SPACE IMAGING will be the master distributor for Earth imaging products generated by Eastman Kodak Co.'s Commercial and Government Systems unit. The database includes CITIPIX aerial imagery, which consists of 95 major metropolitan areas in North America, including about 7,000 cities and towns and 600 counties in the U.S. and Canada. Space Imaging will sell the orthorectified, 24-bit color imagery in six-inch, one-foot, two-foot and one-meter spacial resolutions.
NOT PROFOUND: China's announced plans for a defense buildup won't have an overriding impact on U.S. defense spending by itself, says Pentagon spokesman Quigley. Quigley said defense planners will take that into account, but will examine it on a regional basis. "So is it something that we pay attention to? You bet," Quigley says. "Is it all by itself going to have a profound impact on U.S. defense policy and defense spending? I don't think so. I think that's too strong a description."
Iridium Satellite LLC announced yesterday it has signed agreements with 13 service providers to offer worldwide distribution capabilities from its satellite network when the company launches its commercial service next month. The non-exclusive agreements will allow the providers to sell Iridium services to industrial and government markets in remote areas where no other forms of communication are available, the company said.
MD Robotics, a subsidiary of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Assoc. Ltd, of Richmond, B.C., is delivering another piece of Canadian technology to the International Space Station Alpha as part of Shuttle mission STS-102.
Members of Congress said yesterday that they are reviewing a request by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to postpone a decision on starting low-rate initial production for the F-22 until he completes his strategic review of the Defense Dept.'s programs. But at least one key lawmaker, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.), has already signaled support for the request. "I don't think we'll have any trouble with it," a committee aide told The DAILY. "I don't see that it does that much."
Boeing's X-32B short takeoff and landing (STOVL) concept demonstrator remains on schedule for first flight during the last week of March, a Boeing spokesman said yesterday.
Fighter manufacturers around the world will produce nearly 3,500 fighters worth $124 billion between 2001 and 2010, according to a new report. Boeing will get the biggest share, more than 600 fighters worth $27.6 billion, says the report from Forecast International/DMS, Newtown, Conn. It says that the Eurofighter consortium will take second place with $21 billion in projected sales, and that the team of Lockheed Martin and Boeing will come in third with $16.5 billion in sales of the new F-22.
Derco Aerospace Inc., of Milwaukee, Wisc., is providing avionics, systems and structural upgrades for five Lockheed C-130E Hercules owned by the Brazilian government and used for its $1.4 billion SIVAM (System for the Vigilance of the Amazon) program, to help support the preservation of the Amazon region.
NASA's use of the metric system remains inconsistent and space agency employees are given little guidance on its use, according to a new report from the NASA Inspector General. Spotty use of the metric system has proven disastrous for NASA in the past - the loss of its $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter was blamed on a mixup over metric and English units that likely put the craft in a doomed orbit (DAILY, Oct. 1, 1999).
Aviation Week and Standard&Poor's have announced two new market indices for measuring the market performance of global airline and aerospace industries. The companies are both divisions of The McGraw-Hill Companies. The new indices will be the Aviation Week (AW) Airline 25 and the Aviation Week (AW) Aerospace 25 and will measure the daily, weekly and year-to-date market performance of companies around the world in both categories, beginning in late April.
AIR 2000 intends to acquire up to eight 757-200s, confirming that Boeing will benefit from an expected 3% to 5% annual growth in the European leisure travel market, the company told Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily. "We believe the recent consolidation of the European travel industry will be a positive thing for us," said Drew Magill, regional director of marketing for Boeing.
Boeing has shuffled the leadership of its Satellite Systems division, which the Seattle-based aerospace giant bought from Hughes Electronics last year in a $3.75 billion deal, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported. Tig Krekel, president of Boeing Satellite Systems, and Joe DeSarla, the division's executive vice president, are leaving the company "to pursue other opportunities," Boeing said in a release.
