Donald Rumsfeld, the new Secretary of Defense, started his job in the Bush Administration by discussing military transformation issues in meetings with the top service leaders and the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and three other committee members unveiled a bill yesterday aimed at streamlining export controls for dual-use goods and technology.
UNIVERSAL SPACE NETWORK and BAE SYSTEMS have opened a satellite tracking and control station at Yatharagga, Western Australia, bringing to three the number of 13-meter ground dishes controlled by USN worldwide. BAE Systems will operate the site under a 10-year, $3 million (Australian) contract from USN, the company reported.
CORRECTION: An article in The DAILY of Jan. 23 incorrectly identified Roger H. Ressmeyer as vice president of strategy of strategy and corporate development at Dreamtime. Ressmeyer holds that position at Getty Images, a Seattle-based consultant to Dreamtime.
ALCATEL has apparently lost a $149 million order for a Turkish military reconnaissance satellite after the lower house of the French National Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the Ottoman Empire guilty of genocide in the deaths of a reported 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. Turkey, which has long disputed the accusation, cancelled an agreement in principal to buy the spy satellite from Alcatel, which had not yet signed a formal contract on the deal. The satellite was to have been launched in 2003, according to reports from Ankara.
Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), the No. 4 Republican in the House, announced yesterday that he plans to introduce legislation to create a House committee on domestic terrorism. The panel would "investigate the deficiencies in federal deterrence, prevention, preparedness and response capabilities to domestic terrorism," as well as consider legislation to address the threat, Watts wrote in a memorandum last week to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
BOEING SPACE AND COMMUNICATIONS won a $68.8 million modification to its International Space Station prime contract to supply replacements for space batteries. Space Systems/Loral will participate as a major subcontractor on the deal, which will deliver orbital replacement units for transfer to the Station as needed.
The second phase of captive carry tests of the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) Unitary variant is underway aboard a Convair 580 owned by JSOW prime contractor Raytheon Co. The tests are intended to demonstrate the weapon's Autonomous Targeting Acquisition (ATA) feature, which allows independent detection, acquisition and precision tracking of a target. The Unitary JSOW uses an imaging infrared seeker with embedded ATA software and builds on the standoff capability of the GPS-guided JSOW family.
DARPA has awarded PixTech, Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif. and Rousset, France, $3.1 million in additional funding for an existing contract to develop 12.1 inch color, high-voltage field emission display technology for possible use in the Army Ground Combat Vehicle Systems program.
A new technical glitch has forced the launch of a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program weather satellite to be delayed yet again. Program officials have not announced a new launch schedule. Vandenberg officials said the delay to the planned Monday launch was caused by technical problems with the satellite's guidance system.
Turkey cancelled a military satellite contract with France's Alcatel, retaliating against a resolution by the French parliament condemning Turkey for allegedly killing more than a million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. Israel Aircraft Industries was initially named winner of the contract to supply Turkey's first military satellite, but when Alcatel lowered its price last fall, it was chosen instead. Alcatel had agreed to supply the satellite by 2003.
Anteon Corp., an information and business technology company, announced Monday it has been awarded the Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition) Technical and Analytical Support contract worth more than $500 million over 15 years if all options are exercised. The Fairfax, Va.-based company will provided acquisition management advisory and analytical services to the Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, including to the Joint Strike Fighter Joint Program Office.
Cubic Defense Systems announced receipt of a $9.8 million U.S. Army contract for 10 more Ground Data Terminals (GDTs) to support the Joint STARS program. The order brings the total amount awarded to Cubic since 1993 for Joint STARS work to $192 million, the company said. GDTs are components of the Surveillance and Control Data Link that Cubic built for Joint STARS.
Top U.S. military leaders are exploring critical military space issues this week in the first true space-focused wargame, examining space force issues that have been touched upon during other national-level games but never fully explored. "Schriever 2001," also called the "Space Game," runs Jan. 21-26 at the U.S. Air Force Space Warfare Center at Schriever AFB, Colo. It is a national-level gathering of high-ranking civilians and officers from the USAF, Army, Navy, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and national space agencies.
