Taiwan and the United States on Thursday signed an agreement to jointly develop and launch by 2005 six micro-satellites to improve weather forecasting abilities for the island. The agreement, signed in Taipei between officials from Taiwan's National Science Council (NSC) and the U.S. National Science Foundation, is aimed at having the spacecraft augment Taiwan's ROCSAT-3, now set for launch late next year, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
The U.S. Army has awarded Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. a $219.7 million research, development, test and evaluation contract to upgrade UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, the company announced May 3. The program will ultimately involve the modernization of as many as 1,200 aircraft over the next 25 years, according to Sikorsky. "This program will marry the latest technology to a venerable battle-tested machine," said Dean Borgman, Sikorsky's president.
CYBERNET SYSTEMS, an Internet research and development company in Ann Arbor, Mich., has had its gesture recognition technology selected by NASA for use at the space agency's new Bioastronautics Exhibit at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. At the exhibit, scheduled to open in August, visitors will be able to lead their own virtual reality tours of the International Space Station by commanding a computer with a series of simple hand gestures.
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP. of Falls Church, Va., has had its information services contract with NASA extended by the space agency. The latest option, valued at $108 million, extends from May 1, 2001 to April 30, 2002, continuing services the company has provided since the Program Information Systems Mission Services (PriSMS) contract was originally awarded in 1994.
MD ROBOTICS, a subsidiary of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Assoc. Ltd., of Brampton, Ontario, has received a $38.5 million contract from NASA's Johnson Space Center to provide continued engineering support to robotics elements on both the space shuttle and the International Space Station. The contract adds to sustaining engineering services already provided to NASA by MDA to support their "Canadarms" on the space shuttle fleet and the recently installed Robotic Work Station on the space station.
NASA has awarded three $8 million contracts to Balle Aerospace and Technologies, of Boulder, Colo., ITT Industries, of Fort Wayne, Ind., and Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing, of Goleta, Calif., for formulation phase work on an advanced imager for the next generation of geostationary weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Israeli military favors dual capability Maj. Gen. Isaac Ben Israel, the head of the research and development department in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, told reporters that the Raytheon-made AMRAAM is "still a very good missile" that belongs in Israel's arsenal. But he said Israel wanted to develop its own new medium-range missile to keep its technological edge over its potential rivals, some of whom may be able to buy the AMRAAM from the U.S.
XM SATELLITE RADIO has set May 8 as the new launch date for XM "Roll," the second of two satellites built by Boeing Satellite Systems for the company, which plans to broadcast 100 channels of digital-quality radio programs. The satellite, a Boeing 702 model, will launch from the Sea Launch platform in the Pacific Ocean. The first XM satellite, "Rock," launched from the Sea Launch platform on March 18.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) and SpaceData International (SDI) have successfully provided commercial data services to the oil, gas and energy industry using NASA's space and ground assets, the company announced. Under the CSOC contract, Lockheed Martin is authorized to sell available K-band satellite capacity to commercial users as long as there is no commercial alternative.
U.S. Central Command officials blame pilot and controller error for an accidental bombing by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet that killed five Americans and one New Zealander March 12, but are leaving the choice of punishment up to the individuals' component commanders.
TRIMBLE announced it has been awarded a $2.7 million contract from the Boeing Co. for the U.S. Air Force KC-10A Aircraft Global Air Traffic Management upgrade program. The Sunnyvale, Calif., will incorporate Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module capability into its TASMAN ARINC-12 GPS navigation receiver and make other improvements to the TA-12.
Spacehab, Inc. has been awarded the first Bigelow Prize for contributing the most toward the promotion and use of space for private enterprise purposes. Spacehab, which leases its modules to NASA and commercial users, will receive a $10,000 award and trophy at a ceremony this summer. The prize was announced by Robert T. Bigelow and the Space Transportation Association.
The Pentagon's former director of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E) was surprised to hear that the MV-22 program manager testified before Congress Tuesday that he did not know about catastrophic failures occurring in the aircraft's hydraulic system until days before the hearing.
