Several congressional incumbents active in aerospace-related issues were defeated in Tuesday's elections, while the fate of a key senator from Washington state remained up in the air yesterday.
ALCATEL SPACE will supply payloads to the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) for the Express A1-R, AM11 and AM22 satellites under a deal announced in Paris Nov. 3. Russia's NPO-PM will work with Alcatel Space to integrate the payloads and satellites, beginning at the end of 2001 with Express A1-R and continuing with the other two 17 and 22 months, respectively, from the date of the agreement.
EUROKOT Launch Services is offering piggyback launch opportunities on its Rockot launch vehicle beginning in the second half of 2001. The joint venture of Germany's Astrium and Russia's Khrunichev is looking for customers with commercial micro and mini satellites to launch with a small Russian satellite it will launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the third or fourth quarter of next year.
Computer Sciences Corp. turned in earnings of $109 million, or $0.64 a share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2001, hitting Wall Street estimates on the nose. The company boosted revenues 12%, to $2.5 billion, over the prior year's results, driven by strength in the U.S. federal government sector, commercial outsourcing and Asia Pacific activities. Gross margins declined slightly compared with the prior year, from 21.0% to 20.8% in the second quarter of fiscal 2001.
Defense shareholders have generally had a boom year, but with no substantial Pentagon spending boosts likely in the near-term, one Wall Street analyst said it's time to wait for the dips.
BOEING SATELLITE SYSTEMS has set a Nov. 14 launch for the PAS-1R satellite it built for PanAmSat to replace PAS-1, which is nearing the end of its service life after 12 years on orbit. The replacement is a Boeing 702 platform weighing 10,571 pounds at liftoff aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket flying from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou.
BAE Systems Canada Inc., formerly Canadian Marconi Co., boosted second quarter earnings 39% to $5.7 million, or $0.25 a share, over the prior year, off a 6.9% revenue increase, from $71.1 million to $76.0 million. Net income after goodwill amortization grew to $4.8 million, or $0.21 a share, compared to $3.2 million, or $0.14 a year ago. Operating income rose from $3.3 million, or 4.6% of revenues, in the second quarter of fiscal 1999 to $4.6 million, or 6.1% of revenues for the period ended Sept. 30.
Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) said higher sales, operating improvements and fewer shares outstanding drove second quarter earnings up 12% to $1.72 a share, beating Wall Street's consensus estimate of $1.70 a share. The company also announced a 3-for-2 stock split due to the company's "strong performance" and future prospects.
Computer glitches and difficulty finding hardware among the hundreds of packing crates stuffed into Space Station Alpha have frustrated the first crew to Space Station Alpha a week into their historic 17-week mission, but the American and two Russians were able to work off a little steam with their first exercise sessions.
Boeing plans to deliver the Block 3.0 F-22 avionics software to Lockheed Martin on Nov. 22, marking achievement of a major milestone. Meanwhile, the Lockheed Martin F-22 team continues to achieve congressionally mandated Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) criteria with the recent accomplishment of several more requirements. "We are really starting to kick them out right now," a Lockheed Martin spokesman said.
Connexion by Boeing and Loral Skynet do Brasil have inked a deal to provide Internet coverage on flights between North America and Northern Europe. "This agreement with Loral Skynet do Brasil means that - for the first time in history - air travelers within that corridor will have real-time access to the broadband Internet service they want and expect during intercontinental flights," said Boeing's VP and general manager Ken Medlin.
An Air Force proposal to replace the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft with the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will likely receive "close scrutiny" in Congress, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service.
Team SBL-IFX, a joint venture consisting of TRW, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, won a $97 million contract for Increment 2 of the Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment (SBL-IFX), a shared project of Air Force and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO). Under the new award from the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Command, the team will run the second phase of a demo program to launch an experimental laser into space in 2012, which aims to shoot down a ballistic missile in 2013.
After saying last month that its Advanced Electronics Group might be on the chopping block (DAILY, Oct. 23), Litton Industries confirmed Monday that it is selling the unit as the "cornerstone of a strategic restructuring" to focus on shipbuilding, commercial electronics and information technology systems.
BAE Systems has begun final assembly of the first of 55 production Eurofighter combat aircraft so far ordered by the Royal Air Force. The RAF will ultimately buy 232 of the aircraft through a 15.9 billion pound ($22.9 billion) program. Formal start of the final assembly process in No 302 Hangar at Warton in Lancashire was attended Friday by U.K. Minister for Defense Procurement Baroness Symons.
The Royal Danish Navy has accepted from GKN Westland the first of its eight Sea Lynx Mk 80 frigate-based ASW helicopters to be upgraded to Super Lynx Mk 90B standards. Originally delivered beginning in 1980, the RDN's Lynxes are operated on fishery patrols from small Thetis Class inspection vessels, and have accumulated more than 45,000 flying hours. The $24 million life extension contract placed with GKN Westland in 1997 will confer up to 10,000 more flying hours' capability for each aircraft, for continued service through 2015 and beyond.
NASA has asked the Naval Research Laboratory to stop work on the Interim Control Module (ICM) for Space Station Alpha and put the converted upper stage in mothballs as a hedge against a possible Russian failure to deliver propulsion capability to the orbiting facility.
An innovative Ministry of Defense radar research program announced yesterday will investigate technologies relating to counter-stealth measures. The program was commissioned through the MOD's Research Competition Pilot scheme from a UK industry and academic team. As prime contractor, Thomson Racal Defense's (TRD) Sensors Business division, supported by Racal Research, is teamed with the MoD's Defense Evaluation&Research Agency (DERA), and University College London (UCL), to undertake the new $4.25 million three year research program.
ORBOTECH, a manufacturer of optical inspection systems based in Israel, won a $6.9 million order from Honeywell International. The company will produce its Vision Blaser-AP automated optical inspection system for Honeywell's Advanced Circuit Group.
Lockheed Martin Mission Systems, Colorado Springs, Colo., was awarded on Oct. 31, 2000 a $34,566,820 option to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for fiscal year 2001 hardware and software maintenance for the Command and Control Segment of the Air Force Satellite Control Network. This effort also includes systems and site level engineering and integration support. Expected contract completion date is Oct. 31, 2001. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif., is the contracting activity. Dennis Dill, (310) 363-1681 is the POC.
AIRPORT SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL INC. won $7 million in navigation aid contracts in the U.S., Asia and Africa. The Overland Park, Kans., company said the largest deal was a subcontract from Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) for instrument landing system localizer antennas for installation at domestic and international U.S. AIR FORCE bases.
The Senate's bipartisan National Security Working Group has gotten a new lease on life, as senators agreed late last month to keep the two-year-old group going for another two years. Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) said the group is intended to be the Senate's "non-partisan eyes and ears on defense and national security issues."
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., has been awarded a $39.5 contract modification a multi-year contract for six Black Hawk UH-60L helicopters, the Pentagon said yesterday. Work is slated for completion by Dec. 30, 2003, It said. The U.S. Army's Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., awarded the contract.
Lockheed Martin's X-35A Joint Strike Fighter demonstrator made its ninth flight yesterday, using the afterburner for the first time and flying at altitudes up to 25,000 feet and speeds up to .85 Mach. Boeing officials, meanwhile, are looking to the end of this week or early next week to resume flying their X-32A following a hiatus to resolve a braking issue.