The Turkish Navy's first S-70B Sea Hawk helicopter flew for the first time Monday at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.'s main facility in Stratford, Conn., the company said. The two-hour flight also marked the first time aloft for the Sikorsky Glass Cockpit in an international Naval Hawk, Sikorsky said. The company is building eight S-70B aircraft for Turkey. Deliveries will take place in 2001 and 2002.
BAE Systems Canada Inc. said it has won a contract to retrofit the navigation systems of Saudi Arabian Airlines' fleet of 12 Boeing 747-200/300 and -SP aircraft. Value of the contract was not disclosed, but the program is slated to begin immediately, with first installation set for April.
Controllers here are still counting on an automatic docking Jan. 27 between a Progress supply vehicle and the troubled Russian Mir space station, even though the station's gyroscope system is malfunctioning. Trouble with the gyrodines, the gyroscopes that maintain the station's attitude control, forced delay of the Progress launch from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24 (DAILY, Jan. 19). The Progress is set to deliver fuel for the final de-orbiting burn to deposit the aging station in the Pacific Ocean.
U.S. Navy pilots have conducted the first fleet training firings of the Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) weapon at the San Nicolas Island range off Southern California, the Navy said. The firings were conducted in an exercise Jan. 9 by aircrews from Carrier Air Wing Eight and Carrier Air Wing Two, according to the Program Executive Office for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation.
SOCIETE EUROPEENNE DES SATELLITES (SES) of Luxembourg has contracted with International Launch Services to launch two satellites this year on the Proton rocket. The ASTRA 2C satellite is due to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in June and the ASTRA 1K is slated to follow from there in December. They will be the fifth and sixth SES satellites launched by ILS. SES operates ASTRA, Europe's leading direct-to-home satellite system.
RAYTHEON COMPANY has been picked for a $183 million NASA task order to provide information technology services to Langley Research Center in Langley, Va. The task order was issued under the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service Millennia contract, and includes a one-year base period and seven one-year options. To fulfill it, Raytheon has teamed with NCI Information Systems, Inc.; Analytical Services and Materials; Aerospace Computing, Inc., and the Software Factory.
Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-Neb.), who served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 1988 to 1994, will return to the panel as vice chairman for the next two years, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) announced yesterday. Bereuter replaces Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) as the committee's No. 2 Republican. Lewis is leaving the panel due to term limits. Bereuter made an unsuccessful bid to chair the House International Relations Committee earlier this month.
GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE CORP. will deliver a Gulfstream V, or C-37A, to the U.S. Coast Guard in the second quarter of 2002, the company said yesterday. The Coast Guard has been operating Gulfstream aircraft since 1963 when it purchased a Gulfstream I. That aircraft, designated VC-4A, remains in service. The service also flies a Gulfstream III, or C-20B, which will be replaced by the new Gulfstream V. The order for the new plane was received in December.
Several senior managers at NASA headquarters will take charge of their offices on an acting basis until the new Bush Administration names political appointees to fill the slots. Named to fill vacancies created by the departure of Clinton Administration appointees were Steve Varholy, acting chief financial office; Mary Dee Kerwin, acting associate administrator for legislative affairs; Paula Cleggett, acting associate administrator for public affairs, and Beth McCormick, acting associate administrator for policy and plans.
EUROPEAN AND CANADIAN remote sensing satellites are helping El Salavador recover from the fatal earthquake that devastated the suburbs of San Salvador Jan. 13 under the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters (ICSMD). The European Space Agency's ERS-2 radar satellite; the Canadian Space Agency's Radarsat-1, and the French Space Agency's SPOT optical satellites all are helping rescue teams by supplying space imagery of the devastated areas.
BOEING EXPENDABLE LAUNCH SYSTEMS has merged its Delta II, Delta III and Delta IV rocket organizations into a single program as a way to centralize links with suppliers. Dan Collins, former vice president of the company's EELV/Delta IV program, will head the new organization, while Jay Witzling has been appointed vice president and deputy program manager to maintain continuity with the Delta II and Delta III organizations.
