CHANNEL WALL: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is looking for a way to improve the reliability of the hydrogen-cooled nozzles on the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) it manages, shifting to a channel wall construction from the cooling-tube approach now used. The field center recently published a request for information that could lead to an eight-month pre-award design study of the concept. If it decides to go ahead, NASA would want a 55-mission nozzle able to operate more efficiently than the present design.
The U.S. Air Force continues to emphasize time critical targeting, testing its processes here during the recent Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX) 2000, and integrating it into training as part of the Red Flag exercise. Col. Michael Droz, commander of the 414th Combat Training Squadron, explained to The DAILY during an interview at the home of his unit that as the Air Force continues to move toward time critical targeting, "we try to integrate it into our training here."
Iran has "very active" programs to develop missiles and weapons of mass destruction and seems intent on developing longer-range delivery systems, a U.S. intelligence official testified at a Senate Governmental Affairs international security subcommittee last week.
COMPASS AEROSPACE said its Barnes Machine subsidiary has received three new orders from two aerospace companies totaling more than $12 million. Two of the orders were from Boeing. The other was from Aerostructures.
Russia's Ministry of Defense has transferred the third An-124-100 Ruslan heavy cargo plane to Polyot Airlines of Voronezh for the planned Vozdushny Start (Air Launch) space transportation project. The transfer was required by a 1998 Government decree supporting the Vozdushny Start project, which stipulated that the big Ruslan cargo plane be used to deliver the two-stage Polyot rocket to altitude for launching small satellites. The first Vozdushny Start launch is now planned for the late 2002 or early 2003.
CHANGE, BUT HOW MUCH? Transforming the U.S. military won't be easy, and, in fact, there's no consensus that the change should approach anything like a "revolution in military affairs," says James Blaker, VP of Science Applications International Corp. Blaker, however, does point to a few emerging concepts for the direction of U.S. forces. The changes, he says at a conference in Washington, are smaller and less controversial but still "intertwined" with an RMA.
SPEAKING OF BANDWIDTH: With the realization that things like the Internet and bandwidth will be valuable commodities in the future, the U.S. Navy has found it would be able to use bandwidth more efficiently if it consolidated some functions.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon said that space is the way for the U.S. military to make the most of information technology, but warned that using commercial satellites can be a two-edged sword.
NEW STRATEGY? A bulletin by the Senate Budget Committee's Republican staff says a recent Congressional Budget Office report on defense spending shows that the U.S. needs to consider reassessing its national security strategy and force structure to reflect changes in threats around the world. The CBO report says the military will need a whopping $51 billion annual funding hike to maintain its current force structure. "The budget to support such a reassessed strategy and defense force may be quite different," the bulletin says.
BROWSING: When they aren't pitching blabbermouth network executives, Dreamtime staffers are trying to set up "a new way to store and offer information" on the World Wide Web, says CEO Foster. Dreamtime won its Station deal by offering to digitize NASA's archives (DAILY, June 2), and Foster says the company wants to push the state of the art as it builds its database.
'TELECOMMUNICATIONS PSEUDOLITE'? As interest in Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk UAV expands to Australia, NATO allies and the U.S. Navy, the manufacturer also sees future opportunities for civilian and commercial payloads. On the civilian side, the UAV has already demonstrated its usefulness in drug interdiction and border surveillance. Charting global changes for scientific research is another potential use. For the commercial sector, Global Hawk could act as an atmospheric node or "telecommunications pseudolite," says Carl O.
Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc. has started upgrading various satellite antennas in the U.S. and U.K. as part of the U.S. Air Force Satellite Control Network. The antennas are located at the AF's East Coast launch range at Cape Canaveral, Fla.; near Manchester, N.H., and at RAF Oakhanger in the U.K.
DESTINATION NOWHERE: Dreamtime Holdings, the Silicon Valley startup signed on to commercialize NASA's part of the International Space Station, gets slapped down big time after its pitch - reported in the New York Times - to make ISS available to the networks for a reality TV show like NBC's planned "Destination Mir" (DAILY, Sept. 14).
The Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) won another test round, tracking and shooting down two Katyusha rockets in flight Friday at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The test, one of a series of shoot-downs planned before the system is handed over to Israel, had an added dimension compared to the last firing against two rockets (DAILY, Aug. 30). A spokesman at the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command said the Katyushas were launched in "rapid succession," or at split-second intervals, versus simply in succession.
Norwegian satellite operator Telenor has purchased a quarter of the capacity available on an Intelsat satellite slated for launch in 2003 for about $100 million, the organizations said yesterday. The purchase gives Telenor Satellite Services the rights to the use of two spot beams that will cover Europe from the Intelsat 10-02 satellite. The satellite, slated to operate from 359 degrees East, will make it possible for Telenor to transmit about 100 digital TV and radio channels.
NASA's Ames Research Center will hold the first Design for Safety Workshop Oct. 10-12, 2000 at Moffett Field, Calif. Design for Safety is a new NASA initiative dedicated to achieving ultra-high levels of safety and mission success through the infusion of advanced technologies. The DFS web site http://dfs.nasa.gov/ and the registration web site http://www.sverdrup.com/dfs2000 will be regularly updated with the current agenda, along with lodging, logistics and registration information.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee said yesterday that he opposes the idea of separating military space activities from the U.S. Air Force to form a new space agency. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), whose subcommittee has jurisdiction over military space, told a group of defense writers at a breakfast in Washington that the money needed to create a "whole new bureaucracy" for a separate space agency would be diverted from more pressing military needs, such as operations and maintenance.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems Sector announced the appointment of two new business development directors. Timothy R. Beard has been appointed director-business development integrated product team (IPT) leader for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. John W. Brooks has been named director-business development IPT leader for the U.S. Air Force.
NASA's International Space Station program has decided to recycle the structural test article for the Unity Node as the U.S. Propulsion Module, which will backstop Russian hardware to raise the Station's orbit and maneuver it out of the way of orbital debris.
Thomson-CSF and Turkish prime contractor Aselsan have signed a $190 million contract to provide the Turkish Air Force with an electronic warfare system for F-16 fighters. The contract, of which Thomson-CSF's share is $108 million, includes a technology and industrial transfer to Aselsan. Thomson-CSF said it is responsible mainly for the design and production of the first units to be delivered.
Kellstrom Industries, Inc., of Sunrise, Fla., plans to spend about $50 million to purchase the aircraft and engine parts resale business of Aviation Sales Company (AVS), operated through its Aviation Sales Distribution Services Company (AVSDC) unit, and set up an inventory management joint venture (JV). "Once this transaction is consummated, Kellstrom will become the world's leading independent inventory management company in the aviation industry," said Yoav Stern, Kellstrom's chairman of the board.
Britain's GKN Westland Helicopters Ltd. tapped the Cubic Defense Systems/Inter-Coastal Electronics (Cubic-ICE) team, part of San Diego-based Cubic Corp., to supply the British Army's first high-fidelity, live attack helicopter combat training system. The contract, which marks the first time such a system will be provided outside the U.S., will give the British Army a capability for combined arms collective training on the Apache AH-64 MK 1 helicopter, according to the company.
India has signed a contract for ten Mirage 2000-H aircraft, six two-seaters and four single-seaters, three French companies announced. Dassault Aviation, Thomson-CSF and Snecma Moteurs said the jets complement India's existing fleet of 49 Mirage 2000-Hs ordered in the 1980s. Amount of the contract was not announced.
A Lockheed Martin Titan II orbited the NOAA-L weather satellite from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., yesterday after a one-day delay caused when a computer detected a possible ground equipment glitch and shut off the countdown. Liftoff came at 6:22 a.m. EDT, and the Lockheed Martin-built Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) was performing as expected following the launch, according to a spokesman for NASA, which procured the satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
GHERMAN TITOV, a Russian cosmonaut who was the second man to orbit Earth, died of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning at his Moscow apartment this week. He was 65. On Aug. 6, 1961, Titov lifted off in Vostok 2 for a 17-orbit mission that lasted more than 25 hours. The flight left him with inner ear trouble, and he never flew in space again. After a career that included stints as a test pilot and in the Soviet Defense Ministry, Titov was elected as a Communist Party candidate to the State Duma. He did not seek reelection last year.
