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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
POWELL A. MOORE was sworn in as the assistant secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, May 4, at the Pentagon, the Defense Dept. announced. He previously served as the chief of staff for Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) Moore was appointed assistant secretary of State for Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs in 1982 and served former President Ronald Reagan as deputy assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs in 1981.
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.
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.
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.
THE BOEING CO. has been awarded a $38.7 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to build three re-engine kits for RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft and modify three RC-135s and two KC-135s with previously procured re-engine kits. The KC/RC-135 re-engine program involves replacing the current Pratt&Whitney TF33 engines with CFM International CFM56 engines. An award of $1.8 million in advance funding from last fall brings the total value of the work to $40.5 million.
BAE Systems is upgrading countermeasures systems on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps helicopters under a $6 million contract from the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM), the company announced May 4. The upgraded system, the AN/ALQ-144A Countermeasures Set, provides protection against a wide spectrum of infrared-guided missile threats.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz suggested May 4 that Russia, which has been critical of President Bush's plan to develop a missile defense system, could itself benefit from such a protective umbrella.
TEST IT 'TILL IT BREAKS: Problems seen in the developmental test of the V-22 that led to shortcomings in reliability and maintainability are representative of a larger problem with the Defense Department's entire procurement process, says Norm Augustine. "I think that there are systemic difficulties in the acquisition process that the V-22 suffered from that are not terribly unique to the V-22," says Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin and a member of the V-22 blue ribbon panel.
NANO, NANO: In addition to larger scientific satellites for such applications as X-ray and radio astronomy, nanosatellites may feature prominently on the wish lists of future astronomers. "But we'll need lots of them," says astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, webmaster of 'Jonathan's Space Report.' Such a collection of very small satellites could be very useful for near-Earth study. "A cluster of four spacecraft to study the magnetosphere is a start, but I want to instrument the magnetosphere like you would telemeter a rocket.
The United Kingdom and Romania signed a Memorandum of Understanding last week confirming each country's commitment to promoting and evaluating commercial and technical cooperation between their aerospace industries. The MOU, announced by the Society of British Aerospace Companies, aims to identify suitable potential partners and encourage and enhance trade links between the two aerospace industries. It will also encourage the promotion of investments between aerospace companies in the two countries.
Canadian civilian, industry and military experts agree that unmanned aerial vehicles are likely to take a big role in Canadian Forces surveillance and reconnaissance duties by 2010, and Canada's military - with virtually no UAV experience - is wrestling with just how to make that happen. "The hurdles are not in the technology," said Col. Mark Aruja, who heads Canada's Joint Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Surveillance Target Acquisition System (JUSTAS) project. "We need to grapple with doctrine, concepts of operation and command and control processes."
SENSOR SERENDIPITY:The Joint Experimentation Directorate (JED) of Joint Forces Command is seeing improved sensor capability by serendipity, says Jack Klevecz, director of the Futures Alliance Deptartment of the JED. While working on attack operations on critical mobile targets, JED took certain sensors designed for different functions and found that by using their algorithms in a different manner and changing some of the protocols, "they were very, very effective in detecting hard-to-get targets and their launchers," Klevecz explains.
ROTORCRAFT PLANS: The U.S. Army, aiming to boost the efficiency and affordability of helicopters now in its fleet and to demonstrate technologies that could be used in future rotorcraft, has mapped out a challenging plan to come up with better rotors, structures and drive systems. Several technology efforts at the component or systems level will lead to an advanced technology demonstration program set to run from fiscal 2005 to 2009, which in turn will lead to development of a Large Cargo Transport Rotorcraft beginning in FY 2010.
TO SUBSIDIZE OR NOT TO SUBSIDIZE: Government subsidizing of space launches will continue until technological advances increase launch rates, says space analyst Robert W. Eleazar, "because if you get the flight rate up to the point where [customers] can pay just a little bit, you can run the entire [launch] installation.
The first P-3 Airborne Early Warning Aircraft equipped with a next-generation "glass" cockpit had a successful first flight from Lockheed Martin's Aircraft Logistics Center in Greenville, S.C., the company announced May 3.
SUCCESS ORIENTED: The first payload customer for the first Atlas V launch next May has not yet signed on the dotted line, but Mark Albrecht, president of International Launch Services, is optimistic. "We're very, very close," he says. He rebuffs reporters' requests to identify the customer, saying, "It's like a wedding. [The groom] never [looks] at the bride's dress [before the ceremony].
The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory recently conducted experiments on using guided parafoils as a way of delivering supplies to soldiers on the battlefield. The system, called the Guided Parafoil Aerial Delivery System, can be guided manually, by beacon or by the Global Positioning System. During the April tests, the Marines made 14 drops of GPADS carrying from 300 to 1,100 lbs. of cargo.
MAKE IT LIKE LEO: Humanity must make operations in the inner solar system as routine as work in low Earth orbit is today. "I believe, in the next 50 years, the inner solar system has to become that kind of plum territory," says McDowell. "We will expand the infrastructure," he says. "We'll have communications and tracking. We're going to have to have air traffic control for the solar system." But we shouldn't stop there, he says. "I do think that we need to go beyond low Earth orbit.
