Aerospace and financial analysts have reacted favorably to Lockheed Martin Corp.'s announcement that it plans to exit the satellite telecommunications service business. Company officials announced Dec. 7 that they plan to reassign business units and investments related to the company's Global Telecommunications division to other sectors within the company, sell any remaining telecommunications operations and eliminate nearly 650 positions to focus more on core businesses and customers (DAILY, Dec. 10). Analyst reports
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $1,115,000,000 (not-to-exceed) cost-plus-award-fee time and materials contract to provide for reliability enhancement and reengining, systems development and demonstration in support of the C-5 aircraft. At this time, $15,000,000 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be complete June 2008. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-02-C-2000).
SPARTA Inc. is being awarded a $39,891,157 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Ballistic Missile Defense System scientific, engineering and technical assistance to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Work will be performed primarily in Arlington, Va., and is expected to be completed not later than Nov. 23, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is the contracting activity (HQ0006-02-C-0004).
Computer Sciences Corp. is being awarded a $60,837,156 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to contract HQ0006-00-C-0009 for scientific, engineering and technical assistance in the areas of program planning, joint systems engineering and analysis support, information management, test and evaluation integration and assessment and technology management. Work will be performed in Arlington, Va., and is expected to be completed not later than Dec. 31, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $13,958,213 firm-fixed-price contract modification for award-fee earned for the fiscal year 2001 firm-fixed-price portion of this contract and Period 2 (April 2001 through September 2002) for performance of the C-17 flexible sustainment contract. At this time, the total amount of funds has been awarded. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-01-C-2002, P00039).
The Navy has cancelled the Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle program and instead will acquire the long-range, high-endurance Global Hawk UAV, said Brig. Gen. Joe Weber, commanding general of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, Weber spoke Dec. 10 at Shephard's UAV conference in Arlington, Va. Weber told The DAILY that the decision came out of the Department of the Navy last week, and that the department will now move towards acquiring approximately four Global Hawk systems in place of the Fire Scout.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $13,412,056 modification to a previously awarded fixed-price contract (N00019-01-C-0024) to exercise an option for services associated with the Special Progressive Aircraft Rework for the VH-3D and VH-60 executive helicopters. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed in September 2002. Contract funds in the amount of $13,412,056 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Senators from states with key NASA research and launch facilities cautioned NASA administrator-nominee Sean O'Keefe against trying to run NASA the way he did the Office of Management and Budget as deputy director. "We are looking to you to be the person who has the capability to implement a program that secures the science and technology and experimentation that secures and enhances the future for NASA," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose state is home to the Johnson Space Flight Center.
A Boeing Delta II rocket placed two scientific spacecraft into orbit Dec. 7, NASA's Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesophere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite and the joint U.S./French oceanography satellite Jason 1. Jason 1 will monitor ocean circulation, study interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean and observe weather events like El Nino during its three-year mission.
BOOST PHASE: A special project office in the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) is examining technologies that could be used to develop boost-phase intercept capabilities for U.S. missile defense, according to Capt. Peter Grant, the U.S. Navy's program manager for Navy Theater Wide Defense. BDMDO is focusing on the target warheads and how they operate, says Grant, who spoke at the Association of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Symposium in El Paso, Texas.
NOMINEES ADVANCE: The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Dec. 6 approved the nomination of former Lockheed Martin executive Peter Teets to be undersecretary of the Air Force. If confirmed by the full Senate, Teets will also serve as director of the National Reconnaissance Office. The SASC also endorsed the nomination of Air Force Maj. Gen. Claude Bolton to be assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, technology and logistics.
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: One of the foundations of a projected ability to allow all interested U.S. parties to have situational awareness in space is a ready sharing of information, says Air Force Lt. Col. Thomas Simpson. Simpson, assigned to establish the Space Situational Awareness Integration Office (SSAIO) by next March 1, says one requirement is greater synergy between intelligence and surveillance databases so operators can get information quickly and easily. The current approach of independent planning and managing of assets has "got to change," he says.
THE BOEING CO. has completed an evaluation of a new technology that could lead to lighter, more efficient and more affordable cooling systems for thermal management in aircraft and spacecraft. It looked at the Cool Chips technology developed by Cool Chips plc, a subsidiary of Borealis Exploration Ltd. Cool Chips are a form of vacuum diode that pumps heat from one side of a chip to another to provide localized cooling and refrigeration, according to Boeing. The technology is solid state and operates silently without the use of motors or fluids.
