Homer Hickam, NASA scientist and author of the book "October Sky," is calling for a return to nuclear fission rocket development as a feasible, short-term means of extending human reach into the solar system. During a speech given at a NASA symposium on space flight in Washington, D.C., Hickam urged NASA to embark upon a 15-year program to develop advanced, next generation propulsion engines to supplant current chemical rockets.
New Zealand is hiking defense spending but gutting its air force and navy, abandoning the Royal New Zealand Air Force's air combat wing and slashing the navy's fleet so that only a flotilla of small fisheries patrol boats remain. The moves will refocus the island's military on peacekeeping and shore patrol, and will virtually eliminate the country's air defenses, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
L-3 Communications, of New York city, announced May 7 it has acquired KDI Precision Products for approximately $67.5 million. Based in Clermont County, Ohio, KDI provides premium fuzing products, including proximity fuzes, electronic and electro-mechanical safety and arming devices (ESADs) and self-destruct/sub-munition grenade fuzes. The company's customer list includes the U.S. Army and Navy and contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
NASA will use an unmanned aerial vehicle for a research mission to better understand how lightning forms and dissipates during thunderstorms. The remotely piloted, high-flying craft will fly above and around thunderstorms as part of NASA's UAV-based science demonstration program. According to NASA, the flights will show the ability of this type of aircraft to carry Earth-viewing scientific payloads into environments where an onboard pilot would be exposed to life-threatening hazards.
Comtech Mobile Datacom Corp. of Germantown, Md., has been awarded $3.5 million in orders for equipment and services to be used in the U.S. Army's Movement Tracking System (MTS) program. The company is a subsidiary of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. of Melville, N.Y., which announced the orders May 8. The company said this was the second large order under an eight-year contract that could have a total value of $418 million.
Conflicting opinions are being voiced here about the future of space tourism following the safe return of California millionaire Dennis Tito, who paid his own way to the International Space Station Alpha aboard a Russian Soyuz craft. According to the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, space itself may be a limiting factor - no seats on the Soyuz crew return vehicles will be available for tourist flights for as many as five years.
Gen. William J. Begert on May 4 assumed command of Pacific Air Forces and became the air component commander for U.S. Pacific Command, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. He had received his fourth star in Washington, D.C. on May 3, prior to his departure for Hawaii. Begert comes to the position following an assignment as the assistant vice chief of staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. Previously, he had served as vice commander of United States Air Forces in Europe during Operation Allied Force.
EADS Airbus and Lufthansa Technik, jointly developing four A310s as multi-role transport aircraft, have received expressions of interest from three European nations and Brazil, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported. In addition, Germany's defense ministry has commissioned the team to increase the capabilities of the aircraft so they also will be able to function as tankers.
ECC INTERNATIONAL CORP. has been awarded a $1.5 million incremental subcontract from AAI Engineering Support, Inc., for support work on a C-17 Maintenance Training System being built for the Mississippi Air National Guard.
The future of military space calls for an increased reliance on the civilian sector, USAF Gen. Richard B. Myers, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday. "There's clearly a lot more we can do with space capabilities," Myers said. "We shouldn't be investing a lot of money in things the civilian sector can do." This includes communication and imagery, among other things, said Myers, speaking at a forum in Arlington, Va. yesterday sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $24,709,195 (ceiling amount) firm-fixed-price contract to provide I-level ground support equipment and integrated logistics support for the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (19%); Milford, N.H. (14%); Vandalia, Ohio (13%); Los Angeles, Calif. (12%); Fenton, Mo. (11%); Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. (8%); Chicago, Ill. (7%); Irvine, Calif. (2%); South Bend, Ind. (2%); Eglin, Ill. (2%); Albuquerque, N.M. (2%); Olivette, Mo. (1%); Anaheim, Calif.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $33,602,026 modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-97-C-0046) for two USMC AV-8B remanufactured aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo., and is expected to be completed by September 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
AAI Corp.'s Defense Systems unit has been selected by BAE Systems to provide a Compass Call Mission Crew Simulator (CCMCS) to be used in training Compass Call crews for the U.S. Air Force, the company announced May 7. AAI is a subsidiary of United Industrial Corp. Under the $18 million contract, AAI will build a new Block 30 Compass Call aircraft simulator, scheduled to be delivered in November 2003. It will later be upgraded to a Block 35 configuration and will replace the existing Block 20 simulator.
