NASA has licensed the "bioreactor" it developed to simulate cell growth in space to a Maryland biotechnology firm that hopes to use the space agency technology in developing four different commercial products, including a "liver assist device" that may one day do for the victims of liver failure what the dialysis machine does for kidney-failure patients.
The French Army has purchased additional AT 4 CS anti-armor weapons from Sweden's Saab Bofors Dynamics AB and France's Thomson DASA Armements. Because the order had been anticipated, it won't create any new jobs, according to Saab. The AT4 CS is a disposable, single-round system that can be fired from confined spaces. France first ordered the weapon in 1996.
House members voted 399-17 yesterday to adopt the NASA authorization conference report and send it to the White House for President Clinton's signature, marking the first time since 1992 that Congress has passed an authorization bill for the space agency. In the absence of congressional authorization acts, NASA has operated under the provisions of its appropriations legislation. The new law authorizes appropriations of $14,184 billion in fiscal year 2001 and $14.625 billion in FY '02, and sets controls on a number of agency activities.
The U.S. Air Force's F-16 System Program Office plans a sole-source program with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. for development of a Multi-National Fighter Program (MNFP) Roadmap Database Tool.
BOEING was scheduled to ship the Joint Airlock Module for the International Space Station this week from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, where it was built, to Kennedy Space Center for a Space Shuttle launch now scheduled for May 2001. The 6.5-ton airlock is 20 feet long, 13 feet in diameter and contains both an airlock where Station crew members can exit the Station and storage space for their suits and other extravehicular activity gear. The airlock, which is spacious enough to handle the bulkier U.S.
BTG Inc. of Fairfax, Va., is part of the FC Business Systems (FCBS) team that won a $24 million contract for the Pentagon's Joint Staff under the Information Technology Omnibus Procurement (ITOP-II) contract. "Our team looks forward to a partnership with the Joint Staff Information Resources Management Office to put in place innovative solutions for transparent information technology support," said BTG Senior VP Les Rose, general manager of applied engineering solutions.
ARTEMIS, the European Space Agency's advanced communications satellite is at ESA's ESTEC space technology center in the Netherlands for final functional checkout tests before it is shipped to Japan for launch. The relay satellite, which will link researchers in Europe with low-Earth orbit satellites and the International Space Station in real time, is scheduled for launch on Feb. 1, 2001, from the Tanegashima space center on an H-IIA rocket.
Hughes Space and Communications will build at least three more ICO satellites and modify 11 more built for the bankrupt ICO Global Communications as the "New ICO" enterprise resuscitated by cellular telephone pioneer Craig McCaw gets underway.
SRS INFORMATION SERVICES, Newport Beach, Calif., will support Goddard's Office of System Safety and Mission Assurance under a five-year, $44.6 million performance-based, cost-plus-award-fee contract. SRS and its major subcontractor, Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc., Columbia, Md., will provide mission assurance engineering services; system safety services; reliability services; continuous risk management services and information and assurance technology services, NASA said.
NASA headquarters has stopped work on the Pluto-Kuiper Express deep-space probe, sending engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory back to the drawing board to find less expensive ways of exploring the distant planet, its moon Charon and the icy objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune.
LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACE SYSTEMS, Sunnyvale, Calif., will upgrade as many as 12 unlaunched Global Positioning System (GPS) block IIR satellites under a new $53 million contract. Under the deal Lockheed Martin will begin developing a second civil signal and two new military signals for the satellites that will give the GPS constellation improved capabilities well before the 2015 date originally intended for the system. The U.S.
The U.S. Navy is reviewing its procurement rate for ship-launched, surface-to-air Standard Missiles to determine whether adjustments are needed to ensure that production of the Raytheon weapon remains economically viable, Rear Adm. Rodney Rempt, the assistant chief of naval operations for missile defense, said yesterday.
The Senate yesterday defeated a proposed amendment to China trade legislation that would have imposed sanctions on China, Russia and North Korea for contributing to the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The amendment, offered by Sens. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), was killed on a 65-32 vote to table. Three senators, including Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), were recorded as not voting on the amendment, which would have amended a bill giving China permanent normal trade relations.
