House Science Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) offered a "grand compromise" yesterday aimed at achieving the first NASA authorization bill in eight years, but no agreement was reached by the House-Senate conference committee handling the legislation.
LOCKHEED MARTIN is scheduled to launch NASA's next Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) Thursday on an Atlas IIA rocket. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., is set for a 40-minute launch window that opens at 8:38 a.m. EDT. Designed, built and tested by Hughes Space and Communications, the TDRS-H spacecraft will provide communications links for Space Shuttles, the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and other U.S. satellites and launch vehicles.
SURREY SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY LTD. will investigate the potential for its minisat-400 spacecraft to use Internet Protocols under a $60,000 NASA contract. Surrey engineers have been using the UoSAT-12 minisatellite designed and built at the U.K. company as an IP testbed. Under the NASA contract they will evaluate a range of architectures and technologies needed to provide IP-based satellite services, and identify technology gaps that can be plugged with "modest" investments.
COMSAT MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS has launched its new high-speed data mobile satellite service. Dubbed Comsat Mobile ISDN, the new service allows voice and data communications at speeds as fast as 64 kilobits per second through portable terminals. With the service customers can dial up LAN-based applications such as World Wide Web and intranet browsing, videoconferencing, store-and-forward video, e-mail, e-commerce and image transfer.
Lockheed Martin heads a team picked for the competitive first phase of the joint Integrated Broadcast Service (IBS) program, aimed at handling the flow and dissemination of intelligence data from satellites and sensors to warfighters. IBS is intended to manage the intelligence data gathered from satellites and other technical assets, making information on such things as enemy troop movements, fortifications and weaponry more accessible for soldiers in the field, theater commanders and command-in-chiefs.
Union members on the midnight shift at Bombardier's Toronto facility were slated to report for work last night after ratifying a three-year contract yesterday, a company spokesman said. He said 88% of production workers and 87% of skilled trade workers represented by the Canadian Auto Workers' Local 112 voted in favor of the contract, and 92% of office workers and 83% of technical workers from CAW Local 673 ratified the agreement.
BOEING said Steve Sauve has been named to succeed Paul Shennum as vice president and program director of Team Airborne Laser. Shennum retired June 27 after nearly 40 years with Boeing. Sauve has been deputy program manager of the Team ABL since December 1998.
A draft Dept. of Defense Inspector General audit report states that "waivers of 23 major operational effectiveness and suitability requirements deficiencies" with the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey preclude it from passing its operational test and evaluation (OPEVAL) before a Milestone III, or production, decision in coming months. "The V-22 will not successfully demonstrate test and evaluation of key operational requirements before the Milestone III full-rate production decision," based upon the waivers, the draft report said.
Titan Corp. of San Diego formally closed on the purchases of two Massachusetts information technology companies, AverStar Inc. and SenCom. AverStar's customer base is primarily the Dept. of Defense and civilian federal agencies. Key focus areas of the Burlington, Mass., company include information assurance, information operations, and network and information security. The acquisition will not only expand Titan's government-related customer base, but also gives Titan's "technology incubator" two new businesses.
CHINA plans to launch the Haiyang 1 oceanographic research satellite in the 400- to 500-kilogram class next year, and may build Earth observation, communications and navigation satellites in the same weight class later, according to the Pentagon's latest report to Congress on Chinese military power. Defense Intelligence Agency analysts also noted a number of development efforts for remote sensing mini-satellites weighing less than 100 kilograms.
Lockheed Martin launched FuturePoint, a planning tool aimed at helping companies to align information technology capabilities with business priorities. The effective use of IT is becoming increasingly vital to organizations of every size, said Terry Drabant, president of Lockheed Martin Mission Systems. "The CIO in this new world needs to be focused on enterprise business results, not tactical IT programs," said Drabant. "The challenge is to ensure that investment decisions are justified and that business results are measured."
The EU Council of Ministers has adopted a new regulation to improve the export control system for dual-use goods and technologies by reducing the number of intra-European restrictions on transfers. With the new legislation, the Council hopes to level the playing field for European exporters by streamlining the control process for dual-use items and by eliminating the red tape for exports that don't pose proliferation or security concerns. Limited controls will be maintained for particularly sensitive products.
