ARIANESPACE has integrated the Intelsat 902 satellite to its Ariane 4 launch vehicle, which is scheduled to launch it on Nov. 30. The booster's payload fairing features the new Intelsat logo, symbolizing its transformation in July from a treaty-based organization to a privately held company. Intelsat 902 will be the 19th Intelsat satellite launched by an Ariane vehicle, according to Arianespace. The spacecraft will provide Internet, broadcast, telephony and corporate network services for Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East and Australia.
SPECTROLAB INC.'s new solar cell technology is among the 100 most significant technologies of the year, selected by Research&Development magazine, the company announced. Spectrolab, a business unit of the Boeing Co., has designed and built a new cell the company said is capable of record-breaking efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity. The technology will be featured in a September magazine article and at an awards presentation in October.
LOCKHEED MARTIN has begun a joint test program with the U.S. Air Force and Army to validate the C-130J-30 for paratroop airdrop operations. The tests are being conducted by the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate at Fort Bragg, N.C., and are being flown out of Pope Air Force Base, N.C.
GOVERNMENT MICRO RESOURCES, INC., and CRAY, INC., have been awarded a contract under NASA's Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement (SEWP) program to provide computers for NASA and other agencies and contractors. The contract is an Indefinite Delivery&Indefinite Quantity contract in the High Performance Supercomputer Class and is available to all federal agencies and approved federal contractors. The companies said it has a maximum value of $4 billion.
HMS Ark Royal, the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier, rejoins the British fleet Aug. 29 after completion of a major two-year refit and service trials in the North Sea. Costing 147 million pounds ($205 million), the refit was done by Babcock Engineering Services (BES) at the company's Rosyth shipyard in Scotland.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines has asked the Congress to approve a 31 percent increase in next year's defense budget, according to press reports from Manila. According to reports from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Arroyo has asked for about $1.1 billion for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). About $200 million will be earmarked for the AFP's modernization program to upgrade the military's aircraft, warships, weaponry and fighting skills.
Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said Aug. 28 that he hopes to offer an amendment on the House floor to redirect money in the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill from missile defense to other weapons.
Japan's Ministry of Education and Science will merge the nation's three space-related agencies - the National Space Development Agency, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Aerospace Laboratory - by about 2003. The Space Activities Commission, which administers Japan's space programs, will remain as an independent committee.
APOLLO ENERGY SYSTEMS, INC., of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is working on propulsion systems for future manned Mars rovers that would produce zero emissions, using alkaline fuel cells and lead cobalt batteries. A second-generation system, now being designed, could have a top speed of 40 miles per hour with a range of 600 miles, according to the company. If geothermal-heated water is found beneath the surface of Mars, it could be converted to oxygen and hydrogen needed to power the company's fuel cells, which will keep the lead cobalt batteries charged, the company said.
The joint U.S./Israel Arrow missile defense program had another successful test Aug. 27 when it shot down an aircraft-launched target missile, Israel Aircraft Industries announced. The test, the ninth in a series, was against a "Black Sparrow" target simulating a ballistic missile approaching Israel's shores. According to IAI, initial results show that all components of the weapon system, the Green Pine radar, the Citron Tree fire control, and the Arrow missile, performed as planned. The Black Sparrow target was destroyed.
Aerospace and defense analysts with Standard&Poor's assigned an "A" rating to $500 million of floating bond notes issued Aug. 22 by Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics Corp. The 3-year notes, which mature Sept. 1, 2004, are being issued under Rule 144a of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and have registration rights. S&P analysts affirmed all outstanding ratings for General Dynamics and said the ratings outlook for the company remains stable.
LAUNCH DATE: The National Space Development Agency of Japan has set a new launch date of Aug. 29 for its first H-IIA launch vehicle. NASDA had planned to launch the H-IIA on Aug. 25, but delayed it due to a malfunction in a pressure-controlling valve for the second-stage liquid oxygen tank.
The Defense Department informed Congress late last week that Egypt wants to buy Extended-Range Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (ER-MLRS). The purchase, estimated at $354 million, includes 26 Extended Range-Multiple Launch Rockets Systems (ER-MLRS) with fire control panels, 485 ER-MLRS rocket pods, 22 reduced range practice rocket pods, and one MLRS fire control proficiency trainer.
An LV Proton-K heavy rocket carrier was launched Aug. 25 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 00:35 Moscow Time , according to a press release issued by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The rocket was launched by military crews of the Russian Space Troops and carried a Cosmos satellite for the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to Khrunichev. The satellite payload is intended to buttress Russia's early-warning capabilities, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., announced it has sold the last remaining business it scheduled for divestiture nearly two years ago. The company sold IMS Corp., of Marina del Rey, Calif., an information technology service provider, to Affiliated Computer Services Inc., of Dallas, Texas, for $825 million.
The Boeing Co. delivered the fourth and final C-17 Globemaster III military cargo aircraft to the United Kingdom Royal Air Force during ceremonies at the company's production facility in Long Beach, Calif., on Aug. 24. The four C-17s are leased under a seven-year agreement with Boeing. They will be part of the U.K.'s Joint Rapid Reaction Force. The U.K. is the first international customer for the C-17 Globemaster III. To date, the RAF C-17s have flown more than 200 hours, according to Boeing.
Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., will supply a network management system to support communications at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M., under a $2.3 million contract from the U.S. Army's Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command.
GASL Inc. of Ronkonkoma, N.Y. has conducted the first successful free flights of a hypersonic projectile powered by a scramjet engine burning hydrocarbon fuel, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Aug. 27. A large gun at the Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) at Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. fired the projectiles during two tests on June 20 and July 26. The titanium projectiles were four-inch diameter, 20-percent scale models of a conceptual missile.
With a decision to deploy missile defense not yet made, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) officials are making a fundamental shift in the program, focusing on an open architecture that incorporates more testing and alternative technology paths. National missile defense - previously conceived as a one-shot deployment that would protect the territorial United States - is now simply ballistic missile defense, and BMDO is being reorganized to reflect the new program divisions, officials said.
A lawsuit filed last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court by Raytheon Co. alleges that a series of bad judgments by senior officials of Washington Group International has more to do with WGI's financial troubles than do previous financial transactions with Raytheon.
