A pair of European Space Agency satellites set for launch tomorrow from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan will complete the first-ever quartet of identical spacecraft to orbit the Earth in formation. The completed Cluster II fleet will study the magnetosphere's impact on the solar wind for two years. Satellites dubbed "Rumba" and "Tango" will ride to orbit aboard a Soyuz-Fregat rocket provided by the Franco-Russian Starsem consortium. Launch is set for 7:13 a.m. EDT.
DynCorp Technical Services, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $20,710,932 increment as part of a $22,876,533 firm-fixed-price with cost reimbursable line items contract for life cycle contractor support for C-12/XC-12/UC-35 aircraft. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2001. Of the total contract funds, $19,453,865 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was an announcement in the Commerce Business Daily on March 8, 2000, and two bids were received. The U.S.
BOEING has extended $273 million in guarantees to customers of the Sea Launch international joint venture "to cover contingent exposure in the event certain future launches are not successful or the venture fails to perform launches," the company stated in its second-quarter financial results.
TRW Inc. sold two non-core sensors and components businesses for $17.7 million to Measurement Specialties, Inc. of Fairfield, New Jersey. "These two businesses have been good, profitable operations for us, but they are not strategic to TRW's long-term business plan," said Heinz Pfannschmidt, executive VP and general manager, TRW Automotive Electronics. "Our desire was to find a buyer who would continue to invest in the businesses and make them even stronger. We have found that buyer in Measurement Specialties."
Three companies have received contracts from the U.S. Coast Guard to begin an upgrade of its search and rescue (SAR) capabilities. Lockheed Martin, Motorola and SAIC won design and demonstration contracts for the first phase of the effort. The second phase, to be carried out by a single contractor, will be worth $250 million.
Cubic Corp. has acquired Oscmar International Ltd., an Auckland, New Zealand, developer and manufacturer of electronics for defense training systems. Terms of the deal were not announced. The company, which created the Infantry Weapons Effects Simulation System (IWESS) for military by New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia and European countries, will continue to operate under its own name as one of the companies in Cubic's Defense Group.
Ducommun Inc. will provide a caution light assembly panel for the F/A-18E/F aircraft under an agreement with Boeing Co. Ducommon Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of the Los Angeles aerospace component and assembly maker, will deliver the units between September 2000 and 2004. The panel that alerts pilots to system malfunctions. Each display on the panel is readable in sunlight and compatible with night vision goggles.
A Russian Progress supply capsule is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station at 4:14 p.m. EDT today, continuing the rapid assembly pace kicked off last month with launch of the Zvezda Service Module.
The European Commission yesterday approved MyAircraft.com, the Honeywell-United Technologies joint venture. It was the first business-to-business e-marketplace to be approved by the commission.
United Technologies Corp., East Hartford, Conn., is being awarded a $9,937,713 requirements contract to provide for repair and overhaul of various quantities of stators 6 through 13 applicable to the F100-PW-100/220 engines on the F-15 and F-16 aircraft. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. Expected contract completion date is Jan. 1, 2001. Solicitation issue date was March 6, 2000. Negotiation completion date was July 10, 2000. San Antonio Air Logistics Center, Kelly AFB, Texas, is the contracting activity (F41608-00-D-0278).
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, countering media reports, said yesterday he is not ready to make a recommendation to President Clinton on National Missile Defense (NMD), and won't be until a number of issues are resolved and he has time to analyze the Deployment Readiness Review. "Components of the Department of Defense are currently completing their assessment of the program to develop a National Missile Defense system. A number of difficult issues remain to be resolved before they can report to me," he said in a statement yesterday.
Motorola Inc. introduced a device for the LST-5D satellite communications radio that it said enables users to establish communications from ground locations that are outside a satellite's line of sight. Users set up the Remote Control Unit (RCU), a small satellite antenna, in an area that has a clear signal to the satellite then move the radio into areas that are under cover, such as bunkers and large buildings.
HONEYWELL SPACE SYSTEMS will provide a Space-Integrated Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (SIGI) to Japan's Mitsubishi Electronic Corp. for the Asian nation's contribution to the International Space Station. Under a $2.2 million contract to MELCO, Honeywell will deliver SIGI units and GPS Antenna Systems that will give the Japanese Experiment Module a navigation reference that can be used by the planned H-II Transfer Vehicle in approach and rendezvous operations.
