EXPORT CONTROL: International Space Station managers aren't the only civil space officials chafing under strict new U.S. export control regulations (DAILY, Dec. 16). The Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission tentatively planned for launch in 2005 aboard Europe's Ariane 5 rocket is also bogged down in State Dept. red tape, according to Cornell's Steven W. Squyres, a planetary scientist who serves on the NASA Advisory Council.
Airbus confirmed that deliveries of its A320 family aircraft will be a "couple of weeks late" next year. A spokeswoman told The DAILY that the problem lies with BAE Systems, which produces wings for Airbus narrowbodies. Despite the delay, the problem will not affect Airbus' increased production rate, and all airlines will receive 2000 deliveries. "We have implemented an all-encompassing recovery program to absolutely minimize the delays," the spokeswoman said.
The Dept. of Defense is ready for the Year 2000 computer rollover, according to Deputy Secretary of Defense John J. Hamre. DOD, he said, has monitored the fixing, testing and certification of essential computerized systems, totaling 2,101 mission critical systems and 5,488 mission support systems.
C-130J ORDERS: Kuwait has approved funding for a buy of four Lockheed Martin C-130J-30s, although contract talks must conclude before a formal order is placed. Lockheed Martin has 90 orders for the airlifter, and the U.S. Air Force is expected to order two more this fiscal year.
Anaren Microwave, Inc., of Syracuse, N.Y., has been selected to develop and produce antenna beamforming networks for the Hughes Spaceway Global Broadband Satellite Network. Hughes Space and Communications plans to use the Spaceway network to provide high bandwidth communications through geostationary satellites for broadband and multimedia applications. Its contract with Anaren, a specialist in complex microwave signal distribution networks, calls for production of three satellite flight sets by the first quarter of 2002.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., has been awarded a $531 million contract modification from the Air Force to provide for the restructure of the Space Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) High program to reflect deferral of the first SBIRS geosynchronous satellite launch from fiscal year 2002 to fiscal year 2004, the Pentagon said Friday.
OVERHEAD SEARCH: NASA still hasn't given up on the Mars Polar Lander, silent since it plunged into the planet's atmosphere (DAILY, Dec. 7, 8). Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be watching the data from the Mars Global Surveyor at least through Friday to see if they can pick up traces of the lost lander in MGS imagery from the South Pole target landing zone. The orbiter is conducting high-resolution scans of the landing area two or three times a day, and controllers may decide to continue after the holidays to cover the entire target footprint.
RAMOS TECH TESTS: Ballistic Missile Defense Organization officials and their Russian counterparts will be analyzing new data from a series of Ramos satellite technology tests that wrapped up last week. A first look shows it is "high quality data" and better than that collected on flight tests in 1998, Maj. Carl Geary, BMDO regional manager for Russia and Central Europe, tells The DAILY. Last week, the Ramos team completed flight tests on the U.S. Air Force's Flying Infrared Signatures Technology aircraft, a modified KC-135 tanker. The tests involved flying U.S.
NASA has exercised the first of six contract options with Spacehab Inc. for International Space Station logistics, awarding the company $4.2 million to supply its Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) and tool unpressurized "toolboxes" to the Station on assembly flight 7A.1.
Lockheed Martin's Tactical Aircraft Systems unit said it has earned the Software Engineering Institute's Level 4 status, placing it among the top 5% of the U.S. Dept. of Defense contractors for software development. The designation also makes it one of three defense contractors with more than 1,000 employees involved in software development to earn this or a higher rating, the company said.
Kaiser Marquardt has delivered nine of its R-4D bipropellant engines to DaimlerChrysler for use on the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for the International Space Station. The engines were delivered after the Van Nuys, Calif.-based company conducted hot-fire tests of the 490-Newton rocket engines over the entire ATV qualification envelope.
Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss., has been awarded a $660 million contract to build two DDG 51 Class Aegis guided missile destroyers for the U.S. Navy, the company announced. The contract marks 23 Aegis guided missile destroyers that Litton Ingalls, a division of Litton Industries, has under contract to the Navy, 12 of which have already been delivered. The Navy wants 57 ships in its DDG 51 program, Litton Ingalls said. It has committed procurement for 52 of these through the year 2001.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has named A. Thomas Young, retired executive vice president of Lockheed Martin, to head the special panel being set up to review the agency's Mars exploration program in the wake of back-to-back failures of the two Mars '98 spacecraft.
An FAA Y2K contingency plan for dealing with potential air traffic control problems "will be done" by Dec. 31, a National Air Traffic Controllers Association official said last week. Chris Sutherland, NATCA's Y2K representative to the FAA, had said previously that the plan is "nothing more than an unworkable dream." On Thursday, however, he said that "for the past three months we have been working nonstop with the agency to bring the contingency plan into Y2K compliance."
CORRECTION: An article in The DAILY of Dec. 17 incorrectly stated that NASA is studying blended wing bodies for high-speed civil transport applications. The configuration is being studied for applications in subsonic conventional takeoff and landing aircraft.
JAPANESE TANKER PLANS: Japan is moving toward initial purchase of aerial tankers. It has not yet settled on a type, but it plans to buy one a year from fiscal 2000 to fiscal 2003. The Boeing 767 is seen as a likely choice because Japan already is buying it for early warning duties. Unit of the new tanker is expected to be about 20 billion yen, or $195 million.
Raytheon Systems Ltd. has signed a contract valued at 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion) for the U.K. Ministry of Defense's Airborne Standoff Radar (ASTOR) program. The signing, in a ceremony Friday in Bristol, England, came after nearly six months of negotiations that followed selection of the U.K. subsidiary of Raytheon Co. over Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman as the preferred bidder for the battlefield radar surveillance system (DAILY, June 16).
SHUTTLE SPEEDUP: NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is expected to repeat earlier warnings that the Space Shuttle program has cut too deeply into its experience base as it has searched for cheaper ways to fly. A new report due next month will warn the Shuttle program can't achieve the flight rates it needs to build the International Space Station with the sparse staffing it has now, repeating the message the panel of senior aerospace experts sent almost two years earlier (DAILY, Feb. 13, 1998).
A review of the proposed production version of Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter aircraft was "highly successful," the company said. The company and more than 100 government and senior international officials carried out the last in a series of regularly scheduled evaluations of contractor progress in design and development of the JSF Preferred Weapon System Concept, and manufacturing of the X-35 concept demonstrator aircraft. The Lockheed Martin team's risk-reduction and lean manufacturing initiatives were also reviewed.
Liberty Media Group, which holds interests in various communications, technology and Internet businesses around the world, has invested $425 million in Astrolink to help the Bethesda, Md.-based broadband satellite venture meet "substantially all" of its equity target.
CFM INTERNATIONAL said it shipped the last production CFM56-3 engine to Boeing on Friday for installation on the final Classic 737. The aircraft, a 737-400, will be delivered to CSA Czech Airlines in February. CFM International, a joint company of France's Snecma and General Electric of the U.S. predicted in 1981 when Boeing chose the CFM56-3 for the 737 that about 400 of the airliners would be sold. In fact, 1,987 have been sold, as have 3,975 engines.
The FAA has asked its Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) to come up with new operating rules to ensure that transport jets are not operated beyond certain flight cycle limits unless an "Aging Aircraft Program" has been incorporated into the operator's maintenance program. The new rule and advisory material will establish the content of the Aging Aircraft Program, including special inspections and modifications to prevent widespread fatigue damage.
Lawrence (Larry) A. Oberkfell has been appointed senior vice president of Titan and president and chief executive officer of Titan Scan Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary.
