The National Science Foundation has provided a five-year, $10 million grant to help set up the National Virtual Observatory (NVO), which is intended to unite the databases of earthbound and orbital observatories. The goal of the NVO is to increase the potential for new scientific discovery by making the data available in a unified form to researchers, amateur astronomers and students, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute.
The Predator medium altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle is "not operationally effective or suitable," according to Thomas Christie, the director of the Defense Department's Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) office. Christie, the Pentagon's chief tester, came to this conclusion based on an initial operational test and evaluation of the Predator system last year.
CAE of Toronto has added two full flight simulators, a Fairchild Dornier 328Jet and a Boeing 737NG, to its Dallas aviation training center, the company announced Nov. 1. The center, located near the Dallas /Fort Worth airport, already operates two full flight simulators, a Dornier 328Jet and a Dornier 328 Turboprop.
An Australian attempt to achieve hypersonic combustion flight fizzled Oct. 30 when a booster carrying a scramjet engine went off course before the scramjet could be tested. "Although we didn't achieve all we set out to achieve, we succeeded in gathering valuable data, and we're encouraged by the fact the payload survived one hell of a wild ride," Allan Paull of the University of Queensland said in an Oct. 31 statement released by the university.
REALITY CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES INC. (RCT) of San Jose, Calif., has received a license from NASA for further development of a software platform that could allow contractors on Earth to construct "virtual" complex industrial facilities before actually breaking ground. The software was developed by NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., to help explore Mars. The Mars Map 3-D imaging software creates a photographic-quality rendering system, allowing researchers to better understand the surface of Mars.
House Republican leaders have endorsed a proposal that would give The Boeing Co. the same kind of lawsuit protection that U.S. airlines received for the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings of four Boeing passenger airplanes that ended up crashing in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. The provision has been included in a package of amendments that the full House was debating late Nov. 1 during consideration of an aviation security bill.
INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH SERVICES has signed a contract with Space Communications Corp. (SCC) of Tokyo to launch the Superbird-6 satellite in October 2003. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The satellite will be launched on an Atlas IIAS rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The Superbird-6 is a Boeing 601 model which will deliver business communications services from an orbital location of 158 degrees east longitude. ILS launched a previous Superbird satellite, Superbird-C, in 1997.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S CONSOLIDATED SPACE OPERATIONS CONTRACT (CSOC) has signed a contract for ground network satellite tracking services with Space Data Services (SDS) AS of Tromso, Norway. CSOC manages NASA's data collection, telemetry and communications operations that support Earth-observing satellites, planetary exploration and human spaceflight activities. CSOC bought the commercial tracking services from SDS as a way to save money without cutting quality, according to Lockheed Martin.
The Defense Department says it may not be able to start any new Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTDs) if a House-passed cut in the program's funding makes it into the final version of the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill. The House bill reduces the Bush Administration's $148.9 million request for the program by $20 million, to $128.9 million. The Senate bill leaves the request intact. A House-Senate conference committee is ironing out differences between the two bills.
EUROCKOT LAUNCH SERVICES GMBH of Bremen, Germany, will launch two Iridium communications satellites in June 2002 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. A Rockot launch vehicle will place the satellites in low-earth orbits. In September, the company carried out a month-long exercise to simulate the entire Iridium mission cycle. The exercise was carried out by a joint team that included Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and Russia's Space Forces.
LOGICA of London will provide a European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) to improve the accuracy of the Global Positioning System under a $9 million contract with Alcatel Space. "When you get a GPS navigation signal, how can you be confident you can trust it?" said Laurent Gauthier, the EGNOS project manager at the European Space Agency. "EGNOS will tell you whether you can trust the signal. It will tell you that you are at a particular spot with a high degree of certainty.
The Defense Department announced Nov. 1 that it is restructuring the acquisition plan for the Navy's DD-21 next generation destroyer, and no longer intends to procure a single ship class. While similar to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers it would have replaced, the DD-21 was intended to provide land attacks support for ground forces. The new program will "produce a family of advanced technology surface combatants," according to the Pentagon.
Can a satellite be de-orbited using nothing more than a long metallic wire roughly the thickness of a piece of dental floss? After over a year of schedule slips, NASA hopes to finally answer this question when it launches the Propulsive Small Expendable Deployer System (ProSEDS) experiment as a secondary payload on a Delta II rocket in June 2002.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing have begun high-level discussions on whether Boeing might play a role in the next phase of the huge Joint Strike Fighter program, the head of Lockheed Martin's winning team said in an interview Nov. 1.
JMAR/SAL NanoLithography Inc. (JSAL) has been awarded a patent for a process to create high-performance semiconductors that are smaller than 100 nanometers, or about one one-thousandth the width of a human hair. The technology could provide the company's customers with the ability to manufacture semiconductors for use in anti-terrorism surveillance systems, phased array radars, missile seeker devices and other technologies, according to the company.
The crew of a Soyuz "taxi flight" mission to the International Space Station have returned to Earth, ending a 10-day Russian-French mission. Cosmonauts Victor Afanasyev and Konstantin Kozeev and European Space Agency astronaut Claudie Haignere, the first European woman to visit the station, touched down in their Soyuz capsule Oct. 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Credit ratings on Newport News Shipbuilding could be raised if Northrop Grumman Corp.'s acquisition of the company takes place as expected, Standard&Poor's said Oct. 31. Until that is done, ratings for Newport News Shipbuilding remain on CreditWatch with positive implications, where they have been listed since April, according to the ratings service.
AgustaWestland and Lockheed Martin have joined in a near-term effort to market the three-engine EH101 helicopter to the U.S. Air Force for the combat search and rescue mission. The longer-term goal is to seek out medium-lift helicopter opportunities in the U.S. The EH101 has already been ordered by the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Denmark and Japan. A win in the U.S. would open new doors for AgustaWestland, based in Italy and the U.K.
The Bush Administration's aggressive support of space-based defense represents a "huge opportunity" for the aerospace industry to advance technology and capitalize on the new infrastructure that a robust military space program will require, according to former U.S. Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pa.), chairman of the new aerospace commission.
NASA's 2001 MARS ODYSSEY has provided mission managers with its first image of Mars, a thermal infrared image of the Martian southern hemisphere. The image, taken as part of the calibration process for the thermal emission imaging system, captures the polar carbon dioxide ice cap at a temperature of about -184 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA. "This spectacular first image of Mars from [the spacecraft] is just a hint of what's to come," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science.
Congressional leaders are considering providing The Boeing Co. with lawsuit protection similar to what the federal government gave U.S. airlines to help them cope with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, sources told The DAILY Oct. 31. A congressional source said that House Republican leaders are seriously discussing the idea, though it is unclear whether they will act on the issue or what form such legislation would take.
AIRCRAFT-SAFE BULLET: American Ammunition Inc. has received a patent for a bullet that will penetrate human soft tissue but won't pierce an aircraft fuselage. The bullet was designed for use inside the cabins of commercial aircraft, according to the company.
GE Aircraft Engines will supply up to 400 CT7-8L engines and spares to power a fleet of airships being developed in Germany. The contract, with CargoLifter GmbH of Brand, Germany, includes maintenance services for 10 years and could be worth up to $500 million, according to GE. The company was co-developed by GE Aircraft Engines and Fiat Avio of Italy, and the companies will also co-produce them. First deliveries of the CT7-8 engines are expected to begin in 2003. The first flight of a CL160 Airship prototype is scheduled for 2004.
A House-approved cut in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's budget request for advanced aerospace systems would hinder efforts to make unmanned combat air vehicles a major part of the Defense Department's fleet, according to DOD.
