Harris Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $6,357,203 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract to develop and fabricate a space-qualified enhanced space multiprocessor (ESM). The ESM has a high capacity data storage system capable of inputting, compressing, storing, retrieving and outputting high rate data from satellites and will enhance the overall capabilities of the host satellite. Work will be performed in Melbourne, Fla., and is expected to be completed by September 2001.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $164,763,702 modification to a fixed-price-incentive contract to definitize advanced procurement of long lead items in support of one E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft. Expected contract completion date is Sept. 30, 2002. Negotiation completion date was April 13, 2000. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-98-C-0003-PZ0011).
GLOBALSTAR USA, the sole provider of Globalstar low-Earth orbit mobile satellite communications in the U.S., and Airstar, a Globalstar USA distributor, have launched a maritime telephone service called "Starphone QM 2500." The portable telephone will provide Globalstar connectivity from a boat's cabin to distances as far as 200 miles from shore, and cellular service as far as 20 miles from shore. It can also be used on land by removing it from its mounting cradle on a boat. Retain price of the "tri-mode" phone is $1,499.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $6,844,380 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for engineering and manufacturing development of a Bomb Impact Assessment Modification in support of the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) system on the F-15 and F-16 aircraft. This modification is intended to integrate a radiometer and digital recorder into the LANTIRN pod to provide an enhanced capability for bomb impact assessment. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received.
The House fiscal year 2001 intelligence authorization bill would provide a "substantial" increase in intelligence spending, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ranking Democrat Julian Dixon (D-Calif.) said in a statement released by the panel. The exact funding level, which is classified, is "very close" to President Clinton's request, the committee statement said.
SpaceDev, a California commercial space exploration and development company, reported first quarter 2000 sales of approximately $1.1 million, which were flat versus the same period a year ago. The company managed to boost operating performance, posting a profit of $16,000 for the quarter compared to an operating loss of $793,000 in the first quarter of 1999. The improvement was largely attributed to the absence of the company's SIL subsidiary in the period.
ASIA SATELLITE TELECOMMUNICATIONS Co., Ltd., has signed a lease agreement with Ekushey Television (ETV) of Bangladesh for C-band capacity on AsiaSat 3S. ETV will use the satellite capability to deliver Bangla-language programming across the South Asian nation. The Hughes HS-601HP satellite carries 28 C-band and 16 Ku-band transponders at 105.5 degrees East longitude.
AN ARIANE-5 solid rocket motor is set for test firing today at the Guiana Space Center near Kourou. The test at the center's booster teststand is designed to qualify improvements intended to increase Ariane 5 lift capability and lower production costs. The test booster's forward segment contains an extra 2.4 tonnes of solid propellant -- about 10% of total propellant mass -- which is expected to add about 200 kilograms to the launcher lift capability to geostationary transfer orbit.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $7,780,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for engineering supplies and services through Oct. 16, 2000, in support of development, design, fabrication, installation and test of the Low Light Level Television System kits for the AC-130H aircraft. Expected contract completion date is Oct. 16, 2000. Negotiation completion date was April 21, 2000. Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga., is the contracting activity (F09603-98-C-0011-P00012).
SAIL AWAY: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center may turn its back on powerful rocket engines to power humankind's first tentative steps toward the stars and usher in a new age of sail. Drawing on materials technology breakthroughs that have produced a carbon fiber fabric weighing less than one-tenth of an ounce per square yard, MSFC engineers are mapping an interstellar precursor mission that would unfurl a sail 440 yards across and send it out of the solar system pushed by the solar wind.
NASA has narrowed its options for a Mars mission to be launched in 2003 to an orbiting imager with a data relay package designed to support additional missions as well, and a much larger version of the Sojourner rover that enthralled the public during the 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission, but the U.S. space agency can afford to send only one of them to the Red Planet.
Aero Systems Engineering (ASE), an engineering firm specializing in aerospace test facilities, reported a 5.7% increase, from $6.4 million to $6.8 million, in revenues for the first quarter of 2000 versus the same period a year ago. The St. Paul, Minn., company turned in net loss for the quarter of $466,000 or $0.11 a share compared to a loss of $476,000 or $0.11 in the first quarter of 1999.
