NASA has picked Dreamtime Holdings Inc., a Silicon Valley startup backed by Lockheed Martin, Excite@Home and others, as its first commercial partner on the International Space Station in a deal that will put high-definition television (HDTV) on Station and digitize the space agency's archives for easy Internet access.
Israel is pursuing the "continuous development" of the Arrow missile defense program to adapt the system to new threats, Arieh Herzog, head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, said in Washington yesterday.
The U.S. Army and representatives of the Boeing/Sikorsky Comanche team signed documents yesterday officially marking the beginning of the $3.1 billion engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) phase of the program, expected to ultimately lead to production of 1,213 of the helicopters.
ARIANESPACE set a July 25 date for resumption of launch activities, following a three-month hiatus for lack of payloads ready to go. A big Ariane 5 is set to tandem-launch Astra 2B for the Societe Europeenne des Satelites (SES) and GE Americom's GE-7. The flight from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou will be the third commercial launch of the Ariane 5. An Ariane 5 will also launch Telesat's Anik F2 late in 2002 under a contract announced last week.
AEROASTRO INC., Herndon, Va., has been awarded a contract worth as much as $1.2 million by the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a system that will enable multiple satellites to fly in formation. The "Star Ranger" system will combine Global Positioning System technology and an inter-satellite communications link for precision ranging and position determination among satellites in formation, such as the NASA's planned New Millennium ST-3 and the U.S. Air Force Techsat21.
The U.S. Army and the Boeing Sikorsky team today are slated to sign a six-year, $3.1 billion contract for 13 engineering, manufacturing and development Comanche helicopters. The RAH-66 Comanche light attack/armed reconnaissance helicopter is expected to replace the Army's current fleet of AH-1 Cobras and OH-58 Kiowas.
DRS Technologies Inc. received a $1.6 million contract to provide next-generation Deployable Flight Incident Recorder Sets (DFIRS) and ground support equipment for a U.S. Air Force electronic surveillance aircraft based on the Boeing 707. A company spokeswoman said the aircraft could not be further identified, but that it was not the Joint STARS.
The Aerospace Industries Association opposes a Senate bill introduced last week that would impose trade and other sanctions on China for contributing to the spread of weapons of mass destruction, an AIA official said. Joel Johnson, vice president, international of the Washington-based association, told The DAILY the bill would mistakenly impose unilateral sanctions, meaning China could get around them by trading with European companies instead of U.S. firms. "We certainly support the goal of nonproliferation," Johnson said.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Research and Development, reacted skeptically yesterday, through a spokesman, to President Clinton's pledge to share missile defense technology with "civilized nations." During a visit to Portugal yesterday, Clinton said it would be "unethical" for the United States not to share such technology with countries that are part of "responsible" international arms control and nonproliferation regimes.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) sector won a $3.2 million, Phase IV contract from the U.S. Air Force to continue designing an improved wing for the T-38 supersonic trainer.
PRECISION CASTPARTS CORP. signed a $34 million contract with Rolls-Royce to supply titanium castings for the AE 2100 and AE 3007 engines. Under the terms of the five-year contract, PCC Schlosser, located in Redmond, Ore., will produce titanium structural components for the two engine programs, including the center stump and diffuser.
Kellstrom Industries Inc. was chosen by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. as distributor in support of the P-3 Orion aircraft. The Sunrise, Fla., company said yesterday that its Certified Div. has been awarded a ten-year contract to supply spare parts and component repair services to international P-3 operators.
Air France is one of Airbus Industrie's undisclosed potential A3XX launch customers, the French flag carrier's top executives acknowledged. "We could not order an aircraft that has not been launched as yet, but Air France is definitively interested in the A3XX," said Chairman and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta. "Air France expressed an interest in [acquiring] about 10 aircraft, perhaps by the end of the year."
