A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted more than 500 pounds of European microgravity experiments to orbit last week for a 16-day mission in a Foton-12 recoverable capsule, the European Space Agency reported. The mission that started Sept. 9 was the sixth in which ESA has participated. Researchers from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and the U.K. have experiments aboard designed to study biological and physical processes in microgravity.
GenCorp, Fairlawn, Ohio, reported earnings of $20.4 million on sales of $459.4 million in its 1999 third quarter, compared to earnings of $17.3 million on sales of $461.4 in the same period a year ago. Aerojet, the company's aerospace and defense unit, saw sales slip from $205.4 million in the 1998 third quarter to $148.1 million in 1999, but income improved slightly from $19.9 million to $20.1 million. Operating margins improved due to contract mix and favorable performance award fees.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN won a $2.7 billion USAF contract Friday for support of the B-2 bomber. Effective immediately, the indefinite-delivery/indefinite contract for the Flexible Acquisition and Sustainment Team (FAST) covers the support needed to keep the fleet of stealthy aircraft combat-ready through Sept. 16, 2005. It also includes three three-year options for a possible total of 15 years.
NASA managers have pushed back the next Space Shuttle launch again and reopened the question of which of two pending missions it will be, raising the possibility one flight will slip into next year and complicating planning for the next steps in assembling the International Space Station.
Fairchild Corp. posted a $59 million loss in its 1999 fiscal year, recording a $58 million one-time pre-tax charge in the fourth quarter related to its acquisition of Kaynar Technologies and inventory reserves for its Dallas Aerospace subsidiary. In fiscal 1998, the company earned $101.1 million.
MINIATURE LASERS: USAF Chief Gen. Michael Ryan sees laser weapons in the future, provided one significant technical hurdle can be overcome. "There is a great possibility for lasers in the future, if we could just get the power source down in size and still get the power out the front in a lethal dose," Ryan says. "There are great applications for it."
NATO pilots hit about half as many pieces of military equipment during the 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia as they had claimed during mission debriefs at the time, according to a report released in Brussels on Thursday. The "Allied Forces Munitions Effectiveness Assessment" found that 974 pieces of military equipment were hit in Kosovo, including 93 tanks, 153 armored personnel carriers, 339 military vehicles and 389 artillery and mortar pieces.
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS Committee members voted late Thursday to accept the $13.6 billion fiscal 2000 NASA spending bill marked up the day before by the VA, HUD and independent agencies subcommittee. The Senate bill would restore the $900 million cut in the House from the Administration's request, but sets up a separate account for the International Space Station and shifts funds from space science into space transportation research and education (DAILY, Sept. 16).
NATIONAL GUARD V-22: Boeing officials are trying to interest Air National Guard units in buying the V-22 Osprey as a regional asset to be shared by several states. They are emphasizing the tiltrotor's speed and range improvements over helicopters. And as an added bonus, the aircraft is built to operate in a contaminated environment after chemical and biological attacks. Its sealed cockpit and avionics and overpressurized cabin are being used as prime selling points for this mission. The main problem is figuring out who will pay for the $66 million birds.
EXPORT CONTROL: Walter Kroell, chairman of the executive board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), predicts a good future in international space cooperation, with the spacefaring nations of the world cooperating on civil space projects under the leadership of NASA. But in remarks to a Washington audience last week Kroell pointedly lumped the stiff new U.S. export control regulations with Russia's continuing financial woes as potential stumbling blocks to space cooperation.
U.S. Air Force planners are nearing completion on a pair of documents that will shape how the service moves to a "seamless" integration of its airborne, space and ground assets in the next 20 years, according to Gen. Lester Lyles, the service's vice chief of staff, who said commercial space services will be an important part of the mix. Lyles told a Washington symposium yesterday that one of the documents - a white paper titled "Beyond the Horizon" - could be released as early as November, with a more detailed "Aerospace Integration Plan (AIP) to follow.
