BIOREACTOR: Researchers from Germany, Italy and Switzerland have joined forces with the European Space Agency to develop a space bioreactor for the International Space Station, the first of some 50 microgravity applications projects ESA expects to launch in the near future. Intended for such biomedical applications as growing tissue for human implants in medical treatment, Europe's ISS bioreactor will test whether microgravity enhances the ability of such devices to grow three-dimensional tissue structures.
ADVANCED PROPULSION: Hybrid rockets, space sails, fusion drives and antimatter are among the topics that will be discussed late this month at an advanced space propulsion workshop at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The May 31-June 2 event, cosponsored by JPL and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, will include speakers from NASA, DOD, the Energy Dept., industry and academia. Sessions are scheduled on new launch vehicle designs, beamed energy propulsion, micropropulsion and such "propellantless propulsion" as tethers, sails and aero/gravity assist.
MUNITIONS CONTROL: The "real issue," says Reinsch, is how to approach the munitions side. The Pentagon and State Dept. face several issues here, he says. For one thing, the government shouldn't simply stress procedural reform because the process doesn't necessarily deserve the blame. There are interpretative issues as well. Night vision goggles, for instance, fall into the sensitive military equipment category, but they can also be picked up at an L.L. Bean store.
THE EUROPEAN UNION'S implementation yesterday of a ban on hushkitted airliners weakens the international aviation industry, Aerospace Industries Association President John W. Douglass said. "By unilaterally establishing a non-performance regional standard for aircraft noise," Douglass said, "the EU has abrogated its commitment to comply with international noise standards it once promised to observe.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen yesterday urged Senate Armed Services Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) not to mandate a six-month delay in the Joint Strike Fighter program. "I urge you not to mandate by law a program delay that we are trying very hard to avoid," Cohen said in a letter sent yesterday to Warner, with whom he served 18 years on the SASC. "I believe this would send a disproportionate and troubling signal."
Online Asset Exchange, created by automobile mogul Lee Iacocca and touted as the largest marketplace for secondary and used industrial assets, is slated to add aviation equipment to its online menu. Through www.onlineassetexchange.com, buyers and sellers will have "immediate access"to about $100 million of used and excess aviation assets. The exchange has already compiled over 200,000 assets worth more than $8 billion since launching last February.
SkyFish.com scored its first tranche of venture financing, handled by Onex Corp.'s Internet and technology investment arm, @Onex. The first round of $4 million will support the trading hub and vertical portal's planned debut, targeted for this summer. Previously, Skyfish.com had been a joint venture between aviation services company BACK Associates and Synchronaut.com LLC, an Internet strategy firm. SkyFish.com aims to give customers a "one-stop shopping"experience by creating a fully functional business-to-business trading and information environment.
Almost half of the first $1.5 billion in funds for tasking, processing, exploitation and dissemination (TPED) associated with the National Reconnaissance Office's Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) is going toward the dissemination piece, according to a senior military official. Vice Adm. Herbert A. Browne, deputy commander-in-chief of U.S. Space Command, said the current weak link in TPED is the dissemination piece, or "How do we get the right photo in the right hands at the right time?"
On the present International Space Station assembly schedule NASA may be able to start conducting routine scientific research on the orbiting lab in less than a year, although research on the Station environment and its effect on Station crew members will begin before that, according to NASA's senior Station scientist.
Despite low funding levels and limited program direction, the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Technical Center here is continuing to develop a Kinetic Energy Anti-Satellite (KEASAT) system, according to Jess Granone, the director of the center. For the last five years, the program has been kept alive through congressional plus-ups, receiving $7.5 million in the fiscal year 2000 budget.
Honeywell Aerospace Services Director of E-business, Andy Plyler, has departed for a similar role at PartsBase.com, a provider of e-commerce services to the aviation industry. Partsbase CEO Robert Hammond highlighted Plyler's "instrumental"role in developing MyAircraft.com, the e-market established by Honeywell, United Technologies and i2 Technologies. PartsBase.com tapped Plyler to position the company as the "leading e-marketplace in the defense industry."
