TOURIST TRAP: U.S. and Russian space officials will meet in Houston Wednesday on whether California millionaire Dennis Tito will get his $20 million ride to Space Station Alpha. The bilaterial crew operations panel will spend two days discussing the Russian proposal to fly Tito in the empty seat of the fresh Soyuz capsule going up to Alpha later this spring, as well as a similar "taxi-flight" proposal involving French Astronaut Claudie Andre-Deschays (DAILY, Jan. 31). Also on tap at Johnson Space Center this month is a meeting Feb.
Spacehab Inc. is seeking partners to help it pay for new hardware developments as it struggles to earn profits on its pressurized Space Shuttle cargo and research modules, the chairman and chief executive of the commercial space company reported last week.
ACCELERATING SHIELD: NASA plans to work with its Russian partners on the International Space Station Alpha to try to get shielding against micrometeorites and space particles installed on the Station sooner than currently planned. The first part of the Station's shielding is scheduled to go up this year but the bulk of it won't be aloft until 2004, according to current Station construction plans.
A Canadian unit of EMS Technologies, Inc., will supply Russian satellite operator and builder Khrunichev State Research and Production Center of Moscow with three satellite repeaters and one engineering model under a contract valued at U.S. $23 million, the company announced last week. The repeaters will receive, amplify and retransmit communications signals to provide fixed satellite service communications throughout Russia, Eastern Europe and Western Asia and are baselined to fly on Dialog satellites.
SMALL STOCKPILES: The Defense Dept.'s stockpiles of precision-guided munitions are at half their required inventories and will drop even lower unless Congress passes a fiscal 2001 supplemental defense appropriations bill of $9 billion to $10 billion and provides a significant defense funding increase for fiscal 2002, according to recent testimony before the House Budget Committee by Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), a new member of Congress and the House Armed Services Committee.
POLICY SHOP: If history is a guide, don't look for fast action in the Bush Administration on a process for coordinating space policy. Although the new president's father operated through a congressionally mandated Space Council chaired by Vice President Quayle, that body wasn't formally established until late April 1989 and didn't start proposing policy until the following month (DAILY, May 11, 1989). Aside from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's pre-election commission work on military space, Administration big shots have much more down-to-Earth concerns these days.
Rep. Ralph M. Hall (D-Texas), the ranking Democrat on the House Science Committee, has written NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin objecting to the possibility that millionaire investment manager Dennis Tito may fly to Space Station Alpha during its construction.
The Navy needs to be more aggressive in transforming itself because President Bush has "raised the bar," and the service also needs to do a better job explaining what it's doing to use advanced technology, a defense expert said Thursday.
Boeing is on track to upgrade at least 346 Standoff Land Attack Missiles for the U.S. Navy. The Navy has awarded a $36.4 million contract to Boeing for fiscal year 2001 production of the Standoff Land Attack Missile - Extended Range (SLAM-ER) missile, the company said yesterday in announcing the deal.
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Michael E. Ryan said there is no need for a Space Force or Corps separate from the USAF until mankind moves beyond the earth's orbit - likely at least 50 years away.
The NASA advisory task force responsible for monitoring operational readiness on Space Station Alpha is concerned that the laptop computers Station crew members use to activate onboard systems continue to have functional problems and has set up a briefing on the subject at Johnson Space Center before the second Station crew launches next month.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) has been chosen to be ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee's research and development panel, replacing retired Rep. Owen Pickett (D-Va.). Committee Democrats picked their subcommittee leadership posts Wednesday by order of seniority, and no one more senior than Abercrombie sought the R&D post.
An Ariane 44L rocket orbited two European military satellites yesterday, one for Britain and one for Italy. Liftoff of the Ariane vehicle with four liquid-fueled strap-on boosters came at 6:05 p.m. EST Wednesday from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou. The rocket ascended and the satellites separated as planned.
New House Science Committee chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) announced the panel's subcommittee chairmen on Wednesday. As Boehlert had confirmed previously, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) will retain the chairmanship of the space and aeronautics subcommittee, which he has held for the past two congresses (DAILY, Feb. 7).
Congress and top officials of the incoming Bush Administration are likely to push "significant" increases in spending on imagery tasking, processing, exploitation and dissemination (TPED), but only after taking a year or so to plot the best uses for the money, a key House Intelligence Committee staffer predicted yesterday.
Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.) will be chairman of the House Transportation Committee's aviation panel, and Rep. William O. Lipinski (D-Ill.), the committee announced Wednesday. Mica's chairmanship of that panel had been reported previously by the committee, and Lipinski had been expected to remain ranking Democrat (DAILY, Feb. 6). The committee also announced Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo (R-N.J.) as chairman of the Coast Guard and maritime subcommittee, with Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) as ranking Democrat.
French aerospace equipment manufacturers have successfully shifted their focus from a national, primarily military, market, to an international, increasingly civil, market, a spokesman for the French aerospace equipment industry association said yesterday.
Orbital Sciences Corp. announced yesterday that BSAT-2a, the first of three geostationary satellites the company plans to deliver to customers in 2001, has arrived at its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.
NASA should assume the Space Shuttle will be needed throughout the life of International Space Station Alpha and plan accordingly with upgrades and parts, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said in the major theme of its 2000 report, issued yesterday. "Given the likely lead times associated with the definition, funding and development of a new human-rated space vehicle, the Space Shuttle should be acknowledged as the primary method for humans to reach the ISS throughout the Station's life," the report stated.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Management&Data Systems will modify the Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System (TTWCS) under a $60.2 million contract with the Navy, the company announced yesterday. The new system, called TLN, will provide engagement and launch platform mission planning and launch control for the Tomahawk cruise missile, mission planning and launch control of the Land Attack Standard Missile (LASM), and mission planning for five-inch guns, the company said.
Failures of planned low-Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellite constellations like Iridium and ICO and the hefty sums already spent on NASA's Space Shuttle fleet are obstacles to development of a next-generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV) in the near future, according to a consultant who has done extensive commercial space forecasting.
CORRECTION: An article in The DAILY of Feb. 6 about NASA's X-43A research program incorrectly described the movement of air in a scramjet engine. The airflow in a scramjet engine is supersonic, not subsonic.
Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., was awarded a $20.7 million contract by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, of Dallas, for production of Improved Fire Control Systems (IFCS) electronics that support 66 Army Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) M270A1 launchers. The current award is a follow-on to a series of IFCS contracts that began in 1993.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense announced contracts worth 6 million pounds (U.S. $8.76 million) on Tuesday for a year-long competitive assessment of two rivaloff-the-shelf lightweight "fire and forget" anti-tank missile systems. Assessment phase contracts have been placed for the Javelin ATM, produced as a joint venture by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and the Gill/Spike system, developed by Israel's Rafael, and supported by MATRA BAE Dynamics.
If Canada chooses not to participate in a U.S. national missile defense (NMD) system, the country will re-examine and limit its involvement with the North American Aerospace Defense command (NORAD) at a time when ballistic missile threats are growing, NORAD's second in command said yesterday.