GENERAL DYNAMICS' offering of 16,554,375 shares (including an over-allotment option of 1,505,943 shares) of its stock owned by partnerships of Forstmann Little&Co., is slated to close by the end of the month. Goldman, Sachs&Co., and Merrill Lynch&Co., are the underwriters for the deal.
ENGINEERED SUPPORT SYSTEMS INC., St. Louis, won a $3.7 million contract from Germany's Federal Office Military Technology and Procurement to modernize four Radio Set Test Stations (RSTS) used to support the German Air Force's F4F aircraft radar systems. Michael F. Shanahan Sr., Engineered Support's chairman and CEO, said the upgrades are designed to extend the operational life of the units through 2010. He said the company is pursuing "initiatives in this high-potential spares areas".
NBC will pay between $35 million and $40 million for the rights to "Destination Mir," a reality-TV series that will send one contestant to Russia's Mir space station. According to the trade publication Daily Variety, the fee covers some $20 million for MirCorp, the joint venture between RSC Energia and a group of Western investors that has reactivated Mir for commercial operations, including tourist visits (DAILY, June 20).
SPACE SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS INC., of Lanham, Md., won a five-year contract worth $204.5 million to provide engineering, science and technology support for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Global Science&Technology, Greenbelt, Md., and SM&A, Largo, Md., will be major subcontractors on the deal, which will serve the Space and Earth Sciences directorates at GSFC. Work under the cost-plus-award-fee contract will include scientific data analysis; modeling and simulation; development of flight project data systems; systems analysis, and programming.
Lockheed Martin's after-tax proceeds from selling one-third of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications' interest in Inmarsat Ventures Limited to Norway's Telenor should be in excess of $100 million realized this year. The deal, which is slated to close later this month, cuts LMGT's ownership in the satellite organization from just over 22% to 14%. Meanwhile, Telenor's stake jumps from 6.8% to 15%, making the company the largest shareholder in the venture.
The U.S. Air Force has started flight-testing a new magnetic radar-absorbing material (RAM) designed to significantly reduce the time and effort required to maintain the B-2 bomber's stealthy surfaces. Flight evaluations are being conducted at Edwards AFB, Calif., on AV-3, the only B-2 dedicated to test work. The aircraft returned to flight on Aug. 30 following a 13-month downtime for upgrades and modifications.
L-3 Communications' Telemetry&Instrumentation unit won a $1 million order from the Patuxent River Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) to upgrade the Real-Time Telemetry Processing System (RTPS IV) facility. The company said it will supply its System 550. System 550, it said, will reduce the current system's severe throughput limitations caused by increasingly sophisticated flight tests.
A team led by Northrop Grumman's Logicon Inc. performed the first real-time information recovery and response during a simulated information warfare attack on a Dept. of Defense battle management system.
The Navy is trying to correct "poor tactical picture performance" in the Link 16 data link system, a Navy official said yesterday. Link 16 is currently fielded on the Navy's F-14D and E-2C aircraft, and slated for fielding on the Navy's F/A-18C/D and E/F, EA-6B and EP-3 aircraft, Capt. Ronald Polkowsky, major program manager for advanced tactical data links, said during the U.S. Navy Theater Ballistic Missile Defense Conference in Laurel, Md.
SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL will launch Telstar 8 for Loral Skynet on a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL under a new contract. The 12,125-pound satellite is scheduled to lift off from the Sea Launch Odyssey floating pad in 2002, bound for an orbital slot at 154 degrees West longitude. The big SS/L extended 1300 spacecraft will carry 92 transponders for Ku-, C- and Ka-band service to the Americas, generating 16 kilowatts at the end of its service life.
Alliant Techsystems, Minneapolis, won an $8 million U.S. Army contract to produce electronic components for the Volcano anti-tank munition system. "We are pleased to continue to support the highly effective Volcano system, which enables U.S. ground forces to defend their positions against armored attacks," said Larry Paryz, director of barrier systems and demolitions for ATK Integrated Defense Co.
Primex Technologies Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla., and Israel's Rafael inked a marketing and sales deal for the U.S. market covering Rafael's Rifle-Launched Entry Munition (RLEM), a weapon designed to provide maximum effectiveness against reinforced doorways while minimizing collateral damage.
