TERRA ON TRACK: If Discovery does get off the ground on the night of Dec. 16, it won't hamper plans to launch NASA's first big Earth Observing System platform earlier in the day. The $1.3 billion "Terra" satellite is go for launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., at 1:33 p.m. EST Thursday, and the U.S. space agency has called up extra personnel to reconfigure the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) to get it ready for the planned 9:18 p.m. EST Shuttle launch. Normally it takes at least 24 hours to reconfigure TDRSS between launches (DAILY, Dec. 10).
Rolls-Royce said Friday it would lay off another 600 workers at its Derby, U.K., large commercial engine facility. The number is in addition to 400 layoffs announced last month. In total, the company will cut 7.8% of its 13,000 workers at Derby in central England. Layoffs affect only the large commercial engines business, a spokesman said. Lower commercial aircraft deliveries and increase engine pricing pressures are blamed for the layoffs.
Boeing will launch at least 40 of the 80 satellites planned for the SkyBridge broadband satellite constellation under a "strategic partnership" agreement that brings Boeing into an equity partnership with SkyBridge, the two companies announced yesterday. Under the deal, Boeing will bring its "expertise and significant financing facilities" to be SkyBridge program, and will sell launches on at least two Delta III rockets and four Delta IV Medium+(5,4) vehicles. The arrangement also includes optional additional launches, as required.
Gen. Patricio Rios, Commander in Chief of Chile's air force, has rejected the suggestion of the executive branch of the government that it should acquire used fighter-bombers to adjust to cuts in its budget. In Santiago, Gen. Rios said that he has the "last word" on the subject, but that he would try to convince Chile's president Eduardo Frei to purchase new aircraft because the air force will not accept used equipment "under any circumstances."
Lockheed Martin Control Systems, Johnson City, N.Y., has been chosen by General Electric Aircraft engines to develop a full-authority digital engine control (FADEC) for GE F404 engines on South Korea's new KTX-2 supersonic trainer and light combat aircraft, Lockheed Martin said. The jet, being jointly developed by Samsung Aerospace and Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, will be the first single-engine aircraft powered by a GE engine to use an electronic-only control, according to Lockheed Martin.
Space Shuttle managers yesterday decided to replace a dented hydrogen fuel line on the Shuttle Discovery and still get the STS-103 mission off the ground in time for a full-duration flight to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. But if that schedule stands up, the planned Dec. 16 launch of NASA's $1.3 billion Terra Earth Observing System will have to slip for a reset of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS).
The first year of the F-117 weapon system Total System Performance Responsibility (TSPR) contract, which transfers all non-core function program management from the U.S. Air Force to the contractor, has been completed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, Palmdale, Calif., the company announced. The $1.8 billion, eight-year contract, awarded Oct. 1, 1998, represents a new government acquisition strategy intended to lower total ownership cost of the F-117 fleet, Lockheed Martin said.
The managing Council of the European Space Agency is expected to give final approval next week to Portugal's entry as the agency's 15th member state, ESA said yesterday. A ceremony marking the event is set for Dec. 15 at ESA headquarters in Paris, where Jose Mariano Gago, Portugal's minister of science and technology, and ESA Director General Antonio Rodota will sign an agreement formalizing Portugal's membership. The ESA Council is expected to approve the final terms of the agreement the day before, ESA said.
Lockheed Martin said it has been chosen by Boeing to participate in the six-month definition and risk reduction phase of the B-52H Situational Awareness Defensive Improvement (SADI) contract. The effort, valued at -about $700,000, calls for Lockheed Martin's Federal Systems unit, Owego, N.Y., to compete as one of two potential suppliers to demonstrate an electronic support measures (ESM) subsystem upgrade to replace the current ALR-20A radar warning receiver on the B-52H, Lockheed Martin said yesterday.
The FAA's inability to fund the installation cost of some air traffic control and navigation equipment it has bought is an ongoing problem for the agency and probably one of its own creation, several congressional sources said. As recently as last week, the agency acknowledged that it has $74.6 million of surveillance, communications and navigation and landing equipment stored in warehouses because of a lack of funds to pay the installation cost, which was put at $173.1 million.