Levy/Latham Global LLC, in conjunction with parent organization Surplusbid.com, made a splash with the first online auction for U.S. military surplus equipment, from electronic test equipment to heavy machinery tools at Redstone Arsenal. LLG had over 5,000 bids and took in about $300,000 in revenues in four days. The next online auction is slated for May 22-25 at McClellan AFB, Calif. For product listings visit www.levylatham.com or wwww.surplusbid.com.
NASA Administrator Dan Goldin this week urged officials attending a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, to back their countries in support of spectrum usage for radionavigation. The spectrum is under threat of encroachment by the rapidly growing mobile satellite industry, Goldin told GNSS 2000, sponsored by the Royal Institute of Navigation and the European Group of Institutes of Navigation. The issue is expected to be addressed next week in Istanbul by the World Radio Conference.
E-commerce security, key to protecting the integrity of an online trading community, will be an hot topic at NetWorld+Interop 2000 conference next week in Las Vegas. In fact, attendees can get a crash course in "hacking"from two industry experts in order to safeguard against attacks. Also on N+I's agenda: Web delivery and e-business management.
Russia has launched a new photo-reconnaissance satellite for the Ministry of Defense amid reports the political leadership is displeased with the level of space support troops in breakaway Chechnya have received. On May 3 the Rosaviakosmos team launched the Cosmos-2370 satellite on a Soyuz-U launch vehicle, which placed the satellite in an elliptical initial low-Earth orbit inclined at 64.8 degrees. While the Russian military doesn't comment on satellite missions, the new satellite reportedly is a Neman 11F117 surveillance satellite.
DYNAMICS RESEARCH CORP. expects to book about $36 million in revenues, over a one-year period that began in April, from five prime contracts awarded by the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center under the Information Technology Services Program (ITSP). "These awards demonstrate our ability to retain follow-on work with a valued customer, and to grow our core defense services business in a very competitive environment," said James P. Regan, president and CEO of the Andover, Mass., company.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission (EC) opened a joint program office in Brussels yesterday to coordinate work on the proposed Galileo satellite navigation system. The Galileo Program Office will coordinate studies already underway and support the board directing the program and its industrial and scientific teams as Europe works toward its own next-generation satellite-based navigation and precision timing system.
Spacehab and Russian's RSC Energia have completed the "initial design" and a systems requirements review for their "Enterprise" commercial space station module and hope to launch the facility to the Russian side of the International Space Station late in 2002, company officials said. Next up is a preliminary design effort at Energia, which will build the Enterprise module at its facility near Moscow while Spacehab looks for investors and customers to support the new commercial space business.
Orbital Sciences Corp.'s big e-business push is to use space imagery to revolutionize the real estate marketplace. Orbital's Canadian subsidiary, MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, Ltd. (MDA), already provides Internet access to data and pictures of North American real estate, but MDA's e-commerce services are just about to take off. At just two years old, the "e-unit"posted revenues of $45 million in 1999 and foresees "substantial"growth in 2000.
While U.S. military officials think a National Missile Defense system should come under the joint U.S.-Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command, Canada has not yet agreed to the concept, according to the deputy commander-in-chief of U.S. Space Command. "Our view today from [NORAD headquarters in] Colorado Springs is that it should be a NORAD mission," said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Herbert Browne.
SPECTROLAB INC. said it will supply its solar cells to Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH for qualification testing, under terms of a technical assistance agreement between the two companies. Spectrolab, of Sylmar, Calif., said it was its first European agreement since receiving U.S. government approval recently to provide solar cells, panels and arrays to major European spacecraft manufacturers.
Space Systems/Loral will build two satellites designed to serve as backups for existing geostationary communications platforms under a new contract with AssureSat Inc., a startup that hopes to be providing "in-orbit backup protection" to satellite operators as early as 2002.
Hawk Corp. reported earnings of $0.25 a share for the first quarter of 2000 on more than $55 million in sales, hitting the revised range indicated by the Cleveland-based company last month, based on higher than expected sales and operating efficiencies. Analysts had originally pegged Hawk's first quarter earnings at $0.11 per diluted share.
SatCon Technology Corp. reported $7.5 million in revenues for the second quarter of 2000 versus $3.7 million in the year-ago period -- a 106% increase -- but a net earnings loss of $1.9 million, or $0.39 per share