VANDENBERG AFB, Calif., has set an Aug. 16 date to launch a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite aboard a Titan IVB. Launch vehicle configuration for the payload consists of two solid-fuel "O" motors, a two stage liquid-fueled core and a 12-foot diameter payload fairing, but no upper stage. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex-4 East is scheduled between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. EDT, sending the spacecraft off on a 160.0 degree azimuth. Although classified, the payload is believed to be a new Lacrosse imaging radar reconnaissance satellite.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems, St. Paul, Minn., is being awarded a $19,738,549 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-98-C-0013 to exercise an option for the procurement of seven Capability Upkeep Program B-Kits and three Data Processing/Display Control Systems for the Royal Netherlands Navy's P-3C Update II.5 Orion Aircraft under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed in Eagan, Minn. (45%); Manassas, Va. (44%); and Greenville, S.C. (11%), and is expected to be completed by February 2003.
Comtech Telecommunications Corp. received the first large equipment order, valued at $3.1 million, from the U.S. Army under its eight-year, $418 million Movement Tracking Systems (MTS) contract. "The Comtech tracking and messaging system offers the Army robust capability in terms of rapid, secure messaging, and the ability to operate over a broad range of satellites, many of which are already in orbit," said Fred Kornberg president and CEO of the Melville, N.Y., company.
Vice President Al Gore's selection of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) to be his running mate adds an active supporter of aerospace programs to the Democratic ticket, but who would replace Lieberman on the Senate Armed Services Committee is unclear.
Longbow Limited Liability Co., Commercial and Government Entity, Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $6,673,139 delivery order amount as part of firm-fixed-price contract DAAH23-99-G-0012 on July 28, 2000. The contractor will provide FY99 war reserve spares to support deployment for fire control radar for the AH-64D Apache helicopter. Work will be performed by Northrop Grumman Co. in Baltimore, Md. (50%); and by Lockheed Martin Co. in Orlando, Fla. (50%), and is expected to be completed by Oct. 11, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
ARIANESPACE has rescheduled the next flight of the big new Ariane 5 rocket for Sept. 14, after its repairs a problem with the upper stage attitude control system first discovered during a ground test of an upgraded upper stage carrying the same system (DAILY, July 14). The flight was originally scheduled for July 25, carrying the Astra 2B satellite for Luxembourg's Societe Europeenne des Satellites and GE Americom's GE-7 spacecraft. The European launch services provider said it has pinpointed the cause of the attitude control system anomaly.
Trade representatives of Brazil and Canada will meet again on Aug. 30-31 in Sao Paulo to seek a negotiated solution to their dispute over export subsidies for Embraer and Bombardier regional jets. The meeting follows the report of an arbitration board of the World Trade Organization, set up at the request of the Canadian government, to determine which sanctions, if any, it can impose on Brazil for honoring subsidy payments on some 900 aircraft before delivery under its Export Support Program (Proex).
Moody's Investors Service confirmed debt ratings yesterday on some $14 billion worth of Lockheed Martin debt and upgraded the rating outlook on the company to Stable from Negative. Moody's cited an increasingly healthy balance sheet, better prospects for defense spending and the expected benefit of selling off the Aerospace Electronic Systems business to Britain's BAE Systems, a $1.67 billion deal.
'GOLD NUGGETS': Winners of awards for "Gold Nugget" technologies chosen in the just completed Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID) 2000 exercise at Peterson AFB, Colo., will be announced next month. The exercise showcased new military space technologies for integration into battlefield systems of the future. Hosted by U.S.
NMD DECISION: First full public explanation of the July 8 failure of a National Missile Defense test is slated for this Thursday, when officials will describe the test at a Pentagon press conference. Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization director, said just after the test that the kill vehicle failed to receive a signal for second stage separation from the booster. The NMD Deployment Readiness Review is expected to go to Defense Secretary William S.
The U.S. Navy discovered a crack in the center wing section of an F-14 Tomcat fighter and engineers are trying to determine if it is an anomaly or the sign of a larger problem in the fleet of the aging planes. "It is currently under investigation," a Navy spokesman told The DAILY. "A crack was discovered in the titanium center wing section of an F-14 and engineers are looking at it to see if it is an anomaly with that particular aircraft," or if a fleetwide inspection will be required.