Some 22,000 British army SA80 individual and light-support rifles are to be extensively modified under an 80 million pound ($120 million) contract being negotiated by the U.K. Ministry of Defense with Heckler&Koch, a subsidiary of Royal Ordnance. The negotiations follow complaints of unreliability in the past few years, and a report by Heckler&Koch (UK) Ltd on the causes of malfunctions and means of their rectification.
AEROSONIC CORP., of Clearwater, Fla., signed a $7 million, three-year deal with Raytheon Aircraft Co. to supply instruments for "virtually all" of Raytheon's production models.
COMSAT GENERAL, another Comsat subsidiary, has signed an agreement to provide satellite data communications with the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The one-year contract, with four one-year options, is managed by the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare systems Center in Charleston, S.C. The agreement is the second phase of a two-phase project that began in February when Comsat General began relocating the MARISAT-F2 satellite to an Atlantic Ocean slot where it can support communications with the pole.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS has completed qualification testing of the GEM-60 solid rocket motors for Boeing's new Delta IV family of space launch vehicles. The 60-inch-diameter strap-on boosters have been under development for 29 months by Alliant and other suppliers, including Moog, which manufactures the thrust vector actuation system. The new motors join the GEM-46 boosters for the Delta II rocket, and the GEM-40 for the new Delta III. The qualification tests were conducted in Utah.
NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson hailed a more positive outlook for NATO members' defense budgets since last year's Kosovo conflict triggered "alarm bells." "I believe we're winning the argument over reduced budgets for defense in Europe, and we are turning a corner," Robertson said last week in Washington.
Pacific Aerospace&Electronics, Wenatchee, Wash., will provide electronic packaging modules for use in Nortel's high-speed data network transmitter/receiver products. "Our receipt of this order is a direct result of PA&E's substantive, specialized manufacturing resources and fast turn-around capability," said Don Wright, CEO of Pacific Aerospace&Electronics.
Data Link Solutions, a Limited Liability Company, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is being awarded a $49,301,632 firm-fixed-price option exercise for the U.S. Air Force Multifunctional Information Distribution System - Fighter Data Link (MIDS-FDL) program. This option exercise is for he production of 168 active Air Force production terminals, 82 Air National Guard production terminals, 2 Talon Gateway Project terminals and 20 MIDS-FDL production spares terminals and MIDS-FDL pilot production warranty.
Some 3,800 striking office and production workers at Bombardier Aerospace' s Toronto operations are scheduled to vote today on whether to accept a three-year deal worked out during weekend talks that boosts wages, sweetens pensions and encourages the most senior workers to retire with incentives. The 3,000 plant workers represented by the Canadian Auto Workers' Local 112 will vote at 9 a.m. Eastern time, while the remaining 800 office workers represented by Local 673 vote at 10 a.m.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., St. Louis, Mo., was awarded on June 20, 2000 a $21,090,309 option to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for eight APG-63(V)1 fire control radar systems and associated spares applicable to the F-15 aircraft. Expected contract completion date is Dec. 31, 2002. Solicitation issue date was May 14, 1998. Negotiation completion date was June 24, 1999. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-98-C-0012-P00005).
In a show of support for the V-22 Osprey, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael E. Ryan flew in one of the aircraft Friday with Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James L. Jones. The 20-minute flight, at NAS Patuxent River, Md., was the second for Jones this month. The flight demonstrated the confidence of both leaders in the tilt-rotor aircraft, one of which crashed April 8 near Tucson, Ariz., killing all 19 Marines aboard. The Marines want 360 MV-22s and the Air Force plans to buy 50 CV-22s.
In a move to boost rates at underutilized plants and offset the downcycle in the launch service marketplace, Boeing said it will shift most of its Huntington Beach, Calif., Delta rocket production to facilities in Pueblo, Colo., and Decatur, Ala., and axe about 900 positions. "In order to strategically realign our Delta production, we needed to consolidate operations and reduce manufacturing duplication," said Gale Schluter, Boeing Expendable Launch Systems VP and general manager.
Raytheon Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $49,900,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-98-C-5364 for engineering and technical services to support the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Program. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by June 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va, is the contracting activity.
Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan., is being awarded a $101,225,378 option to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for low rate initial production of 40 T-6A Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) aircraft, Engine Structural Integrity Program test support for 40 engines, operational site activation at Vance AFB, Okla., technical manual updates, and data. Expected contract completion date is April 2003. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-94-C-0006-P00160).