Controllers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center lowered the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory from a 316-mile orbit to 217 miles Monday night in the first of four thruster burns designed to bring the big spacecraft down early Sunday across a remote swath of the Pacific. The spacecraft's attitude control thrusters and orbit adjust thrusters were fired for 23 minutes beginning at 9:51 p.m. EDT Monday, setting up the 99-mile drop in altitude. Another burn was scheduled last night, followed by two more early on Sunday (DAILY, May 24).
Canada's Bombardier Aerospace plans to significantly increase aircraft production and expand its Northern Ireland manufacturing operations, adding 1,200 new employees over the next two years. "Continuing strong demand for many Bombardier aircraft products, coupled with our desire to shorten delivery lead times is driving a realignment of our manufacturing plan," said Michael Graff president and CEO of Bombardier Aerospace.
Brazil's 40-year-old space industry, under civilian management after decades of international isolation because of its domination by the military, will likely follow the model set by Embraer in civil aircraft as it seeks to expand its role in the global commercial space marketplace, Brazilian officials said yesterday.
EXIGENT INTERNATIONAL INC. has been awarded a U.S. patent for a satellite simulator software tool kit that will help satellite designers develop and test spacecraft command and telemetry applications. The Melbourne, Fla.-based company said the new "SIM/Tool" will allow developers to "grow their simulations throughout the development cycle, thus saving early time and costs."
TRW has completed development of a radiation-hardened "computer-on-a-chip" that will control the advanced digital processors on board the planned Astrolink broadband telecommunications satellites. Designated the RH32S, the single-chip processor will replace a five-chip unit in the communications payloads TRW is building for the Astrolink spacecraft, cutting weight by 90% and power consumption by 80%. Each Astrolink payload will carry 16 of the new processors, which will function as "building blocks" in a distributed controller architecture, TRW said.
LORAL SKYNET will expand its cable "neighborhood" at 121 degrees West longitude with the addition of all 24 C-band transponders on the EchoStar IX C- and Ku-band hybrid satellite under construction at Space Systems/Loral. The C-band payload, which will complement Loral Skynet's Telstar 7 spacecraft at 129 degrees West in providing cable television service across the U.S., will be designated Telstar 13, the company said.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. has launched the first Orbital/Suborbital Program Target Launch Vehicle (OSP TLV), a surplus Minuteman II modified to serve as a target for National Missile Defense interceptor tests. The three-stage suborbital vehicle flew from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., into the Pacific in a test of its ability to stay on a pre-determined trajectory, according to the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg. Orbital is contracted to fly three more OSP TLV missions this year and next.
The government of Greece is interested in a possible procurement of 560 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs), 750 BLU-109 2,000-pound penetrator bombs, missile containers, fuzes, spare and repair parts and supporting equipment at an estimated value of $305 million, the Pentagon reported this week. The sale, according to the Dept. of Defense, would help Greece to modernize and strengthen its air force in the air defense role, while enhancing weapon system standardization and interoperability with U.S.
Curtiss-Wright Corp.'s initial agreement supplying torque limiter retrofit kits for trailing-edge wing flap actuation systems to Boeing's Commercial Airplanes Group has been expanded to provide retrofit kits for the entire Boeing 757-200 in-service aircraft fleet, Curtiss-Wright said. The addition of an enhanced torque limiter, according to the company, will improve the performance of the flap actuation systems that extend and retract the trailing-edge flaps during takeoff and landing.
If Congress doesn't pass the supplemental bill to fund operations in Kosovo, the Army will be forced to pull money out of other programs to pay for it, the Pentagon's spokesman said. Failure to pass the bill will have a "deleterious effect" on Army training, Ken Bacon said Tuesday. "The Army will have to siphon money out of other operations in order to support the operation in Kosovo."
SWALES AEROSPACE has won a contract from United Space Alliance to build, maintain and refurbish the customized, computerized power tools that spacewalking astronauts will use to build the International Space Station. The Pistol Grip Tools (PGTs) are used to fasten and loosen bolts in zero gravity, using computerized controls to achieve the desired torque for a given task. Swales will also build and maintain training PGTs as well as flight hardware under the three-year contract.