SEEKING ADVICE: NASA administrator-nominee O'Keefe says he will seek the advice of Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in fashioning a response to European and Canadian concerns about U.S. commitments to the International Space Station. "My intention will be to work very closely with Secretary Powell ... and Deputy Secretary Armitage to ensure that we very carefully respond to those international alliance commitments, that we work together mutually," he says.
STATION FLIGHT: MirCorp, the Netherlands-based company that promotes commercial space, has announced two joint ventures to promote commercial space flight. It has joined with Incredible Adventures Inc. of Florida to market zero-gravity aircraft flights, Russian MiG-25 flights to the edge of space and cosmonaut training in Star City. It has also teamed with Image World Media Inc. to produce a prime-time game show at Russia's Star City, with the winning contestant to go to the International Space Station on a Soyuz.
A House-Senate conference committee has approved a fiscal 2002 intelligence authorization bill that "further enhances" the "substantial increase" the Bush Administration included in its budget request for the National Foreign Intelligence Program (NFIP), according to a committee report released Dec. 7. The NFIP includes activities in the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Security Agency and several other agencies.
I/NET Inc. of Kalamazoo, Mich., will work on developing a "conversational" interface for NASA under a $70,000 contract. The company's conversational interface software is similar to voice recognition software, but allows for extended dialogues. As an example, the company said if an astronaut wanted to ask about an oxygen tank, he or she could ask a spacecraft computer "how much air is in the tank?" and it would either ask "which tank?" or infer the astronaut meant the oxygen tank.
C-20 SET-ASIDE: The U.S. Air Force has agreed to pick a small company to handle a multi-million dollar maintenance and support contract for its C-20 airlift fleet, according to Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.), ranking Republican on the Senate Small Business Committee. The contract will have a one-year base period and annual options to renew for up to nine years. The exact dollar value of the contract will not be known until bids are received. Bond has been pushing for small businesses to get more defense contracts to shore up the nation's industrial base.
SPACEDEV of Poway, Calif., has delivered its SpaceDev BD-II CHIPSat microsatellite to the Space Science Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley. The satellite is for NASA's Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) program. "SpaceDev is introducing the 'microcomputer' way of thinking into the $100 billion space industry, which has been bogged down for decades in the old 'mainframe' way of thinking - that bigger is better," said SpaceDev founder and CEO Jim Benson.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) urged his Senate colleagues Dec. 7 to remove a provision in the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill that would allow the Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767s to begin to replace its aging KC-135 tankers.
ON TARGET: The seventh Integrated Flight Test (IFT) of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense Segment, formerly known as the National Missile Defense program, was even "more precise" than the previous test conducted in July, according to the Boeing Co.'s executive vice president and general manager for missile defense systems, James Evatt. Boeing is the prime systems integrator for the U.S. missile defense program. "All of the objectives were met on the test," says Evatt, who spoke at the same Space and Missile Defense Symposium. IFT 7, conducted Dec.
The added role of homeland defense is creating new missions and requirements for the National Guard and new opportunities for contractors with proven technologies. Last week, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc. received a modest contract - worth $200,000 - for a pilot project to provide the Ohio National Guard with the Extended Air Defense Simulation (EADSIM), a system which has traditionally been used for missile defense modeling.
FOOT-STOMP: While space situational awareness involves the use of intelligence, Simpson says, that's not its main focus. "I'd like to do a foot-stomp here," he says: "SSA doesn't do intel. That's a very sensitive issue. That's salt in a wound to the intel folks." Intelligence, he says, "brings color to a black-and-white picture.
STATION DOCK: Space Shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station Dec. 7 after a 46-hour chase. Endeavour brings tons of supplies and the station's Expedition Four crew to the orbiting laboratory. Endeavour launched Dec. 5 and is slated to return Dec. 16.
EUROCKOT LAUNCH SERVICES GmbH of Bremen, Germany, will launch Canada's Microvariability&Oscillations of Stars (MOST) satellite and the Czech MicroMeasurements of Satellite Acceleration (MIMOSA) satellite in the fourth quarter of 2002, the company announced. Both satellites will perform scientific missions in low earth orbit and will be launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
