LOS ANGELES — Boeing is revising the CST-100 air bag landing system for use in water landings, after tests and further analysis revealed the space capsule would encounter greater loads than expected on splashdown.
JSC SUPPORT: S&K Global Solutions LLC, of Polson, Mont., has been selected by NASA’s Johnson Space Center to consolidate computer product support for the facility’s Engineering Directorate under a potential $50 million, five-year agreement. Effective Oct. 18, the contract includes a three-year, cost-plus, fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price agreement and a single two-year option. S&K Global Solutions’ team includes Booz Allen Hamilton, of McLean, Va., and S&K Aerospace LLC, of St. Ignatius, Mont.
Inmarsat expects that costs for satellite-based flight deck safety services, which airlines typically use for ACARS (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system) messaging in oceanic regions, will be 30% lower than its traditional services when the SwiftBroadband Safety Services option is approved for use in 2014.
The union representing Boeing engineers has lodged a preemptive strike in its negotiations over a four-year contract, recommending that its 23,000 members reject the company’s contract offer before it is formally presented.
NEW DELHI — The launch of India’s GSAT-10 communications satellite has been delayed by a week due to a minor error in the European Ariane 5 rocket meant to place it on orbit, the country’s top scientist says. “While reviewing the launch preparation, Arianespace found a hole in one of the hoses connecting the spaceport and launch vehicle. It is suspected one gram of dust particles might have entered the launch vehicle through the small hole,” says K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
METOP-B: Europe’s Metop-B satellite was launched into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:28 p.m. local time Sept. 17. Roughly 1 hr. and 9 min. after liftoff, the upper stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle released the Astrium-built satellite into its designated orbit at approximately 800 km (500 mi.) altitude. Metop-B is a replacement low-altitude, polar-orbiting weather satellite for Metop-A. The spacecraft is designed to have an operational life of five years.
As CEO of EADS, Louis Gallois was repeatedly rebuffed by his board when he sought to acquire U.S. defense companies. Less than four months after Gallois' retirement, a single deal could finally make EADS a top supplier to the Pentagon—and in the process create the largest aerospace and defense (A&D) company ever.
Francesco Caio Title: CEO, Avio Age: 55 Birthplace: Naples, Italy Education: Engineering degree from Milan Politecnico and MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
Mars Curiosity rover's three left wheels frame the lower slopes of Mount Sharp in this two-frame mosaic collected Sept. 9 by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (Mahli) during tests of the robotic arm.
As Airbus's new CEO, Fabrice Bregier, and COO, Gunter Butschek, make major changes to the aircraft manufacturer's organization, the company's position within the EADS group has been strengthened. Two Airbus executives, Butschek and COO for Customers John Leahy, have been added to EADS's executive board, which now has 13 members including CEO Tom Enders.
An article on Neil Armstrong in the Sept. 3/10 issue (page 32) misstated the date of the Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire and referred to alarms on the Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle, with the command module's name, Columbia. Also, details of Gemini 8's early return to Earth were omitted. After the pilots disengaged the primary maneuvering system and used the reentry system to regain control of the spacecraft, flight rules dictated that they deorbit.
Pasadena, Calif. – Orbital Sciences Corp. expects to move the initial Antares rocket to the launch pad at Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., later this month in preparation for hot fire tests.
It wasn't easy to kill Lockheed Martin's F-22, but resurrecting the Raptor could be just as difficult. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney put the issue in play during a Sept. 8 interview with a Virginia television station near the Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, saying if he were elected president, he would add more of the fifth-generation fighters. But it's not clear whether the pledge aimed squarely at the local audience would fly even if Romney wins in November.
New Delhi – The Indian Space Research Organization will launch the communication satellite GSAT 10 from French Guiana on Sept. 22, the ISRO’s 101st mission. “We are going to French Guiana for the launch because the satellite weighs nearly 3.5 tons, which cannot be lifted by any of our vehicles – PSLV or GSLV,” ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says.
Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver raised some eyebrows last week with a provocative sound bite: “We're going back to the Moon.” A prime mover in the Obama administration decision to kill the “Moon, Mars and Beyond” Constellation program, Garver explained that she was talking about cislunar space, with a mission as early as 2017. That would be the planned first flight of the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle atop the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System.
Pasadena, Calif. – Space Exploration Technologies ( SpaceX ) is negotiating with the FAA to allow the Grasshopper reusable launch test vehicle to fly at higher altitudes as part of a planned series of launch and landing evaluations.
A prototype vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) suborbital launch vehicle under development by Masten Space Systems crashed Sept. 11 during a flight test at Mojave, Calif. Masten Business Development Director Colin Ake says the Xaero rocket was preparing to make a vertical landing and was around two-thirds of the way through its mission when the accident took place.
Contractors hoping to cash in on NASA ’s plans to buy seats for its astronauts on commercial crew vehicles bound to the International Space Station will have to convince the space agency that their spacecraft are safe as they work to finish developing them.
Stephen Squyres, Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council, stressed the importance of equally funding the Orion/Space Launch System (SLS) project as well as the current Curiosity mission on Mars and potential future red planet missions during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee hearing on Sept. 12. “I would sincerely hope it is not an either/or proposition,” said Squyres.