Space shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts thundered into orbit yesterday morning on an historic mission to conduct the first crew exchange for the International Space Station Alpha. The flawless, on-time liftoff of STS-102 at 6:42 a.m. Eastern Standard Time came as Alpha soared over the South Pacific ocean about 1,000 miles south of Perth, Australia, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
The U.S. Air Force is trying to figure out whether it would make sense to replace several of its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft with one multi-mission platform, according to Air Force Gen. John Jumper, commander of Air Combat Command.
BFGoodrich said it has delivered the 50th Super 27 re-engining kit and with an orderbook for 61 aircraft, the program now has more commitments than any other commercial jet aircraft re-engining program with the exception of the DC-8-70. The program extends the life of 727-200s with new nacelles and engines from BFGoodrich Aerostructures and Pratt&Whitney.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued 14 airworthiness directives (ADs) covering Airbus, Boeing and Douglas aircraft to require that flight crews have the ability to shut off in-flight entertainment systems, or will force airlines to remove them from the airplane entirely.
The Boeing Co. has formed a new organization focused on providing air-refueling tanker aircraft to military customers around the world, the company announced yesterday. The 767 Tanker Programs organization is part of the Boeing Military Aerospace Support business, which offers support products and services, including aircraft modifications. Bob Gower will lead the new organization as vice president, Boeing said. He most recently served as general manager of Navy Missile Programs for Boeing in St. Charles, Mo.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), a former Boeing Co. executive, has won an assignment on the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel, the full committee announced yesterday. Tiahrt will bring a wide range of aerospace experience to the defense spending panel. Before entering Congress, where he is now in his fourth term, Tiahrt worked at Boeing's Wichita plant for 13 years and did work on the International Space Station, Air Force One, the Comanche helicopter and several military fixed-wing aircraft, including the F-22, B-1, B-2 and B-52.
Launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-102 - slated for today - will mark the first use of the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module system. The module slated to fly today is called "Leonardo." The module will be used to carry supplies and equipment to the International Space Station Alpha on the flight, which will also replace the Station's Expedition One crew with the Expedition Two crew (DAILY, March 6).
Two members of the House Armed Services Committee are trying to shore up support for the sale of Aegis destroyers to Taiwan. Reps. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) and Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) plan to introduce a resolution urging the sale of "advanced weapons systems" to Taiwan. The resolution notes that a recent Defense Dept. review concluded that the Aegis system should be sold to Taiwan due to recent Chinese missile deployments.
Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), who cowrote a new law creating a commission to study the future of the aerospace industry, will be vice chair of the House Science space subcommittee in the 107th Congress, committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) announced Tuesday. Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) will be vice chair of the full committee, and Reps. Timothy Johnson (R-Ill.) and Felix Grucci (R-N.Y.) will have the same jobs on the research and technology subcommittees, respectively.
Lockheed Martin plans to remain in the race to produce a successor to NASA's aging space shuttle despite losing $356 million on the failed X-33 program. Once perceived the leading contender to replace the space shuttle, the X-33's cost-overruns and poor performance prompted NASA to cancel the Lockheed Martin program March 1. NASA instead pledged to spur technology for space travel through the $4.5 billion Space Launch Initiative, which seeks to develop a second-generation reusable launch vehicle by 2005.
Gen. James L. Jones, Marine Corps Commandant, denied a report that the Corps is searching for potential alternatives to its troubled V-22 Osprey, the unique tiltrotor aircraft that has been plagued by crashes that killed 23 Marines in two crashes last year. "There has been no watershed event that has prompted me to ask for a search of options, or a study of alternatives to the Osprey, and I have not done so," Jones said in a statement released yesterday in response to a New York Times story.
Recent U.S. overtures on missile defense are helping to ease European concerns about American plans to build such a system, NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson said yesterday. Those overtures include the Bush Administration's pledge to build a system that protects American allies as well as the U.S., and the Clinton and Bush Administration's commitment to close consultations with NATO allies on missile defense, Robertson said during an American Enterprise Institute forum on trans-Atlantic relations.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS INC.'S ratings have been removed from CreditWatch, where they had been placed Jan. 31, 2000, Standard&Poor's reported. The company's pending acquisition of Alcoa Inc.'s Thiokol Propulsion business should have no effect on its credit quality, Standard&Poor's said.