Competitors for the U.K.'s Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) program traded fire Wednesday, with Raytheon Co. sharpening its offer and the team of British Aerospace and Matra BAe Dynamics saying its proposal is the best solution. Raytheon unveiled the Extended Range Air-to-Air Missile Plus (ERAAMplus), which incorporates new technology from the U.S. AMRAAM program, and said that if it is chosen, the U.K. and U.S. will form an equal partnership to satisfy new missile requirements of both countries.
The Discoverer II satellite program is not expected to survive the defense appropriators conference this fall. The program lost $100 million when the House Appropriations Committee slashed the request, and according to program officials, threatened the viability of the effort.
Pratt&Whitney's PW6000 engine achieved its full rating of 24,000 pounds of thrust in initial full-power test runs, the company reported yesterday. The engine hit maximum thrust after 12 hours of sea-level testing designed to measure stress and component performance. "Initial data indicate the engine is performing right on target," said Peter Smith, PW6000 program manager. "We will continue sea-level testing through the end of this month, and the engine will be ready for altitude testing October 1."
Boeing's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle is two years away from flying, but a company executive says the program epitomizes what Boeing is trying to accomplish with its Phantom Works operation. "Boeing designed the Phantom Works to be a cross-cutting organization and work across all business units," Gen. George Muellner (USAF-ret.), vice president of Phantom Works, told The DAILY in an interview at the Air Force Association convention in Washington on Wednesday.
The Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile hit a target for the second time in a row during a test yesterday at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., clearing the way for low rate initial production. The PAC-3 "intercepted and destroyed the incoming tactical ballistic missile target," said prime contractor Lockheed Martin. "Preliminary test data indicate all test objectives were successfully achieved."
The Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program has won its battle to move into production with about $500 million being set aside for the project in the U.S. Air Force budget, according to AF Secretary F. Whitten Peters. "What has been proposed is to continue buying the air vehicles and ground stations at a low rate while improving the system," Peters told reporters Wednesday at a Washington press conference. "The system has been effective for what it is - a technology demonstration."
Raytheon Co. expects to take a $350-$450 million pre-tax charge to earnings in the third quarter related to more cost reductions in the Electronics segment and Raytheon Engineers&Constructors, the company reported yesterday. Actions are expected to include more closures, asset disposals, and opportunities to reduce indirect costs and overhead. On Wall Street, the company's stock dived $7.31 to close at $53.62.
Congress will restore $1.8 billion in production funding for the F-22 when the defense budget bill clears conference, according U.S. Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters and other key AF leaders who have been lobbying Capitol Hill this week.
GROUND QUALIFICATION tests have been completed on the Fregat upper stage the Franco-Russian Starsem partnership plans to use to launch the European Space Agency's Cluster II spacecraft next year and to market for commercial launches to low- and mid-Earth orbits. Starsem said yesterday the testing was conducted by the Russian Space Agency, NPO Lavotchkin and the Samara Space Center, as well as its own engineers.
South Africa placed an order for 28 Gripen fighters and 24 Hawk jet trainers from British Aerospace and Saab, BAe reported. South Africa chose the two aircraft in November 1998. Initial deliveries will consist of nine dual-seat Gripens and 12 Hawks, with options for 19 more Gripens and 12 more Hawks. This is the first export order for the Gripen. BAe and Saab jointly will provide an offset program for South Africa, which will provide major work for the country's aerospace and defense industry.
A 15-second burn of the Mars Climate Orbiter maneuvering engines has set up the NASA probe for a Sept. 23 burn that will insert it into a polar orbit around the Red Planet. Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory determined the burn, which came at 12:40 p.m. EDT Wednesday, put the spacecraft on a trajectory that will take it over the north pole of Mars on Sept. 23. When it gets there it will execute its orbital insertion maneuver, firing its main engine to brake into its orbit.
U.S. Air Force controllers launched the second Atmospheric Interceptor Technology (AIT) rocket from Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska, sending the solid-fuel ballistic missile simulator down the West Coast to evaluate missile warning radars and conducting technology experiments along the way.
