EUROPEAN ASTRONOMY: European Space Agency officials expect NASA's Next-Generation Space Telescope (NGST) will be one of two "flexi-missions" picked by its science advisors for funding this year. ESA had an important role in the Hubble Space Telescope, and work is already underway in Europe on the followup, scheduled for launch in 2008.
Dept. of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead told Congress that Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) software and hardware problems have "significant cost and schedule implications" that are yet to be determined, and said for the first time on the record that the system will not meet its September 2000 milestone for initial operational capability.
The government of Egypt is interested in acquiring 15 LANTIRN navigation pods and 15 Sharpshooter targeting pods, at an estimated cost of $90 million, the Pentagon reported. The Egyptian Air Force is modernizing weapons systems for its F-16 fleet, the Pentagon said, and the pods will add to others already in the inventory.
AIR CANADA AND NAV CANADA have completed initial Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) trials. The new digital tool is expected to significantly improve communications between aircraft flying across the North Atlantic and using the Gander automated air traffic control system. The increasing growth in flights over the North Atlantic further emphasizes the problems of HF communications due to frequency congestion, they said. CPDLC replaces voice communication with a digital link for position reporting and clearance.
NASA is soliciting proposals from industry on ways to reduce the risk of a second-generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV), in support of the planned competition in 2005 for a vehicle that can cut the cost of orbiting payload by a factor of 10 while increasing safety a hundredfold.
Israel has asked to buy 41 AGM-142D air-to-ground missiles, the Pentagon announced. The sale of the missiles, made by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., is valued at $58 million. The proposed sale, which must be approved by Congress, would include data links, and 33 of the missiles would be outfitted with Z-seeker heads. Israel already has AGM-142Ds in its inventory, the Pentagon said.
Range safety issues involving launch of a U.S. Energy Dept. satellite from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., have been resolved, and the launch has been rescheduled for Sunday. The Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) will be launched on an Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus rocket in a 30-minute window that opens at 4:22 a.m. EST, the Air Force said yesterday. And earlier launch date was postponed after officials in the French territory of Tahiti warned that the rocket's third stage could land near an inhabited island (DAILY, Feb. 29).
Northrop Grumman said it delivered the seventh Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) production aircraft to the U.S. Air Force this week. The aircraft, the first of two production E-8Cs to be delivered this year, was delivered ahead of schedule, according to the company's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) sector.
AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION said it "strongly supports" passage of legislation in Congress to permanently grant China the trade benefits the U.S. gives to most other countries. AIA President and CEO John Douglass said the U.S. exported $3.73 billion worth of aerospace goods to China in 1998, making it one of the largest markets for the U.S. aerospace industry. "We estimate that China will purchase 1,800 aircraft over the next 20 years, worth $125 billion," he said.
As the 30-day-old strike against Boeing continues with no end in sight, the company and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace run the risk of losing the people who have walked a picket line without a paycheck for several weeks.
The U.S. Air Force is incorporating changes to bring the B-2 bomber's mission capable rate up from its current 43% to a minimum requirement of 60%, the Air Force chief of staff told Congress. Gen. Michael E. Ryan on Wednesday outlined a three-fold plan to increase the lagging mission capable rate of the service's newest and most expensive bomber before members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
Turkish government and military officials cited failure to meet technical specifications as their reason for eliminating Boeing's AH-64D Apache Longbow and Eurocopter's Tiger from the country's competition to supply 145 new attack helicopters in a $4 billion program. Still in the running after a meeting of officials here early in the week are Italy's Agusta A-129 International, Bell Helicopter Textron's AH-1Z King Cobra and the Ka-5012, jointly proposed by Israel Aircraft Industries and Russia.
Pacific Aerospace&Electronics received a part contract worth an estimated $4.4 million from Israel Aircraft Industries for the 428JET center fuselage production system. "This order is a breakthrough in our efforts to supply total solutions to airframe builders," said Don Wright, CEO of Pacific Aerospace&Electronics.
Final endorsement of the Greek air force requirement for 60 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft (DAILY, March 9) strengthens the possibility of integration of the Hellenic aerospace industry with European industry, according to the U.K. defense secretary.
Supporters of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) plan to hold a summit meeting, probably next week, to achieve a consensus on how to move the troubled program forward and present a unified team to Congress in critical testimony this month, industry sources said. The attempt to forge a united front comes after congressional sources expressed concern that the satellite-based navigation system will ever deliver on its promise.
The U.S. Army and Boeing have just completed the sixth and final year of work on an $80 million contract to develop an advanced cockpit management system for helicopters and is passing the results on for integration into Boeing's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle program. The Rotorcraft Pilot's Associate (RPA), which uses artificial intelligence to provide cockpit and mission management, was shown this week at the Pentagon with an RPA-modified AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter and a simulator.
An outside engineering panel established to review Space Shuttle processing and maintenance has issued a sharply worded technical report that warns downsizing for cost-cutting in spending on the program may have compromised safety.
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD will host a symposium April 25-26 to "air the conflicts between the growing need for data to improve transportation safety and the industry's concern about the use of that data in regulatory actions, law suits and criminal prosecutions." Chairman Jim Hall said that the "need for information must always be balanced with our citizens' privacy concerns." He said the goal will be to "help crate a context in which safety data can be aggressively gathered while the legitimate rights of all concerned are protected." The meeting will be held at
NRO DIRECTOR Keith Hall is seeking nominations for "pioneers who made significant and lasting contributions to the discipline of national reconnaissance" who will be recognized during the once-secret agency's 40th anniversary celebrations. Hall will pick 40 individuals, living or dead, for honors at a ceremony Sept. 27.Former NRO directors, deputy directors and program managers are excluded from the nominations, which may be made by anyone before the April 14 deadline.
Litton's Data Systems Div. received a contract for about $12.5 million to provide over 1,000 Applique+ V4 computer systems to TRW, the prime contractor for the U.S Army's Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below program (FBCB2).
Comptek, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based electronics and data communications company, won a subcontract worth an estimated $2.3 million plus options to support systems and software engineering efforts for Lockheed Martin's Naval Electronics&Surveillance Systems (NE&SS) work on the U.S. Navy's Aegis radar-based combat system. John J. Sciuto, Comptek's president and CEO, said the subcontract is an important step for the company.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense and Archer Communications Systems Limited gave BAE Systems a $4.74 million contract to develop the Tactical Name Service (TNS) sub-system for the military's BOWMAN communications system. The TNS is used to help operational mobility by handling the mapping between user-friendly addressing systems across the Bowman network and computer-readable addressing used by the TCP/IP family of protocols, according to the company.
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) said yesterday that operating profit for 1999 was up 17% to 730 million euros, and that revenues were up 5% to 9.2 billion euros, "eclipsing" 1998 results. Backlog of the German company rose 9% for the year and orders represent about two and half years of work. Net income decreased to 60 million euros from 547 million euros in 1998, due largely to non-recurring tax expenses related to changes in Germany's tax laws.
GENERAL DYNAMICS' board of directors, citing the market's undervaluation of the company's stock, approved the buyback of up to 10 million common shares. The total potential repurchase amount is equivalent to about 5% of GD's 200.8 million outstanding shares.
