The U.S. Navy's Aegis ships would give warfighters a significant edge in the ballistic missile defense mission, said Hans Mark, the Pentagon's director of defense research and engineering. Conversion of the ships with the proper missiles and launchers to defend against ballistic missile attacks is a "major advantage," Mark said at a conference here. The ships and trained people are available, and can be deployed anywhere to combat a threat, he said.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) should spend more of its resources on high-risk programs that hold great promise for military forces, according to a report by a Defense Science Board (DSB) task force. DARPA has focused its $2 billion annual budget on information technology projects since Desert Storm in 1991, but has slowly adopted a risk-averse stance favoring projects that will be adopted by military services within five years, the board warned in a report released last week entitled "Investment Strategy for DARPA."
BOEING plans to use new, larger solid-fuel booster rockets developed for its Delta III launch vehicle to increase the capacity of a Delta II launcher when it orbits NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) late in 2001, the company said yesterday. Instead of the normal 40-inch-diameter solid boosters normally used on the Delta II, the SIRTF launch vehicle will carry 46-inch-diameter Delta III boosters. Nine of the 138,000 lbst motors will give the Delta II a 10% increase in lift capability to geosynchonous transfer orbit, or about 4,550 pounds.
International Space Station costs associated with science facilities and operations on the ground and in orbit have increased by some $3.9 billion since 1994, with schedule slips and added activities the chief culprits, the General Accounting Office reported.
The U.S. Air Force is investigating changes to the Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) system that will enable it to harness the vast amount of data available on each airlifter flight.
ROY T. GRANT, the former chief financial officer of Iridium LLC, has been named to the board of directors of DBS Industries Inc., which is developing a satellite-based messaging system. "Roy Grant's impressive record in raising money for the Iridium global satellite telephone company will be invaluable to DBSI as we move ahead on financing plans for our system," said Fred W.Thompson, DBSI's chief executive. DBSI is based in Mill Valley, Calif.
The Tactical Control Station (TCS) being developed by the U.S. Navy for unmanned aerial vehicles has demonstrated direct receipt of imagery data with the Bombardier CL-327 vertical take-off UAV, the service announced. The demonstration, carried out for NATO, took place at Bombardier's facilities in Lawton, Okla., where the UAV is being prepared for shipboard demonstrations for the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy. The flights are scheduled for September aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Legare.
There's no guarantee the national missile defense (NMD) kill vehicle will hit its target on the first try, according to the head of the Pentagon's NMD program. "I will not guarantee absolute success of this flight test in terms of hit-to-kill," said Brig. Gen. Willie B. Nance, NMD Joint Program Office director. The program office and Boeing, the lead system integrator, are gearing up for the first intercept test of the NMD Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) in late September (DAILY, Aug. 26).
Legislative authority for NASA to waive its costs as a way to encourage startup businesses to use the International Space Station are "absolutely necessary" if the orbiting facility is ever to have a significant commercial component, according to the head of Spacehab, which has already acquired commercial space on the Station from Canada.
NASA is preparing plans to evaluate the environmental impact of X-34 rocket operations on as many as seven states, with a "Notice of Intent" expected to be published before the end of the year.
Lockheed Martin Corp. yesterday signed a seven-year lease agreement for over one million gross square feet of property at the former Kelly AFB, Tex. The agreement is with the Greater Kelly Development Corp., the authority charged with redeveloping and commercializing the base. GKDC already has leasing agreements with 16 companies at the base, which is scheduled for closure on July 13, 2001. The companies include Boeing, EG&G, General Electric and Pratt&Whitney. The Lockheed Martin team includes Chromalloy Gas Turbine, Standard Aero Ltd.
CD Radio Inc. still needs $169 million to fund the pre-operational phase of its projected three-satellite, digital radio system, about $30 million more than it had originally anticipated. CD plans to offer subscribers 100 channels of programming for about $10 per month starting in late 2000.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers expects a deal worked out with Boeing over the weekend to pass ratification tomorrow.
The bankruptcy filing of ICO Global Communications Holdings Ltd. last Friday, only two weeks after competitor Iridium filed for bankruptcy protection, may leave Globalstar as the big winner in the field of satellite telephony. Armand Musey, senior satellite analyst at Banc of America Securities, said Globalstar could come out on top if Iridium and ICO fail to emerge from Chapter 11. Globalstar has already finished the initial portion of its constellation, and plans a "soft-rollout" of its service next month.
The General Accounting Office is launching an investigation of the FAA's satellite navigation program, saying Congress has asked it to review the agency's efforts to transition from a ground-based to a satellite-based navigation system.
The General Services Administration has issued a request for proposals on what could be a huge purchase of satellite communication services. Bids on satellite time and equipment to support distance learning, telephony, pager, data, fax and video transmission are being sought. While government will always have its own systems for some things, said one industry observer, so many applications are becoming available that it's almost a given that it also will need commercial capacity.
Rocketdyne's XRS-2200 linear aerospike engine is scheduled to get its first full-up hot-fire test on Sept. 11, as the innovative rocket for the NASA/Lockheed Martin X-33 testbed enters a test series at Stennis Space Center, Miss., that will last into next summer.
The European Commission has given itself four more months to review the planned merger between U.S. firms AlliedSignal and Honeywell. The European Union's competition watchdog said yesterday in Brussels that its "initial investigation" had "shown that the merger may lead to the creation or the strengthening of a dominant position in one or more markets for avionics products" in Europe. Creation of a dominant position through a merger is forbidden by EU competition law.
FINAL CREW of Russia's Mir orbital station landed safely early Saturday after closing down the 13-year-old spacecraft to await what controllers hope will be a deliberate reentry next February or March. Commander Viktor Afanasyev, flight engineer Sergei Avdeyev and French researcher Jean-Pierre Haignere closed the hatch to their Soyuz capsule after a brief farewell ceremony that was televised worldwide Friday. They landed at 4:35 a.m. local time Saturday (8:35 p.m. Friday EDT), and later flew to the cosmonaut training center at Star City near Moscow.
