Russia's plans to deorbit its aging Mir space station will be on the agenda next week when NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin and Yuri Koptiev, head of the Russian Space Agency, meet in Paris in connection with a larger meeting of all the Station partner-agency chiefs. The Goldin/Koptiev meeting is likely to produce an order that NASA engineers analyze the Mir deorbit plan developed by RSC Energia, with support from their Russian counterparts, according to Michael Hawes, deputy associate administrator for space development (Space Station).
Meggitt PLC signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Whittaker Corp. for about $380 million, Whittaker reported yesterday. The agreement has been approved by both boards of directors. Meggitt, based in Dorset, England, designs and makes products for the aerospace, electronics and industrial controls markets. It reported 1998 sales of $470 million.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) Sector appointed Alan Doshier sector vice president-program operations, effective June 1. Doshier joins Northrop Grumman from Raytheon Systems Co. in Greenville, Tex., where he was vice president-Operations in the Aircraft Integration Systems Segment. His responsibilities at Northrop Grumman include engineering, manufacturing and quality, as well as integrated logistics support (ILS).
SMITHS INDUSTRIES AEROSPACE has been chosen by Lockheed Martin to supply equipment for the C-130J aircraft's power distribution system. Smiths, through its Display and Control Systems unit, will provide an enhanced electronic circuit breaker unit system. Production deliveries are slated to begin in early 2001. Manufacturing will take place at Smiths' facility in Cheltenham, Glos.
The Senate late Tuesday night approved a $267.8 billion fiscal year 2000 defense appropriations bill - $1.4 billion over the Administration request - by a vote of 93-4 after adding an amendment that would provide $220 million from other accounts to procure four F-15E deep interdiction aircraft. The amendment was offered by Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) for Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.). Boeing builds the F-15E in St. Louis. The amendment was approved by voice vote.
Lockheed Martin Intersputnik plans to launch its first satellite by Sept. 6, and begin commercial service to the states of the former Soviet bloc and parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East by the end of that month. With 75% of the transponder capacity on its LMI-1 satellite already under contract, the U.S./Russian joint venture has decided to conduct its day to day management and operations with "dedicated teams" at Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications and Intersputnik headquarters in the U.S. and Russia.
The fifth E-8C Joint Surveillance Target and Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft has been refurbished and modified by Northrop Grumman 10 weeks ahead of plan and will be delivered to the U.S. Air Force in October, the company said. No. 5 will be the first Joint STARS airframe to be delivered under a revised plan approved by the Pentagon last year. The program was rebaselined to add more time for deliveries of the refurbished and modified Boeing 707s.
The Lockheed Martin F-22 will have a new weapons bay launcher that will save maintenance time and money, according to the U.S. Air Force. "The original launcher failed to meet the requested weight specification and was not maintenance friendly," said Capt. Don Supon of the F-22 Combined Test Force. "The original launcher was a horizontal type launcher that would swing down and then launch the missile. The new design is a vertical ejection type launcher. This means the missiles are pushed straight down out of the weapons bay."
Boeing Space and Communications Group has assembled a team of senior experts to review its expendable launch vehicle processes and procedures in the wake of launch failures involving its Delta III and Inertial Upper Stage. Former Air Force Secretary Sheila E. Widnall was named to head the panel, which will take a broader look at Boeing launch vehicle business than the panels already set up to probe specific mishaps.
The continuing competition between Airbus and Boeing will receive plenty of attention at the upcoming Paris Air Show, but several military and consolidation issues also will be big points of interests, according to several industry analysts.
The Senate yesterday wrote into the $264.7 billion fiscal 2000 defense appropriations bill language directing the U.S. Army to conduct live fire, side-by-side operational testing of the air-to-air Starstreak and Stinger missiles from the AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopter. The missiles could be used on the Apache and the RAH-66 Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter.