Australia is interested in the U.S. Air Force/Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Missile (JASSM), Lockheed Martin officials told reporters yesterday in Washington. One reason for the interest, they said, is the unit price of $400,000 (1995 dollars). 'We have gotten the State Department license approval for the JASSM configuration that the Australians need," said Richard Caime, Lockheed Martin's vice president of strike weapons.
NASA faces some sharp questioning about its closed-door negotiations on the commercial development of an inflatable module for the International Space Station when Congress returns in the new year, according to the chairman of the authorizing committee that oversees the space agency's programs.
The National Research and Development Plan for Aviation Safety, Security, Efficiency and Environmental Compatibility, released Monday by the Administration, is an "important first step toward an integrated approach to civil aviation R&D," the Aerospace Industries Association said. AIA expressed "concern, however that because of the federal budget process, the 25-year plan does not identify the specific budget numbers in the years beyond 2002 that are needed to achieve the national R&D goals contained in the plan."
Raytheon Co. said it is dropping Teledyne Continental Motors as the supplier of the J402 engine for its Tactical Tomahawk missile, and shifting to a version of Williams International's F122 powerplant. Teledyne was selected over Williams in the original competition.
Spacehab Inc. and Russia's RSC Energia have formed a joint venture to build a commercial pressurized module on the Russian side of the International Space Station, covering the estimated $100 million development costs with revenue from television and Internet website broadcasts originating in the module.
Japan's Science and Technology Agency (STA) has approved a plan to scrap the troubled H-2 rocket, which has failed in its past two launch attempts, and concentrate on developing the H-2A upgrade. According to press reports in Tokyo, the STA authorized Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) to concentrate its resources on developing the H-2A rather than spending them on fixing the H-2. First flight of the H-2A, which was to have come in February 2000, will be delayed until February 2001 under the new plan.
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization has devised a plan to increase the interoperability of its theater missile defense (TMD) systems, according to BMDO Deputy Director Maj. Gen. Peter C. Franklin. "Achieving interoperability is a continuing joint challenge," Franklin said at an Association of the U.S. Army symposium here last week, explaining that efforts must go beyond simply writing similar technical standards for the individual systems.
The U.S. Air Force said it is equipping 18 F-15C aircraft with an improved radar, the APG-63(v)2, designed to increase pilot situational awareness and identification of friend or foe capabilities. The aircraft will be modified with an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar using components of the APG-63(v)1 radar, itself replacing the F-15C/D's aging APG-63. The newly equipped F-15s, stationed at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, are the first operational fighters with AESA radars, the Air Force reported.
The loss this fall of two Mars missions doesn't discredit the "faster-better-cheaper" procurement policy NASA used to build them, the chairman of the House committee that authorizes U.S. civil space spending said yesterday. Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chair of the House Science Committee, told reporters he plans to hold "top-to-bottom" hearings on the failures of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander once a NASA-appointed external panel completes its review of the lost missions.
WICHITA MEMBERS of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace rejected a Boeing contract offer by a 99% majority. The vote came less than a week after SPEEA's bargaining units in the Pacific Northwest rejected nearly identical offers by similar margins. A vote to authorize a strike won by an 84% majority. SPEEA represents 22,600 engineers and technical workers at Boeing.
The U.S. aerospace industry will record $155 billion in sales in 1999, its highest ever, according to figures released yesterday by the Aerospace Industries Association. "This is the highest sales ever recorded in our industry since we were established back in 1919," John W. Douglass, president, CEO and general manager of AIA, said at a luncheon in Washington.
General Electric and Pratt&Whitney have received a total of $4.7 billion in U.S. Air Force contracts for engine component improvement programs. GE was awarded a $2 billion contract Dec. 7 to support the F110 engine on the F-16; the F101 engine on the B-1; the F118 engine on the B-2; the TF39 engine on the C-5; the TF34 engine on the A-10, and the J85 engine on the T-38.
Honeywell yesterday completed a tender offer for all of the outstanding common stock shares of TriStar Aerospace Co. that was initiated by AlliedSignal Inc., which has since merged into Honeywell. About 16.7 million shares, or more than 96% of TriStar's outstanding shares, were tendered by the time the offer expired at midnight Monday. Honeywell said it will accept the shares at the tender offer price of $9.50 a share.