Capitol Hill proponents of missile defense praised President Bush's call for the country to "move beyond" the constraints of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and build a missile defense shield, but skeptics said the speech didn't answer some difficult questions. Speaking May 1 at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., Bush said, "we need a new framework that allows us to build missile defenses to counter the different threats of today's world" (DAILY, May 2). Speech drew GOP praise
Boeing has launched a Longer-Range 747-400 freighter with the first aircraft, one of five, going to International Lease Finance Corp in a order valued at $1 billion list price. ILFC will receive the first aircraft in October when it will be leased to Qantas Airways, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported.
NASA officials will meet with their Russian International Space Station Alpha partners to discuss what space tourist Dennis Tito may have cost the U.S. in terms of missed work and lost research time, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin told members of Congress. "The Russians have agreed that we will do an assessment after the mission and that we will get reimbursement for the costs," Goldin told members of a House Science Committee panel on May 2.
Despite continued enthusiasm for the concept on the part of the Air Force, single-stage-to-orbit could sap critical resources from more promising approaches to advancing launch technology, according to United Space Alliance Chief Operating Officer and former shuttle astronaut Mike McCulley.
Raytheon Co. has received a $61 million Lot 5 contract award from the Air Force Electronic Warfare Product Group, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Ga., for towed decoys and infrastructure equipment supporting the AF's ALE-50 towed decoy system. The award is part of an original contract that began in 1996. The Lot 5 award calls for 2,477 towed decoys, 111 launcher/controllers for AF F-16 aircraft, 57 dual compatible launchers for B-1B aircraft and 19 fault isolation testers.
Israel's Rafael has teamed up with a major American defense contractor in hopes of selling its Black Sparrow missile to the U.S. military for use in missile defense testing, company officials said May 2. In testing its now-operational Arrow missile defense system, Israel used the air-to-ground Black Sparrow to emulate an incoming Iraqi Scud ballistic missile. Rafael believes the Black Sparrow would be useful to the U.S. in conducting test shootdowns or radar tests for several missile defense programs in development.
California Microwave Systems (CMS), a unit of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector, has been awarded a $10 million increment as part of an estimated $27.4 million contract by the U.S. Army to begin work on a sixth RC-7B Airborne Reconnaissance Low-Multifunction (ARL-M) aircraft.
BOEING/McDonnell Douglas of St. Louis, Mo., was awarded a $320 million indefinite quantity type contract for a three-year base period for procurement of F-15, F-18 and AV-8B weapon systems, the Pentagon announced May 1. This is a sole source contract.
Avexus Inc., of San Diego, announced May 2 it has acquired Impresa, a leading provider of software for the management of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) activities on long-life, highly engineered assets used in the aerospace and defense industries. The company acquired Impresa - a division of Epicor Software Corp. - to build a leading position in the MRO enterprise software category. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Rating service Fitch changed its rating outlook for the Raytheon Co. from negative to stable on May 2 following improvements in operating cash flow and profit margins in the company's core businesses. Those businesses include Raytheon's Electronic Systems; Command, Control, Communication and Information Systems; and Technical Services. These units account for 80% of the company's revenues and have all produced solid financial results over the past three quarters, Fitch said.
Although details are not known yet, the Technical Research and Development Institute of Japan's Self-Defense Agency is developing new missiles with a budget of about $98.4 million. Among the missiles being developed are: -- A medium-range surface-to-air missile, not yet named, probably intended as a replacement for the Raytheon Hawks currently in Ground Self-Defense Force service.
A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet has successfully demonstrated an advanced automatic precision landing system, the Shipboard Relative Global Positioning System (SRGPS), program officials said at a May 2 press briefing in Washington. The aircraft made a series of fully automatic approaches and touch-and-go landings on the USS Theodore Roosevelt during test flights in late April off the coast of Norfolk, VA.