Croatia has selected Lockheed Martin's Ocean, Radar&Sensor Systems to provide an integrated surveillance system to meet its civil and military needs, the company said yesterday. The $94 million contract includes construction at the company's plant in Syracuse, N.Y., of five long-range, dual-use FPS-117E(1)T radars with associated display consoles and five Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radars. The equipment will provide air traffic control radar coverage over all Croatian airspace as well as that of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.
BAD WEATHER over Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., forced a one-day delay in yesterday's planned launch of four more Globalstar "Big LEO" low-Earth orbit communications satellites aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket. The launch was rescheduled at 10:04:51 a.m. EDT on a three-minute window.
China's military modernization efforts will not cause major change in U.S. spending plans, according to Merrill Lynch aerospace analyst Byron Callan, but he says some areas - ballistic missile defense, intelligence and surveillance and naval ship programs - could benefit over the next 5-10 years.
UPS Aviation Technologies will demonstrate avionics and data links for the Capstone Program, a U.S. government-sponsored test of advanced flight technology that is expected to show that general aviation aircraft can be equipped with systems found only in larger and more expensive aircraft.
British Steel has formally integrated its aerospace stockholding and manufacturing facilities, a move that it says will provide aerospace producers with more efficient access to materials. The company said the resulting organization, British Steel Engineering Steels Aerospace, offers both traditional and tailored supply options.
A test launch of a Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile, slated for yesterday at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., was postponed until Thursday due to a commercial power outage at the range. The missile was expected to intercept a Hera target. It was the second postponement for THAAD in two weeks. A May 25 test was aborted because of problems with the target. The THAAD schedule has been pushed back by 16 days because of the delays, according to an Army spokesman.
Eutelsat and the Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES), Europe's two largest commercial satellite operators, have agreed on a way to coordinate frequencies that will allow both to expand their operations in the relatively crowded orbital slots serving their core markets. Paris-based Eutelsat and SES, which operates from Luxembourg, said yesterday they had reached an "Intersystem Coordination Agreement" designed to prevent frequency interference between the two systems, even as they compete and grow.
NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) is set for launch June 23 on a three-year mission to seek the "fossil record" of the Big Bang, searching the Milky Way galaxy and its neighbors for signatures of deuterium formed in the first moments of the Universe.
The U.S. Air Force plans to load new bomb racks on its Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 50s in an effort to double the jets' smart munitions payload without shortening their 390 nautical mile range. The technology is being developed for the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor internal weapons bay, said Maj. Scott Pigeon, the U.S. Air Force's bomb rack program manager.
EchoStar has received 5 million direct broadcast satellite television receivers from SCI over the past three years, the Littleton, Colo.-based DBS provider reported. Headquartered in Huntsville, Ala., SCI is a diversified electronics manufacturer with operations in 16 countries. In April, the company started manufacturing EchoStar's "DISHPlayer," which integrates EchoStar's DISH network program with "WebTV Networks Plus," an "Internet TV experience" available by satellite.
High deployment rates for the U.S. Marine Corps' fleet of EA-6B Prowler aircraft is a top concern for Lt. Gen. James L. Jones, who has been nominated to become the next Marine Commandant.
Northrop Grumman, Electronics Sensors and Systems Sector, Baltimore, Md., is being awarded an estimated $15,942,335 requirements contract with firm-fixed-prices for repair of the APG-66 radar system used on Navy P-3 aircraft and various aircraft used by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs Service. The contract also covers repair of the WF-360 forward looking FLIR system used by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy Test Pilot School. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md., and is expected to be completed by October 2002.
AAR Engine Components Services, Inc., Frankfort, N.Y., was awarded on May 28, 1999, a $6,417,600 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for repair and overhaul of 33,600 (best estimated quantity) Divergent Nozzle Segment Seals applicable to the F100 engines on the F-15 and F-16 aircraft. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. There were five firms solicited and three proposals received. Expected contract completion date is May 2001. Solicitation issue date was Aug. 7, 1998. Negotiation completion date was May 19, 1999.
