Iridium LLC reached an agreement to buy Claircom Communications Group Inc., an in-flight telephone services company, from AT&T and Rogers Cantel for $65 million in cash and debt, Iridium executives said yesterday. "We believe that Iridium having a presence in the airline industry is of critical importance to us globally," Leo Mondale, Iridium senior vice president, told reporters in a telephone press conference yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force is stretching out its space-based laser program to capture more advanced technology, even as top members of Congress have been pushing the AF to accelerate the program. The AF's Scientific Advisory Board recently recommended the service back off its plans for a SBL Readiness Demonstration program because the technology for an SBL is too immature. Yesterday, acting AF Secretary F. Whitten Peters said that "I intend to follow [the advice] fairly closely."
NASA has renamed the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) for Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who conducted theoretical work on the structure and evolution of stars, and has set a launch date for the oft-delayed "great observatory" no earlier than April 8, 1999.
The Naval Air Systems command is considering several payload growth options for the Vertical Take-off and Landing unmanned aerial vehicle that would expand the system's role from reconnaissance alone.
GLOBALSTAR picked the Ariane 4 to launch six of its "Big LEO" low-Earth orbit communications satellites next year as the company works to recover from the lost of 12 satellites in the failure of a Ukrainian Zenit rocket this fall (DAILY, Sept. 11). Globalstar plans to drop Zenit and spread its launch business among Arianespace, its Starsem affiliate's Soyuz rockets and Boeing Deltas. The Ariane 4 launch from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou is slated for September 1999.
The U.S. Air Force has decided not to accelerate its C-130J procurement plans despite a plea from Lockheed Martin and will discuss with the company next year how to make its production lines more efficient. "I'm not going to accelerate [the C-130J] beyond the program" now in place, said acting Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters. He told reporters in Washington yesterday that after careful analysis the AF determined "the C-130J remains early to need," meaning it won't be needed until the out-years.
Iraq's program to modify Aero L-29 Delfin basic trainers into unmanned aircraft to deliver weapons of mass destruction began in 1995, top British defense officials revealed here. Defense Secretary George Robertson and Chief of the General Staff, Gen Sir Giles Guthrie, said over the weekend that Iraq's pilotless aircraft were attacked by the Royal Air Force at Tallil air base. U.S. officials said some L-29s were attacked at the Al Sava airfield.
Rada Electronic Industries Ltd., an aerospace electronics business located in Herzeliya Pituach, Israel, lost $18.8 million in the first six months of 1998, as sales fell 67% to $3.6 million, the company reported. In the first six months of 1997, the company lost $1 million on sales of $11 million.
Avondale Industries Inc., New Orleans, won contracts worth $454.7 million for the construction of two ships under options exercised by the U.S. Navy, the company reported Monday. The first award, for $291.5 million, covers a contract to the alliance headed by Avondale to build the second LPD ship and the Navy's newest amphibious assault ship. Avondale serves as the prime for an alliance that includes Bath Iron Works Corp., Raytheon Systems Corp. and Intergraph Corp.
FMC CORP., Chicago, said that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California reduced the jury verdict against FMC in a lawsuit related to the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The jury had awarded $125 million in damages against the company plus penalties, and since the verdict was subject to doubling or tripling, the judgment could have grown to more than $350 million. The District Court rejected $100 million of the damage claim and 50% of the penalties. FMC said the final judgment should not exceed $90 million.
AEROQUIP-VICKERS INC., Maumee, Ohio, reported that its Vickers Inc. subsidiary completed a purchase of the outstanding stock of M.C. Aerospace Corp., Lake Orion, Mich. M.C. Aerospace designs, develops and makes high-precision hydraulic and pneumatic components for aircraft and military land vehicles.
The Pelican unmanned aerial vehicle, a modified Cessna 337 Skymaster, completed its first flight earlier this month, General Atomics said Monday. The Pelican flew for the first time Dec. 10 from General Atomics' flight operations center in El Mirage, Calif. The vehicle took off under manned control. Once airborne, control was transferred to a ground operator. Control reverted to the on-board pilot for landing.
