Four Globalstar communications satellites were orbited yesterday on a Russian-made Soyuz launcher fired from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the first mission performed by the Russian-French joint venture Starsem, established in 1996 to market the venerable Soyuz medium-lift vehicle.
The Clinton Administration opposes national missile defense (NMD) legislation being considered in the Senate because it calls for deployment based on criteria that is too narrow, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger told the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Hughes Global Services Inc. (HGS), won a contract from the General Services Administration (GSA) Friday to provide a variety of satellite services for various government agencies, Hughes reported yesterday. The contract is designed to give government agencies access to all types of commercial fixed, broadcast and mobile satellite services and associated equipment in all commercial satellite communications frequency bands. The contract also includes the capability to add new commercial services as they become available.
Launch of the Telstar 6 communication satellite scheduled for Jan. 30 has been delayed at least two and a half weeks due to a computer malfunction in the kick stage of its Proton launch vehicle. The Loral Skynet satellite should have been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the three-stage Proton-K launcher outfitted with a Block DM3 upper stage supplied by Energia Rocket and Space Corp. However, during prelaunch preparations on the pad a problem was discovered in one of channels of on-board computer of the Block DM3.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a final rule revising emission standards for jet aircraft engines to meet the current standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization for oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide.
BOEING IS EXHIBITING a cross-section mockup of the 717 at AeroExpo Acapulco '99. Rolf Sellge, director of 717 product marketing, said the aircraft is "ideally suited for Latin America's regional markets." He said the 717 is the "only new 100-seat passenger jet now in production and has a head-start of at least four years on any potential competitor."
Chinese and Russian assistance to countries proliferating weapons of mass destruction (WMD) likely will continue this year, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. Tenet is slated to present the same global threat assessment information to House members this week. "Russian and Chinese assistance to proliferant countries has merited particular attention for several years," Tenet said. "This year, unfortunately, is no exception."
February 2, 1999 United Technologies Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., is being awarded an $18,951,817 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 2,110 retrofit kits to update the F100PW229 engine applicable to the F-15 and F-16 aircraft. Approximately 45% of this effort supports foreign military sales to Korea. Expected contract completion date is February 2002. Solicitation issue date was July 6, 1998. Negotiation completion date was Dec. 21, 1998. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-94-D-2001-0085).
Cosmonauts on Mir and ground controllers here abandoned their attempt to use an orbiting thin-film mirror to pinpoint a beam of light on Earth after an unrelated antenna on the discarded Progress cargo capsule carrying the experiment deployed by mistake and fouled the reflector's deployment. The experiment, called Znamya-2.5, began an hour after separation of the Progress M-40 automated cargo vehicle from Mir at about 11 a.m. UTC (6 a.m. EST) last Thursday. The 25-meter Mylar reflector, wound onto eight drums, was mounted at the exterior of the capsule.
GKN Westland Aerospace Inc., Wallingford, Conn., has received three patents for new processes for molding composite parts, the company reported yesterday. GKN said the new manufacturing methods will increase yields and efficiency and will allow more complex parts, with varying thickness, unusual angles and substantial contours, to be made with composites.
February 1, 1999 Textron Systems Corp., Wilmington, Mass., is being awarded a $93,731,031 face value increase to a fixed-price-incentive contract to provide for 300 CBU-97A/B Sensor Fused Weapons, 144 BLU-108B Joint Standoff Weapons, 60 CBU-97A/B Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers, and associated warranties. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is March 31, 2001. Negotiation completion date was Jan. 25, 1999. Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-99-C-0008-P00002).
Boeing reached firm design configuration on the 737-900, the longest Next Generation 737 model, the company reported yesterday. The 737-900 will be 138 feet, 2 inches long, nine feet longer than the 737-800. The increased size will provide 18% more cargo volume and about 9% more passenger cabin area than the 737-800.
A Boeing Delta II launch vehicle has sent NASA's Stardust sample return probe on a five-year trip to the comet Wild-2, but weather kept a second Delta II on the ground at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Stardust lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., at 4:04 p.m. EST Sunday after a 24-hour delay because electric current levels in the C-band tracking beacon on the vehicle were out of limits, according to Boeing. The spacecraft hit its one-second launch window Sunday after the anomaly thwarted a planned launch attempt Saturday.
February 1, 1999 Analytic Services, Inc., Arlington, Va., is being awarded a $12,379,504 face value increase to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for 33 research staff members to perform analytical and technical support services for the Joint Strike Fighter Program management Office through September 2001. Expected contract completion date is Sept. 30, 2001. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (F49620-94-C-0028-P00018).
THE THIRD F-22 Raptor left Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems' plant in Marietta, Ga., on Friday for the company's nearby structural test facility. Testing of the static article, designated aircraft 3999, will begin in March.
The Fairchild Corp. reported strong gains from its Fairchild Fasteners units in its 1999 second quarter, but the sale of Solair Inc. led to a $19.3 million charge and left Fairchild with a loss in the quarter. Fairchild took an $18 million loss in the second quarter, compared to profits of $20.4 million in the same period a year ago. Sales fell from $208.6 million in the 1998 second quarter to $151.2 million this year.
NASA's X-38 80%-scale prototype of a crew rescue vehicle for the International Space Station completed a 10-minute drop test Saturday with a landing controlled by its steerable parafoil, according to a spokesman for the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif.
