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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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).
Several key aerospace groups are backing a new bipartisan House bill that would shift licensing for commercial satellite exports from the State Department back to the Commerce Department and impose deadlines for license application reviews. The proposed Satellite Trade and Security Act of 2001 is intended to address complaints by the U.S. satellite industry that the State Department is ill-equipped to handle satellite exports and is hurting overseas sales.
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.
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Wichita, Kan., is being awarded a $9,000,000 (estimated) firm-fixed-price/time and materials contract to provide sustaining engineering services from May through December 2001 in support of the KC-135 series aircraft. At this time, $2,200,521 of the funds have been obligated. Solicitation began October 2000; negotiations were completed March 2001. Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-01-C-0026).
THE SPECTRUM ASTRO/NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. Space Based Infrared System Low (SBIRS Low) team has completed its system design review for the Air Force missile defense-related program, the team announced May 7. The team now moves to the preliminary design review, slated for early 2002.
The entertainment and tourism industries may be the driving forces generating further interest in commercial space activity, according to a top NASA official. "I think we'll see a lot more tourism this decade," Joe Rothenberg, NASA associate administrator in the Office of Space Flight, said May 7 at the Global Air&Space 2001 forum.
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.
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.
Sikorsky Aircraft Co., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $47,577,922 modification to firm-fixed-price contract DAAJ08-87-C-0005 for five aircraft and incorporating the conversion of the five UH-60L Blackhawk aircraft into the HH-60L configuration on the production line. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on July 17, 1997. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command is the contracting activity.
Dov S. Zakheim has been sworn in as under secretary of defense-comptroller and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense, the Pentagon announced May 7. David O. Cooke, the director of administration and management for the office of the secretary of defense, administered the oath of office on May 4. Zakheim had been confirmed by the Senate on May 1.
Airplane manufacturers and operators must change the way airplane fuel tanks are designed, maintained and operated under a rule issued May 7 by the Federal Aviation Administration. The rule is expected to cost the industry $165 million over the next decade, according to the FAA.
Now that Dennis Tito, the first "space tourist," is back on the ground, some NASA and industry officials are still saying he shouldn't have gone to the International Space Station Alpha - at least not yet. There is a place for space tourism in manned space flight, but not while the station is still being built, a former astronaut and a current high-ranking NASA official said May 7.
General Dynamics Electronic Systems has been awarded a $7.8 million contract to demonstrate how the company's data infusion technology can integrate radar, missile and laser threat-warning data to improve the situational awareness of helicopter crews. The contract, which the company announced May 7, will also involve integrating other digital battlefield information.
