A U.S. State Dept. goal of 90 working days to clear an application for export of a U.S. commercial satellite is too long, according to the Aerospace Industries Association. AIA, based in Washington, said yesterday that establishment of a timeframe "is laudable" but "stretches beyond what is reasonable in today's global commerce environment."
Doubts concerning the future of the two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers, called for in last year's Strategic Defense Review, were alleviated on Monday when U.K. Defense Secretary George Robertson announced that six major international military contractors were being invited to bid for initial work on the project.
During 1998 a total of 82 space launches were attempted, with 76 successes and six failures, one of them in orbit. From a total of 169 satellites and four interplanetary probes launched, 152 were successfully orbited, 16 satellites failed to orbit and one was stranded in a useless orbit due to launch vehicle failure. The number of launches decreased from the 89 logged in 1997, but the number of satellites launched still increased (from 156).
Defense budget analysts, anticipating release of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2000 budget Monday, predict little change from last year's budget outcome despite the Administration's promise of increased spending and congressional intentions to lift budget caps. This year's budget process will be an "ugly replay" of last year's, Stanley E. Collender, a former aide on both the House and Senate Budget Committees and now senior vice president of the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm, said at a press briefing in Washington yesterday.
Iraqi challenges to U.S. and allied aircraft have become more frequent, more intense and more closely coordinated since last month's Operation Desert Fox, according to Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command. He said that since Desert Fox, which ran from Dec. 16 to Dec. 19, " ... we've had over 70 no-fly zone violations with well over 100 Iraqi aircraft involved, and there's been almost 20 incidents of missile firings at our planes, AAA [anti-aircraft artillery] firings and radar illuminations in that same period of time.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Tactical Aircraft Systems, Fort Worth, Tex., shipped the sixth F-22 mid-fuselage on schedule to the company's Aeronautical Systems plant in Marietta, Ga., on Dec. 28. Lockheed Martin said yesterday that the midsection, the fourth delivered in 1998 from Fort Worth, will be the central portion of the first F-22 with a full complement of avionics. The first avionics aircraft is the fourth flying F-22.
Taiwan joined the list of spacefaring nations Tuesday night with the launch of its ROCSAT-1 engineering and science satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., aboard a Lockheed Martin Athena I solid-fuel rocket. The commercial launch vehicle carrying the satellite lifted off from Launch Complex 46, operated by Spaceport Florida Authority, at 7:34 p.m. EST Tuesday. It was the second successful launch of an Athena I, which is built around the Thiokol Propulsion Castor 120 solid-fuel rocket motor.
A three-seat Soyuz capsule is scheduled to lift off for the Mir orbital station Feb. 20 carrying a Russian cosmonaut and researchers from France and the Slovak Republic, according to news reports from Moscow. The Itar-Tass agency said Cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev will be joined by France's Jean-Pierre Heignere and Slovak Ivan Bella for the two-day trip to Mir. Bella, a military pilot whose trip is being financed by forgiveness of $20 million in debt owed by the former Soviet Union to his homeland, is scheduled to remain on Mir for a week.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will sponsor an international conference Feb. 2-4 in Arlington, Va., on inflight operations in icing conditions. The conference will be an open forum to exchange information. It will address National Transportation Safety Board recommendations on inflight icing and the status of the FAA's Inflight Icing Plan. The conference will feature representatives of the NTSB, Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities, International Civil Aviation Organization, NASA, manufacturers, airlines and weather experts.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Electronics&Missiles unit, Orlando, Fla., has won a $25.15 million U.S. Air Force modification to an existing contract to upgrade the Low Light level Television (LLLTV) system for the AC-130H Spectre gunship. If all options are exercised, the company said yesterday, the contract could be worth up to $33 million and extend over four years.
Teams led by Boeing and Lockheed Martin and Raytheon yesterday submitted responses to a request for tender for Australia's Project Wedgetail, an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system. Source selection is expected in mid-1999. A contract is expected to be awarded by the end of the year. Boeing's team - which includes Northrop Grumman, British Aerospace Australia and Boeing Australia Ltd. - is proposing seven 737 AEW&C systems.
