PANAMSAT EXPECTS net earnings to decline "modestly" this year because of what it termed "manufacturing delays" at Hughes Space and Communications. Galaxy XI, a Hughes 704 platform originally scheduled for launch last month, will be launched late this year instead because "component concerns" required replacement and retesting, and subsequent launches will slip accordingly.
TRW said yesterday that it will divest four automotive operations to help address its "immediate priority" of cutting debt following the acquisition of LucasVarity plc. TRW expects to gain between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion from the sale of its TRW Engine Components and Lucas Diesel Systems operations, TRW Nelson Stud Welding, and the LucasVarity wiring companies. TRW wants to cut its debt by about $2.5 billion over the next 18 months, including divestiture proceeds.
The Aerospace Industries Association wants Vice President Gore to help increase the quotas for launches of U.S. satellites on Russian vehicles. Under an agreement signed in 1996 between Gore and former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russia may conduct 16 geosynchronous launches of U.S. satellites through the end of 2000, with the possibility of four additional launches if both the U.S. and Russia agree. The U.S. has not currently agreed to go beyond 16.
John W. Douglass, president of the Aerospace Industries Association, told Spacebusiness TODAY last week that AIA is studying the idea of a public-private organization to handle export licensing applications. Such an organization is one of the alternatives under consideration by the Washington-based association to address the bottleneck in export licensing at the State Dept.
The Senate Armed Services Committee in its fiscal year 2000 defense authorization bill beefed up funding for a number of the Pentagon's space and strategic intelligence programs.
While other companies work on financing constellations to provide satellite-based Internet service, Europe Online Networks SA of Betzdorf, Luxembourg, started offering satellite-based access to the Internet last week. Candace Johnson, President of Europe Online, said "It is the world's first, mass-consumer, broad-band, Internet in-the-sky service."
Russia's constellation of communications satellites continues to degrade as time passes, with hopes for revival of the network pinned on the use of advanced technologies borrowed from the West.
United Start, the U.S. marketing company for the Russian Cosmos 3M, Start-1 and Start launch vehicles, may conduct launches outside of Russia. According to Larry R. Foor, vice president of marketing and sales for United Start, the company has talked to spaceport officials in Alaska, California and Virginia. The company has also studied equatorial launches out of a northern Australian site near Darwin and is interested in launching from Australia's Woomera facility "if the market develops."
General Dynamics returned to the business jet market by entering into a definite agreement to acquire Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., GD reported yesterday. The one-for-one stock swap will be valued at about $5.3 billion based on GD's closing price from Friday. At closing yesterday, GD was down $6.19 to $65.25, and Gulfstream was up $6.06 to $61.69.
Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center have validated the aluminum liquid oxygen tank for Lockheed Martin's X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype in two weeks of pressure and loads tests. The 6,000-pound tank - an exact copy of the one already installed in the suborbital X-33 flight vehicle at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, Calif. - was pressurized and subjected to external loads in simulations of the conditions it will encounter in pre-takeoff, takeoff, ascent, return and landing.
RECYCLING TANKS: Members of the House Science Committee want NASA to take another look at recycling the 154-by-27.5-foot Space Shuttle external tanks instead of throwing them away after launch. The fiscal 2000 NASA authorization bill marked up by the panel last week (DAILY, May 14) includes a provision requiring NASA to order an independent study of possible uses for the tank if it is retained in orbit.
FIGHTING IN Y2K: The U.S. Air Force is testing each of its warfighting systems twice, from sensors to shooters, for Year 2000 compliance. The exercises, which began last week and continue through mid-June, will culminate with a major theater of war scenario at Nellis AFB, Nev. The service plans to roll over the internal clocks of each system during the regularly scheduled exercises, said an Air Combat Command spokesman. Several dates will be checked, including Jan. 1, Feb. 28, Feb. 29 and March 1. Live fire exercises are included.
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is in "serious trouble" and must devote more attention to signals intelligence (sigint) capabilities, according to report accompanying the House's versions of the fiscal year 2000 intelligence authorization. Sigint must be made a higher priority with added funding, according to the House Intelligence Committee. The Intelligence bill passed the House last week (DAILY, May 14). The report said money and priority alone will not revive the NSA, nor the overall sigint system.
Lockheed Martin demonstrated capabilities being developed for the Joint Strike Fighter to allow the plane to strike targets more accurately. In a series of piloted simulations at the company's Fort Worth, Tex., facility, sensor systems and integration features were used to multiply the JSF's potential to recognize, identify, classify and discriminate among targets, Lockheed Martin said.
BFGOODRICH said that Beech King Air and Beech 1900 aircraft can now be outfitted with new FASTboot pneumatic deicers from the company's Aerospace Ice Protection Systems Div., Uniontown, Ohio.
The Royal Norwegian Navy selected Lockheed Martin as the preferred competitor to provide the integrated weapon system for a new line of frigates for Norway, the company reported. The potential value of the contract is more than $500 million.
CONSOLIDATING CHINA WORK: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) says he may form a China commission of his own. So many segments of Congress have been delving into allegations of Chinese espionage and problems associated with satellite launch in the PRC that Lott thinks it may be time to bring everything under one roof. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) delayed release of his commission's findings last week, supposedly because of the mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. However, the report is expected to be made public this week.