AYDIN CORP., Horsham, Penn., filed suit against Teletronics Technology Corp. and nine of its officers and employees for misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with contractual relations and conspiracy. The named defendants all are former Aydin employees. The suit alleges that the individual defendants, while employed at Aydin, planned to leave and form a competing company and misappropriated Aydin's confidential proprietary information and used it for Teletronics' benefit.
Germany's DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA), General Electric Co. plc of Britain, France's Lagardere and Italy's Finmeccanica have agreed to merge their space activities, the companies reported in a joint statement yesterday. The new entity, comprised of Matra Marconi Space, DASA Raumfahrt-Infrastrucktur, Dornier Satellitensysteme and Alenia Spazio, will become operational in 1999, following the signing of a final agreement and authorization from the European Union, the companies said.
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION continued to perform well after the main engines on the Zarya control module were test-fired again Monday, a NASA spokesman said. Controllers in Moscow and Houston were testing the procedures they will follow to position the Station for docking with the Russian Service Module when it arrives next year (DAILY, Dec. 21). The spokesman said that while NASA continues to push for a July launch of the often-delayed and still-incomplete Service Module, the Station assembly plan can accommodate a slip into September 1999 if necessary.
Lockheed Martin expects its fourth quarter earnings to fall below analysts' expectations due to a drop in sales and costs related to its majority ownership in CalComp Technology, the company reported yesterday.
NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft will go into orbit around the asteroid 433 Eros by May 2000, instead of next month as originally planned, because it missed a critical engine burn on Sunday, mission managers said yesterday.
APPLIED SIGNAL TECHNOLOGY INC., Sunnyvale, Calif., authorized the repurchase of up to 250,000 shares of its common stock, using its own cash resources, during the period ending Oct. 31, 1999. As of Oct. 31, 1998, Applied Signal had about 8.9 million shares outstanding.
A THIRD BOEING 717-200 has entered the flight test program, the company reported. The aircraft will test performance during takeoff, cruise and landing. It also will be used to certify airplane performance and systems and to evaluate pilot workload and type rating. Six production airplanes are in final assembly at the Long Beach Div., with deliveries to begin in mid-1999.
GEC and Finmeccanica will combine their ground and naval radar, missile systems and air traffic control businesses in a 50-50 joint venture, the companies reported yesterday. The move is separate from a broader space merger also announced yesterday (see story page 466). The new company, Alenia Marconi Systems, will have sales of about $1.7 billion per year.
IBERIA has placed six firm orders and five options with Airbus for A340-300s, confirming an earlier commitment. The new deliveries will begin next November. Iberia currently operates eight of the aircraft.
BOEING has been selected by China Eastern Airlines to modify two MD-11s into freighters, with operations for three more conversions. The work will be done in Long Beach, Calif., under direction of Boeing Airplane Services, a new unit that brings together all Boeing modification and related engineering organizations and interior reconfigurations.
MIDWAY AIRLINES has ordered three more Canadair Regional Jet Series 200ERs from Bombardier. The $64 million contract is a conversion of three options to firm orders. The aircraft are to be delivered in December 1999 through march 2000. To date, nine of 23 CRJs have been delivered to Midway. The order book stands at 434 aircraft for the 50-seat Series 100 and 200 and at 71 for the 70-seat Series 700, on which deliveries are to begin in early 2001. Midway will use the aircraft to open new markets.
NASA's Office of Earth Sciences has chosen a $173.5 million joint mission with France to study the impact of clouds and atmospheric aerosols on the planet's radiation budget as the first Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) spacecraft, the agency said yesterday.
Ground controllers were trying to work the orbital angles yesterday that would set up NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) probe to enter orbit around the asteroid 433 Eros next summer, after regaining contact with the probe a long 24 hours after it went silent during a critical engine burn on Sunday.