UPPER LEVEL WINDS continued to delay launch of the U.S. Air Force's ARGOS scientific satellite yesterday, as range safety officers at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., scrubbed the attempt yet again out of fear debris from a post-launch explosion could be blown back over populated areas. Another attempt was scheduled at 5:35 a.m. EST today. Weather has delayed the launch of ARGOS and two piggyback payloads since Jan. 15.
A new U.S.-Russian agreement signed in Moscow this week tightens the procedures used to protect sensitive U.S. technology when its satellites are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but does not lift the quota on launches, according to U.S. State Dept. materials describing the agreement.
BOEING CO. said its 757-300 airliner has been awarded a type certificate and a production certification by the U.S. FAA, and that Europe's JAA recommended type validation. The 29 members of the JAA will award the actual type certificates. Condor is to get the first airplane in March. Donald Riggin, manager of the FAA Seattle Aircraft Certification Office, said the 757-300 is the "first Boeing model worked under a formal agreement known as a Project-Specific Certification Plan.
TriStar Aerospace Co., Dallas, signed a just-in-time supply agreement with Cessna Aircraft Co. to support Cessna's aircraft manufacturing operations and repair and maintenance facilities in Wichita and Independence, Kan. TriStar said it will provide inventory management services, including planning, procurement, warehousing, delivery and floor stocking of Cessna's hardware requirements.
Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have "fine-tuned" the trajectory of the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft with a three-minute burn of its thrusters. The burn, which occurred at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 21, was calculated to remove a slight trajectory offset imparted to the spacecraft and its Delta II third stage at launch so the stage would not impact Mars as it followed the probe. It also fixed "minor" errors in the trajectory.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS said it has entered into an agreement with Raytheon Co. under which it will act as a preferred supplier to Raytheon Missile Systems. The two companies, it said, will work together "to identify next-generation products, define requirements, execute program strategies, exchange technologies and develop technology strategies, and pursue international business opportunities." Alliant also said it has signed a separate agreement with Raytheon for missile rocket motors and warheads that will total at least $235 million through 2007.
A "Technology Safeguards Agreement" reached yesterday in Moscow apparently eases U.S. restrictions on the launch of Western satellites aboard Russian space launch vehicles, according to preliminary reports from the Russian capital. U.S. journalists covering Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's two-day series of meetings with Russian officials reported the agreement is intended to tighten control over sensitive U.S. technology in satellites shipped to Kazakhstan for launch on Russian rockets from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
North Korea's nuclear activities and ballistic missile development deserve serious attention and must be addressed by the Administration this year, Sandy Berger, assistant to the president for national security affairs, said yesterday. "North Korea is certainly a problem for 1999 that we're going to have to deal with in a serious way," Berger told reporters at a breakfast in Washington.
Boeing Co. reported profits for both the fourth quarter of 1998 and the full year compared to losses during the two periods in 1997, but said profit margins still have to improve. Debby Hopkins, the company's new chief financial officer, said the profit margin for Boeing Commercial was zero for 1998. She expects a profit margin of 2% to 3% this year, which she said will not be satisfactory, and 4% to 5% in 2000.
ALLIEDSIGNAL has formed a European aerospace unit called Environmental Control Systems-Europe, and named Philippe Ancele its VP. ECS-Europe comprises manufacturing and repair and overhaul facilities from both Normalair-Garrett which AlliedSignal acquired last year, and SECAN sites.
U.S. Trade Patterns in Aerospace1 in 1997 (millions of dollars; percent) EXPORTS Regions2 Value3 Share, % NAFTA 2,820 5.8 Latin America 1,890 3.9 Western Europe 18,074 37.5 Japan/Chinese Economic Area 9,647 20.0 Other Asia 8,241 17.1 Rest of world 7,564 15.7
Longtime space activist Lori B. Garver has been named associate NASA administrator for policy and plans, a post she has held since September 1998 on an acting basis. A former executive director of the National Space Society and president of Women in Aerospace, Garver joined NASA in 1996 as a special assistant to Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. In her new role she will continue to direct policy requirements, oversight and coordination for the U.S. space agency, as well as its strategic planning and management system and the agency history program.
