Officials at Russia's Sukhoi design bureau remain optimistic about a supersonic business jet, despite last week's crash of an Air France Concorde near Paris. "The crash ... in no means influences the development of our supersonic business jet (SSBJ) project," Andrey Ilyin, Sukhoi's director of civil aviation programs, told DAILY affiliate AviationNow.com.
LANGUAGE in the fiscal 2001 defense appropriations conference report isn't intended to delay continued development of the Crusader self-propelled howitzer, Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) says in a statement inserted into the Congressional Record. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) asked for the clarification because the legislation says that half the Crusader's funding can't be spent until 30 days after the Defense Dept. gives Congress an Analysis of Alternatives (AOA) on the program. Stevens says he expects to receive the AOA by Dec.
Rolls-Royce said it has won engine orders worth $200 million to power aircraft ordered by American Airlines and its regional airline unit, American Eagle. Trent 800 engines worth $168 million will be supplied for six new Boeing 777s for American Airlines, and AE 3007 engines worth $32 million will be provided for six Embraer ERJ 135 regional jets for American Eagle.
GROWING PAINS: Dreamtime, the Silicon Valley startup NASA hired to commercialize the Space Station and digitize its archives for the Internet, is going through some getting-off-the-ground changes. The new company is still on track with the milestones set out in its May 17 Commercial Space Act agreement with NASA (DAILY, June 2, 5), but some top agency officials were dismayed when Dreamtime didn't show up at the July launch of the Zvezda module with an HDTV camera to record the historic event.
NASA CONFERENCE on "Microgravity Research: an agency-wide asset" will be Aug. 9-11 at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel, Cleveland, focusing on fluid physics and transport phenomena.
EXPORT CONTROLS: Senior management commitment is the "single most important aspect of an effective export compliance program," says a new report commissioned by Hughes Electronics. The report - written by a task force led by former Sen.
AeroAstro Inc. is developing a "template" that will allow small satellites to fly piggyback on a variety of launch vehicles under a $300,000 contract from the National Reconnaissance Office. The Universal Secondary Payload Interface (USPI) is intended to reduce integration time for small satellites on large launchers, increasing the secondary-launch opportunities on such vehicles as Ariane 5, Delta II and IV, the Atlas V and even the U.S. Space Shuttle, according to the Herndon, Va.-based small satellite technology company.
RAYTHEON AND GENERAL DYNAMICS are collaborating on a prototype Common Air Defense Launcher, which Raytheon said is intended to ultimately provide ground forces with a single, high-mobility air defense system capable of firing multiple air defense and ground weapon systems. The launcher features a sample of potential weapons, including Raytheon's AMRAAM, AIM-9X and Stinger missiles, and General Dynamics GAU-19 Gatling gun.
MARS PLANS: Look for an announcement as early as Thursday on whether NASA will send a second rover to the surface of Mars in 2003. Space science managers have been running the numbers to see if economies of scale will permit a "two-fer" (DAILY, July 28), and the decision is imminent. That decision is separate from an overall restructuring of the U.S.
Barnes Group Inc. plans a $41 million cash acquisition of most of the manufacturing assets of Kratz-Wilde Machine Co. and Apex Manufacturing Inc., makers of aerospace components owned by Aviation Sales Co. The deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter. Kratz-Wilde and Apex had combined 1999 sales of about $44 million. Their components are used in jet engines and auxiliary power units.
The Minuteman III Guidance Replacement Program has achieved initial operational capability (IOC), according to Boeing Co., which produces electronics for the program. The objective of the program, which attained IOC on July 20, is to replace aging guidance system electronics to maintain reliability and supportability, beyond the year 2020, Boeing said.
The next test of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defense system, scheduled Sept. 21 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., will replicate a real-world battle scenario by including simultaneous engagements of the PAC-3 and PAC-2. The PAC-3 will attempt to destroy a Storm target representing a tactical ballistic missile (TBM) while the PAC-2 intercepts an MQM-107 Streaker drone simulating a cruise missile.
Airbus Industrie and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. have linked up for the first time, signing a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on a number of aeronautical initiatives, including support of the Joint Strike Fighter. "The type of international support network Airbus Industrie uses for its commercial aircraft also would benefit our JSF as it is deployed around the world," said Frank J. Capuccio, vice president and program manager for the Lockheed Martin JSF. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are competing in the JSF program.