GETTING SHARPER: The Pentagon is "close" to approving a commercial satellite imaging company to collect images of less than one meter resolution, says Air Force Col. Richard Skinner, principal director of C3ISR&space. The possible candidates are two Colorado companies, Space Imaging and EarthWatch. Skinner says he hopes to have "good news" in the next few weeks, noting that there are only a few inter-departmental loose ends to tie up. A number of issues have already been resolved, he says, but achieving a true consensus is imperative.
Russia is on track to launch the long-awaited Zvezda Service Module to the International Space Station, and an expert panel advising NASA on Station operational readiness has found "no constraints" to the mission going forward even though the Russian space industry won't be able to complete engine testing on the module's Proton launch vehicle or activate a needed data relay satellite before the July launch date.
BACK TO SCHOOL: NASA and MIT are developing new management courses to offset the loss of spacecraft mission management skills as engineers who grew up during the Cold War begin to retire. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin tells the AIAA that training will include both academic work -- sometimes conducted as computerized "e-learning" -- and on-the-job mentoring. "We need to provide individual training emphasizing core technical competencies and leadership skills," he says, explaining what NASA is doing in the wake of last year's loss of two Mars probes.
F-22 ON THE HILL: Lockheed Martin concerns that its F-22 experience on Capitol Hill this year would be like that of last year, when it was surprised by a funding challenge, are not materializing so far. The program sailed through the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. With stable funding, the F-22 industry team believes it will be able to carry out a number of cost-cutting projects for the production phase that are intended to keep the program within congressional cost caps.
NRO'S GROUND BUDGET: The National Reconnaissance Office spends 50% of its classified budget on ground equipment. "Our role is collection," says Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert S. Dickman, assigned to the NRO as the director of corporate operations. "Intelligence agencies produce intelligence," he says. "We produce pictures and signals cuts. We are not in the intelligence production business. We are in the collection business, the processing business and we pass it on" to military and intelligence customers.
FRONTLOADING: Expect more government money to be available for early concept and design studies before future government space missions are cleared for takeoff. Administrator Goldin says one lesson of the Mars '98 failures has been that managers trying to make the "faster-better-cheaper" approach work scanted the preparations necessary to ensure a mission was feasible and worthwhile.
THE FIRST of four Boeing 767 AWACS aircraft for Japan has entered operational service, Boeing said. The company delivered the planes between 1998 and 1999.
'MUTUAL ASSURED INFORMATION': Space Imaging's Copple believes commercial imagery is ushering in an era of "mutual assured information." Technology is driving the increasing availability of information, and satellite imagery offers the opportunity to achieve a new sense of openness, he says at the AIAA conference. Indeed, if commercial satellite firms don't have to wrestle with burdensome oversight or regulations and can focus on business, "symmetrical transparency" might make the world a safer place, says Copple.
Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) challenged the U.S. Air Force's commitment to programs that create space power, and said he is prepared to call for an entirely separate service that will achieve space dominance if the Air Force doesn't become an air and space force. Smith chastened the Air Force and Defense Dept., saying their primary focus in space has been the transmittal of information. The Air Force space budget is almost entirely dedicated to improving information systems to increase effectiveness of existing forces, he said.
Cosmonauts Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander Kaleri tested an open-space hull-patching procedure and inspected some wiring apparently blackened by a short circuit in an almost-five-hour spacewalk outside the Mir space station Friday. The extra-vehicular activity (EVA) was the first ever financed by a private company. MirCorp, a joint venture between Western investors and Russia's RSC Energia, is paying for the two cosmonauts to spend at least 45 days aboard reactivating the station and evaluating its suitability for future commercial missions.
Vance Coffman, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., said government and industry need to establish a framework for transatlantic cooperation to confront the reality challenging all NATO partners -- shrinking defense budgets that may compromise the vitality of the defense industrial base and limit military capabilities in the coming decade.
