About 350 employees working in Trumbull, Conn., will relocate, and up to 150 new jobs are expected to be created as the program moves to preliminary production. The Army has restructured the program and delayed its initial operational capability by two years, from fiscal 2006 to 2008 (DAILY, March 1).
A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher recently fired an Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block IA missile for the first time, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control announced March 12. HIMARS is a wheeled system capable of firing all rockets and missiles in the Multiple Launch Rocket System family of munitions. It can be transported by a C-130.
COLUMBIA HOME: The shuttle Columbia's Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission came to an end early March 12 when Columbia landed at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Columbia spent nearly 11 days in space, and crewmembers performed five spacewalks to service and upgrade the Hubble.
