The non-profit Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology Education announced July 24 it is developing what it says will be the first piloted aircraft powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The foundation is converting a French DynAero Lafayette III to electric propulsion and is exhibiting the airplane this week at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture 2001 show in Oshkosh, Wis. First flight is slated for next year using lithium ion batteries.
The model of a new International Space Station module left Turin, Italy on July 24, bound for the European Space Agency's technical center (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, where it will undergo structural and thermal tests that will last until next summer.
Despite positive sales in its aerospace segment, Honeywell International Inc. on July 24 posted a 92 percent drop in net profit for the second quarter due largely to charges the company took related to its failed merger with General Electric Co. Company officials reported net quarterly earnings of $50 million, or 6 cents per share, compared with $617 million, or 76 cents per share a year ago at this time.
Researchers at the Systems Safety Research Branch at NASA Ames Research Center work every day to inject the human element into current thinking about aerospace safety. The Systems Safety Research Branch is part of Ames' Human Factors Research and Technology Division, which supports human-centered design in complex aerospace information systems using experiments and models of human capabilities and human-machine interaction.
UNIVERSAL SPACE NETWORK, INC., of Horsham, Pa., provided communications services through its western Australia PrioraNet ground station to Boeing Satellite Systems during launch and the first orbits of XM Satellite Radio's "Roll" XM-1 and "Rock" XM-2 satellites, the company announced. "Rock" was launched in March, "Roll" in May. The satellites, built for XM Satellite Radio by Boeing, will deliver up to 100 channels of digital-quality music, news and information to XM radios throughout the U.S.
SUPPLEMENTAL SIGNED: President Bush signed the fiscal 2001 supplemental appropriations bill into law July 24, providing $5.5 billion for defense, including $153 million for the Airborne Laser, $80 million for V-22 research and development, and $17 million for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.
TRW Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., has awarded Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., a six-year, $70 million contract for work on the In-Flight Interceptor Communications System (IFICS) for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense Segment program, Harris announced July 24. The contract value for the company could rise to more than $130 million if the company is awarded a proposed option to produce the IFICS as part of the Battle Management Command, Control and Communications element of the GMDS program, according to the company.
NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., successfully conducted the second of three tests of the Electro-Mechanical Actuator (EMA) technology used on the former X-33 program, the space agency announced July 24. The space center conducted the test of the X-33's Linear Aerospike XRS-2200 flight engine set on July 23. The test achieved an 80 percent power level and lasted for the full planned duration of 25 seconds, NASA reported. All of the test objectives appear to have been met, pending a final review, according to NASA.
The Lockheed Martin-led team's X-35B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator will complete its flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., rather than flying cross-country for additional test flights at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., a company spokesman said July 24. Flight tests are likely to end this week, said John Kent, the spokesman.
Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, will try to add $180 million to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 military budget to pay for the U.S. Navy's procurement of an additional three F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, an aide told The DAILY July 24. The Administration has requested FY '02 funding for 48 Super Hornets (DAILY, June 28). Bond wants to raise that to 51 to make up for a shortfall in FY '01 procurement.
DynCorp Technical Services of Reston, Va., will provide additional upgraded radio systems for U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command B-52H aircraft under a $6.5 million contract modification, the company announced July 24.
ORBITAL IMAGING CORP. (Orbimage) of Dulles, Va., announced a multi-year agreement with NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., to supply up to $6 million worth of imagery from the 200-band hyperspectral camera to be carried on the company's OrbView-4 satellite. NASA will use the data - the first commercial hyperspectral imagery from space - to develop environmental monitoring applications for managing the Earth's water and land resources, according to the company. "Through this agreement ...
TRW SPACE&ELECTRONICS' indium phosphide (InP) integrated circuit is part of a broadband radiometer being used by the Swedish Odin-1 science satellite, the first InP integrated circuit to fly in space. The chip enables the radiometer to detect very faint radiation being emitted by galactic oxygen. A better understanding of interstellar oxygen chemistry may provide scientists with greater insight into the formation and evolution of galaxies, according to TRW. The Odin-1 satellite, built and operated by the Swedish Space Corp.
The next advanced weather satellite - and the first one capable of detecting storms outside Earth's atmosphere - was launched July 23 atop an International Launch Services Atlas IIA booster. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-M, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 3:23 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is slated to land at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., early July 24 after its nearly 12-day mission to the International Space Station, a mission that included the first spacewalk through the station's new Joint Airlock. On July 21, mission specialists Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly used the airlock, dubbed Quest, for a spacewalk lasting just over four hours. Working with the robotic arms on both the shuttle and station, they installed the last supply tank to the Quest exterior.
General Dynamics extended its offer for all outstanding shares of Newport News Shipbuilding's common stock as it awaits government approval for its proposed merger, the company announced July 23. The offer, previously scheduled to expire on July 20, now will extend to Aug. 3, the company announced. As of July 20, more than 21 million Newport News shares had been tendered to General Dynamics, which it said exceeds the number of shares outstanding.
Japan's Self-Defense Agency is expected to pick prime contractors soon for two major development programs - the MPA, a replacement for the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Lockheed/Kawasaki P-3Cs, and the C-X, a replacement for the Air Self-Defense Force's Kawasaki C-1 tactical transports. Observers expect Kawasaki Heavy Industries to win the MPA contract, because of its extensive experience in anti-submarine warfare aircraft through licensed productions of Lockheed P-2H, P-2J and P-3C aircraft.
EDO Corp. will continue production of its BRU-57 "smart bomb" rack units for the F-16 Falcon under a $17.4 million contract with the U.S. Air Force Armament Center at Eglin AFB, Fla., the company announced July 23. The BRU-57 rack doubles the aircraft's smart munitions load-carrying capability, according to the company. Many of the more than 4,000 F-16s produced or on order, including many in foreign countries, are candidates for the upgrade.
Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), a member of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said July 23 that he hopes to add more than $100 million in B-2 bomber upgrades to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 budget request. Dicks told The DAILY that he will ask the committee to approve an "upgrade package" that includes money for such items as the Link-16 data link and the Enhanced Guided Bomb Unit (EGBU)-28. The proposal will be a continuation of his years-long efforts to add money to the budget for B-2 improvements.
ASTRONAUTS onboard the International Space Station were scheduled to testify live before the House Science Committee on July 25, but that hearing has been postponed due to a scheduling conflict, according to a congressional source. NASA and the committee are seeking another time for the hearing.
Shortages of certain engine parts could cause B-2 bombers to begin experiencing groundings less than four years from now, according to the Defense Department's fiscal 2001 annual report on the aircraft. The B-2's analog engine controllers "are becoming obsolete due to vanishing vendor issues," the congressionally mandated report says. "With the current controller failure rates, it is estimated that parts shortages will begin to cause aircraft groundings in June 2005."
Goodrich Corp., of Charlotte, N.C., announced a 14 percent increase in per-share income in the second quarter compared to last year, and attributed the growth to its aerospace segment. The company announced July 23 that its second-quarter income was $88.8 million, up 14 percent from the $78.8 million it posted in the same quarter last year. Net income for the current quarter was $83.3 million, up from the $81.7 million the company reported in the second quarter last year.
The Cosmos 1 solar sail, designed to power spacecraft to other planets, plummeted to Earth July 20 after it failed to separate from its booster rocket, according to its founders. Preliminary reports indicate a software glitch - not the rocket itself or its payload - caused the solar sail to crash into the Kamchatka region of Russia.