Raytheon Systems Co., Intelligence, Information and Aircraft Integration Systems, Greenville, Texas, is being awarded a $30,000,000 ceiling priced modification to previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-99-D-1207) to exercise an option for modifications and installations to maritime surveillance aircraft (P-3, EP-3, S-3, and ES-3). The efforts to be performed include the design, development, fabrication, installation, removal, and test of various aircraft components, avionics, aircraft structures and associated ground equipment.
Raytheon Co. has received a $177 million contract for continued production of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), the company announced May 7. The award was made by the U.S. Air Force Air Armament Center, Air-to-Air Joint Systems Program Office at Eglin AFB, Fla. The award is a firm-fixed price contract for Lot 15 production of 426 AMRAAMs, supporting missile deliveries, program engineering and logistics through July 2003, according to Raytheon.
The Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviakosmos, has started developing a document defining the conditions for future commercial cosmonauts who could visit the International Space Station. Russian Aviation and Space Agency head Yuri Koptev said such a document could help prevent future inter-partner disagreements such as those related to the flight of Dennis Tito, the California millionaire who has just returned from his self-financed visit to the ISS.
The world's largest cargo airplane, the Antonov Aircraft Co. An-225 Mriya, has been modernized by the company and the new version will be displayed at the Paris Air Show in June, according to the ITAR-TASS news agency. The Mriya, or "Dream," was ground tested in late April and was to make its first flight May 7. The cargo plane is capable of carrying 275 tons of freight.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) system has moved into low-rate initial production (LRIP), the company announced May 7. The U.S. Navy's Naval Air Systems Command awarded the company's Integrated Systems Sector (ISS) a $14.2 million contract for the first of three planned LRIP options for the VTUAV, which is intended to operate autonomously from any aviation-capable ship.
Orbital Sciences Corp., Fairchild Defense, Germantown, Md., is being awarded a $5,780,790 firm-fixed-price contract to provide components applicable data transport equipment on the F-16 and A-10 aircraft, 213 80-megabyte data transfer cartridges and 103 upgraded data transfer units. Solicitation began February 2001; negotiations were completed April 2001. Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (F42620-01-C-0043).
Boeing's Harry Stonecipher has been elected to the position of company vice chairman by the board of directors, the Boeing Co. announced May 7. Stonecipher was previously the company's president and chief operating officer. "Harry and I will continue to share the responsibilities of the office of the chairman, but as vice chairman, Harry will be less focused on day-to-day operations and more concentrated on those business opportunities likely to provide long-term growth," Boeing Chairman and CEO Phil Condit said in a statement.
California millionaire Dennis Tito and two Russian cosmonauts were back on Earth May 6 after their Soyuz TM-31 capsule made a textbook landing in Kazakhstan to close out a controversial, week-long visit to the International Space Station. "Great flight, great landing," said Tito, the first person to pay his way into space. "I just came back from paradise."
Rockwell International Corp., Collins Avionics and Communication Division, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is being awarded a $20,143,860 firm-fixed-price contract to provide 13,825 Precision Lightweight Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. These handled receivers can acquire encrypted code from GPS satellites and provide enhanced accuracy and protection from electronic countermeasures. The work is expected to be completed by October 2001. Solicitation began January 2001; negotiations were completed April 2001.
The X-40A demonstrator vehicle had a fourth successful free-flight test on May 5 at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif., NASA announced. The unpowered, unpiloted craft was lifted to 15,170 feet by an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter and released at 7:14 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The craft landed and rolled to a stop at 7:16 a.m. after reaching speeds of up to 151 feet per second.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will submit his response to Congress on the Space Commission report when he announces major changes to the leadership, management and organization of the U.S. defense and intelligence space program this afternoon at the Pentagon. The space commission report was released Jan. 11. "I don't think you're going to find big surprises or disagreements with some of the recommendations made in there," Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a luncheon May 7.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, General Electric Company, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a $9,900,000 modification to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive contract (N00019-97-C-0114) to provide additional funding in support of the low-rate initial production (LRIP) II/III of F414-GE400 engines for the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by December 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
