U.S. researchers are planning to fly hundreds of samples of coating materials - from paint to lubricants - to the International Space Station this summer to see how the substances withstand a long stretch in extreme temperatures and ultraviolet light. The findings could give scientists new clues both into developing future spacecraft as well as making various materials last longer on Earth, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
The Indian Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) plans to revamp its surface-to-air (SAM) Trishul missile program and develop a new version of the missile. The New Indian Express daily reports that the move comes from repeated failures of the quick reaction missile to clear test parameters and the eventual delay in its induction into the Indian navy inventory.
Despite its establishment of an office dedicated exclusively to military transformation (DAILY, Jun. 29), the 2002 defense budget leaves many tough questions about transformation unanswered, according to some defense analysts. Although the amended 2002 budget represents the largest single-year defense spending increase since the mid-1980s, much of the extra spending is dedicated to improving military healthcare and other quality-of-life issues.
ARIANESPACE has named Clayton Mowry as president of Arianespace, Inc., which will place the Satellite Industry Association official atop the French company's U.S. affiliate. Mowry, whose appointment will be official August 6, will manage the U.S. customer, industry and government relations for Arianespace.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be demonstrated at the first exposition of unmanned aviation, scheduled for July 30 at the Webster Field annex of the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The Navy's Program Executive Office, Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVSI) will host the demo, which will be the kickoff to AUVSI's annual conference, which is being held at the Baltimore Convention Center.
To bolster its domestic defense industry and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, the South Korean Defense Ministry announced its intent to increase military R&D funding from the current 4 percent to 10 percent of the total defense budget by 2015. South Korea spent 5.34 percent of its defense budget on R&D in 1999, 3.47 percent in 1998, and 3.12 percent in 1997.
Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.) has been unsuccessful so far in his bid to get fiscal 2002 funding for a study on whether new space shuttle orbiters should be built. McKeon's request is not expected to be included in the FY '02 spending bill that the House Appropriations VA-HUD subcommittee is scheduled to consider next week, a committee aide told The DAILY July 5. The VA-HUD panel is responsible for NASA's budget.
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, has said he wants a one-year extension of the Defense Production Act (DPA), not the three-year renewal requested by the Bush Administration (DAILY, June 14). The Banking Committee has jurisdiction over the DPA. In a recent statement, Bennett also said he favors requiring the Administration to provide a modernization plan for the DPA in six months.
Scientists will use satellites, lasers, computers, aircraft and other tools to carry out NASA-funded studies aimed at learning more about the global carbon cycle. NASA has awarded 80 research grants, worth about $50 million, to universities, government laboratories and other organizations (DAILY, July 5). The space agency had received 288 proposals in response to a research announcement made in 2000.
A study released July 3 by two United Kingdom think tanks found that the British government is annually subsidizing that country's defense industry with 420 million pounds ($588 million) of taxpayer money. "The Subsidy Trap," published jointly by the Oxford Research Group and Saferworld, outlined four types of direct subsidies given to the U.K. defense industry.
Ratings analysts with Standard&Poor's affirmed their "A" credit rating for Honeywell International Inc., and removed the company from CreditWatch, despite a July 3 ruling from the European Commission preventing the company's acquisition by General Electric Co. The analysts said the affirmation reflected Honeywell's substantial operating diversity, solid competitive position, strong financial profile and moderate financial policy.
Eutelsat, the Paris-based intergovernmental provider of satellite communications services, announced earlier this week it has become a limited liability commercial company. The new company, to be called Eutelsat S.A., will be headed by Giuliano Berretta, former director general of the Eutelsat organization. Berretta was appointed chairman of the board and CEO by the new company's 15-member supervisory board.
Sikorsky's CYPHER II unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) achieved its first tethered flight last month, the Stratford, Conn.-based company announced July 5. Sikorsky said the June 15 flight was the first time the experimental aircraft had flown. CYPHER II is being built for the U.S. Army Night Vision Labs in Fort Belvoir, Va., and will be used for testing small sensors next year.
NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft has completed its second trajectory correction maneuver, marking the end of its early cruise phase, according to the space agency. The orbiter, launched April 7, fired its thrusters for 23 seconds on July 2, changing its velocity by 0.9 meters per second (about two miles per hour), according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which is managing the mission.
CAE of Toronto has received $40 million in flight simulator work from Japan Airlines (JAL) and SAS Flight Academy of Stockholm, Sweden, the company announced July 5. JAL has ordered two full flight simulators and SAS Flight Academy ordered a major upgrade to its Airbus A320-200 full flight simulator. The JAL simulators will train pilots on the Boeing 767-300ER and the Boeing 777-200ER, and both will be installed in JAL's training facilities in Tokyo.
Northrop Grumman Corp. and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) have teamed up to offer the Pratt&Whitney JT8D-219 powerplant to re-engine NATO's fleet of airborne warning and control systems (AWACS) and trainer cargo aircraft (TCA), the companies announced July 5. Under the terms of the agreement, EADS would be the prime contractor and would perform the aircraft modifications. Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems Sector would provide engineering support and conduct the military qualification of the re-engined AWACS aircraft.
The U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command is eyeing potential uses of an unmanned airship that could fly at 70,000 feet for six months at a time. The projected High Altitude Airship (HAA) would have many of the benefits of a geostationary satellite, but wouldn't be as expensive and could be retrieved periodically for maintenance, according to Hank Holmes, demonstration manager for the program at SMDC headquarters in Huntsville, Ala.
The European Space Agency's Artemis satellite is still on schedule for its July 12 launch after a ground crew at the Kourou, French Guiana launch site overcame fueling problems last week. Workers had difficulty loading hydrazine, the fuel that drives Artemis' thrusters, forcing them to empty the tanks and load them again, according to ESA.
AMERICOM ASIA-PACIFIC LLC has announced a new occasional use service using a GE-1A satellite over Asia. The service allows broadcasters, programmers and news gatherers the opportunity to book occasional satellite transponder space segments online via STARS Online, a web-enabled interface, or over the telephone. GE-1A is a Ku-band satellite located at 108.2 East longitude, which provides service via three beams to China, South Asia, including India, northeast Asia and the Philippines. The satellite features 28 active 36 MHz Ku-band transponders.
Maj. Jeff Karnes, a U.S. Marine Corps test pilot, made two vertical landings in the Boeing team's X-32B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator July 3 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Company test pilots have landed vertically in the X-32B, but Karnes is the first government pilot to do so. On June 29, Maj. Art "Turbo" Tomassetti became the first Marine to land vertically in the rival Lockheed Martin team's JSF candidate, the X-35B. Replacement for its aging fleet
INTEGRAL SYSTEMS, INC., of Lanham, Md., has been awarded a contract from Alcatel Space Industries to provide the primary and backup control software for the METOP satellites of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Polar System (EPS). The satellites are part of the joint program between EUMETSAT and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to provide weather data using polar satellites.
An independent federal agency said this week that the U.S. civil aerostructures industry is losing "some of its competitive edge" as a result of consolidation in the large civil aircraft industry (LCA), Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported.
PANAMSAT has become the platform for the international distribution of nearly all major Korean broadcasters, the company announced. The company's PAS-2, PAS-8, PAS-9 and Galaxy XI satellites, as well as a Napa Valley, Calif., teleport facility, form the backbone of a distribution network broadcasting Korean programming throughout Asia and the Americas, according to the company.
The Lockheed Martin team's X-35B Joint Strike Fighter is entering its final phase of testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., after making a quick but significant hop July 3 from Palmdale, Calif. - its first conventional flight, a company spokesman said. "The plan at Edwards is to open up the whole STOVL envelope," Lockheed Martin spokesman John Kent said. "They'll be transitioning from wingborne to jetborne flight, then into hover and vertical landings. We'll be doing short takeoffs. We plan to take the plane supersonic."
A House spending panel has tentatively decided to add $400 million to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 budget request for NASA to revive plans for a crew return vehicle (CRV) on the International Space Station, a congressional source told The DAILY July 3.
