CUBIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS INC., San Diego, has won a $14.3 million U.S. Army contract for Joint STARS data links. The contract, from the Army's Communications and Electronics Command, calls for production of Ground Data Terminals (GDTs) and stowage cases in which to transport the GDT's mast head antenna.
NASA has slipped a budget "placeholder" to fund future U.S. launch vehicle development by a year and boosted the amount from $750 million to $1.22 billion as the X-33 program stretches in the face of technical problems and the competition between Space Shuttle upgrades and a completely new vehicle becomes more of a horse race.
NASA'S DRYDEN Flight Research Center has scheduled a drop test of the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle prototype Friday at about 8 a.m. PST. The agency's B-52 launch vehicle will drop the lifting body from about 22,000 feet above Edwards AFB, Calif., for a 10-second free fall before its parafoils deploy for a guided approach and landing.
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's $3.3 billion fiscal year 2000 budget request funds the bolstered national missile defense (NMD) effort and keeps theater missile defense (TMD) programs on track. The Dept. of Defense decided last month to add $6.6 billion in its five-year budget to support possible NMD deployment, with a decision on that slated to be made in 2000. Defense Secretary William Cohen announced the NMD budget restructuring along with changes for the troubled Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program (DAILY, Jan. 21).
LOCKHEED MARTIN Vought Systems received a U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command contract worth $64.9 million for 96 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block IA missiles.
U.S. Air Force Space Command has established a set of corrective actions that must be taken before the fleet of Titan launch vehicles can return to flight, apparently clearing the way for launches to resume late next month or early in April.
RAYTHEON SYSTEMS CO.'S Naval and Maritime Systems Div., San Diego, received a $5.5 million contract from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command for a Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS) Mk. 2 equipment shipset in support of CVN-69, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. The U.S. Dept.
Several members of the House Armed Services Committee put Defense Secretary William Cohen on the spot yesterday, saying the fiscal year 2000 Pentagon budget falls far short of meeting the military's requirements.
NASA's fiscal year 2000 budget request Following is a breakout of NASA's fiscal year 2000 budget request, released Tuesday (DAILY, Feb. 2). Dollar amounts are in millions. FY 1999 FY 2000 INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 2,304.7 2,482.7 LAUNCH VEHICLES&PAYLOAD OPS 3,175.3 3,155.3 SCIENCE, AERONAUTICS&TECHNOLOGY 5,653.9 5,424.7
An article in The DAILY of Feb. 2 incorrectly listed the figure to be spent on synthetic vision for aircraft applications. NASA plans to spend $50 million, not $250 million over five years.
The Pentagon's plan to increase procurement funding over the next five years was welcomed yesterday by the Aerospace Industries Association, but it expressed concern over a planned decline in defense research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) over the same period, and was worried about a drop in NASA aerospace technology funding.
RAYTHEON CO. won a $17.3 million contract to upgrade the Republic of Korea Air Force Maintenance and Repair Facility at Sosan AB in South Korea. Raytheon said the facility maintains and repairs the nation's arsenal of AIM-9L/M Sidewinder missiles.
ARIANESPACE has delayed its planned launch of Arabsat 3A and Skynet 4E until Feb. 26 at the earliest to give technicians time to replace questionable servoactuators. Routine production line inspections in Europe revealed some position sensors on the actuators did not meet specifications, and the European launch consortium decided to replace comparable equipment on the Ariane 44L that was to have launched the two satellites tomorrow. The servoactuators control nozzles on the first and second stage engines of the launch vehicle.
January 29, 1999 Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $30,000,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-97-C-0136 to provide an increment of funds for the FY 98 low rate initial production (LRIP-III) of 14 F/A-18E, 16 F/A-18F aircraft and associated hardware. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo., and is expected to be completed by September 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
HIGH WINDS and driving rain at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., delayed the planned launch Sunday of JCSAT-6, a Japanese telecommunications satellite, aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS vehicle. A retry was scheduled last night, but the weather was not expected to clear for a launch until today.
Two competing groups, the LANCER alliance of Marconi Land and Naval Systems, Alvis Vehicles, United Defense and Raytheon; and SITKA, a joint venture company formed by British Aerospace and Lockheed Martin, have been awarded project definition contracts worth some $297 million, for the British and US Army's joint Armored Scout and Reconnaissance Vehicle (ASRV) program.
Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory plan an engine burn Thursday to end the innovative aerobraking process that is pulling NASA's Mars Global Surveyor into a circular mapping orbit around the Red Planet, according to a mission status report.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is requesting a 13% budget increase in fiscal year 2000 to $2.5 billion, agency officials said yesterday. The total includes $593.8 million for NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) - $490.7 million for procurement, acquisition and construction accounts and $103.1 million for operations, research and facilities.
A new study concludes that the Global Positioning System can, with some improvements and augmentations, "satisfy the performance requirements to be the only navigation system installed in an aircraft and the only service provided by the FAA for operations anywhere in the National Airspace System."
INSPECTIONS of wiring and insulation in cockpits and cabins of all U.S.-operated MD-11 aircraft have been ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. said yesterday it has reached agreement to acquire a charter helicopter company, Associated Aircraft Group, as a means of exploring "the introduction of helicopters for fractional ownership." AAG, headquartered in Danbury, Conn., and based at Wappingers Falls, N.Y., operates charters using six owned, leased and managed helicopters.