APACHE EXPORTS: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) says he's concerned that a "misinterpretation" of language in the fiscal 2000 defense appropriations conference report is jeopardizing foreign sales of the Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter and the Raytheon Stinger missile.
The proposed Democratic platform calls for continuing the Clinton Administration's efforts to develop a limited National Missile Defense, underscoring the party's split with the Republicans on that issue. "Al Gore and the Democratic Party support the development of the technology for a limited [NMD] that will be able to defend the [United States] against a missile attack from a state that has acquired weapons of mass destruction despite our efforts to block their proliferation," the document says.
General Electric's CF6-80C2 powerplant was selected by Lockheed Martin as the new engine for the C-5 airlifter in a program with a potential value of more than $2.6 billion. GE's proposal called for 504 engines, plus spares. The C-5 is now powered by GE's TF39. GE beat Pratt&Whitney and Rolls-Royce.
CHANGING STANDARDS: Flight controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center believe they can handle the workload involved in sending eight Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station over the coming year (DAILY, July 27), but it may not be pretty. Jim Van Laak, ISS manager, mission integration and operations, tells reporters a recent operational readiness review found the normal operating standards can be maintained through STS-98, when the Shuttle Atlantis will deliver the U.S. Laboratory Module.
Private hubs using very small aperture terminals (VSAT) for satellite communications are giving way to VSAT service centers, an industry that now pulls in more than $3 billion a year, according to a new report by U.K. telecommunications consultant Comsys.
NASA WILL TEST a modified X-38 Crew Return Vehicle prototype on its B-52 carrier airplane at Dryden Flight Research Center today, subjecting vehicle 131R to a minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit cold soak at altitude during a two-and-a-half-hour captive carry test. The prototype was modified at Johnson Space Center to more closely resemble the CRV. During today's test - the 14th of the development program - engineers will verify the flight envelope for the new vehicle shape and conduct functional checks of all systems in preparation for a free flight in October.
Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems will build its second geosynchronous satellite for New Skies Satellites N.V. of the Netherlands. The satellite, to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2002, will provide access to high-speed Internet and other multimedia communications, LMCCS said yesterday. The Ku/Ka-band satellite also will provide direct-to-home broadcasting and telecommunications services in an area stretching from the eastern Mediterranean and Southern Africa to Australia, Japan and Korea.
Boeing said it reached a settlement with the Dept. of Justice yesterday when it agreed to pay $39 million for claims that it was responsible for faulty transmission gears in the U.S. Army's CH-47D Chinook helicopter. It said another $19 million is at risk if it loses two appeals. However, according to a spokesman for DOJ, the settlement is for $54 million, which includes the $19 million appeal. Both sides maintained their figures in telephone interviews and neither could account for the difference in amounts.
The Federal Communications Commission announced said it has approved Intelsat's application to operate in the United States after it privatizes next year. The FCC said in a statement that its decision will give Intelsat full access to the U.S. market to provide satellite services to, from and within the United States. "This action will facilitate the final transition of the last intergovernmental satellite organization to a private entity, and promote competition in the global satellite market," the FCC said.
Two projects from Switzerland have received favorable reviews from the U.S. Dept. of Defense for their potential utility by the U.S. military and will likely be included in the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program. The FCT program, authorized by Congress in 1989 and managed by the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, tests foreign technology for possible use in satisfying U.S. defense requirements through non-developmental means.
HISPASAT S.A. has contracted with International Launch Service to orbit its Hispasat 1D satellite on a Lockheed Martin IIAS in the third quarter of 2002. ILS launched Hispasat 1C for the Spanish satellite operator in February, also aboard an Atlas IIAS. The new satellite is an Alcatel Space Industries Spacebus 3000, intended to provide satellite communications and direct-to-home television in Europe and the Americas.
NASA HAS ANNOUNCED its intention to hold "open season" for space launch services in the months of February and August of each calendar year for the next 10 years as part of the "on-ramp" provision of its long-term launch services contract. The "on-ramp" clause will allow vehicles not available when Boeing and Lockheed Martin won the first contracts to compete for future opportunities in the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) portion of the procurement (DAILY, Oct. 20, 1999).
