GENOA — To reduce its debt and take a step to strategically reposition the company, Finmeccanica has reached an agreement to disinvest its 14% stake in Avio and have an Italian state fund buy it. The transaction coincides with Avio’s planned initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to happen this year.
HOUSTON — The Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Dragon capsule has concluded the first International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission flown by a U.S. commercial provider, finalizing a significant upswing in private sector capability to shoulder U.S. civil space activities, with a May 31 splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the southern California coast.
LONDON — Ultra Electronics has resumed its process of making niche acquisitions with the purchase of satellite communications terminal provider Giga Communications. The price of the deal, £12.4 million ($19.3 million), could rise by another £24.6 million depending on earnings delivered in the next two years. Ultra expects the deal to start adding to its bottom line this year.
COMING HOME: Preparations for the mid-to-early June landing of the U.S. Air Force’s second reusable X-37B space plane mission are under way at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the service says. The precise landing date and time depends on technical and weather considerations. “Space professionals from the 30th Space Wing will monitor the deorbit and landing of the Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission, called OTV-2,” the service said in an announcement. The spacecraft was launched on March 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral.
HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station re-sealed the hatch to the Dragon spacecraft on the eve of the capsule’s May 31 departure and the rapid series of events that will transfer control of the landmark commercial-supply flight back to SpaceX for re-entry and a Pacific Ocean splashdown and recovery. If the final leg of the nine-day test flight unfolds as planned, Dragon and a 1,400-lb. return cargo will splash down 560 mi. southwest of Los Angeles shortly before 12 p.m. EDT.
SAN FRANCISCO — Preparations are under way for the low-energy launch of a high-energy X-ray telescope developed to count black holes in the Milky Way, study how particles are created when massive stars explode and how their particles are accelerated to nearly the speed of light. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuStar) is to be drop-launched June 13 by an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL from the company’s modified L-1011 “Stargazer” aircraft at 8:30 a.m. PDT.
AIR LAUNCH: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Lockheed Martin a $6.2 million contract, and Northrop Grumman $2.3 million, for Phase 1 of the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (Alasa) program to launch a 100-lb. satellite into low Earth orbit from an aircraft for less than $1 million per launch, including range costs. Space Information Laboratories has received $1.9 million to develop enabling technology for a GPS tracking, autonomous flight termination and space-based range system to reduce launch costs.
EXTENDED OPS: With virtually all the objectives of its primary Moon-mapping mission accomplished, NASA’s twin-spacecraft Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) mission will take a break before beginning a period of extended operations set to begin Aug. 30 and last through Dec. 3. Both spacecraft instruments will be powered off until the extended mission begins. Since March 8, the spacecraft have operated around the clock for 89 days, NASA says.
Boeing is on track to meet its milestones in the second phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) competition, after completing a preliminary design review earlier this month for software needed to operate its CST-100 crew capsule. Still to come are CCDev-2 milestones that include an orbital maneuvering/attitude control engine hot-fire test, NASA says, adding that “all of NASA’s industry partners, including Boeing, continue to meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities.”
HOUSTON — The NASA-led International Space Station (ISS) Mission Management Team has approved plans for the scheduled unberthing of the first U.S. commercial resupply mission spacecraft later this week, as the astronauts aboard the orbiting science laboratory wrapped up a fast-paced, 2,400-lb. cargo exchange.
Solar-electric propulsion (SEP) is high on NASA’s priority list of technologies required for long-term human space exploration. And within that arena, figuring out how to deploy large, lightweight solar arrays in space is a key enabler. Results are starting to come in under the relatively open-ended technology development effort launched at the beginning of the Obama administration. While Congress hasn’t approved the billion-dollar funding levels for the work the White House wanted, it has sprung enough money to make a start.
NEXT UP: With SpaceX’s first cargo demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS) a success so far, NASA is looking ahead to the first flights of its other Commercial Orbital Transportation Services contractor, Orbital Sciences Corp. Orbital’s first demonstration launch of its Antares/Cygnus vehicle — which will not visit the ISS — could occur as early as August, according to NASA ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini.
The results of Aviation Week's 2012 Top-Performing Companies (TPC) study are providing fresh evidence that downturns in U.S. and European defense spending are starting to hit contractors (p. 44). BAE Systems, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon all saw their TPC scores decline from last year. And the strong gains in operational efficiency made by defense primes during the past decade are showing tentative signs of weakening.
Jim McNerney smiled broadly as he bounded onto a podium in a historic hangar at Reagan Washington National Airport this month, a gleaming Boeing 787 serving as a dramatic backdrop just beyond the open hangar door. The chairman and CEO of Boeing was accepting the 2011 Robert J. Collier Trophy on behalf of the team that developed the 787, a jet that is finally in service following more than three years of delays.
Michael Bruno (Washington), Mark Carreau (Houston)
One thing has been made certain by the mission launched last week to the International Space Station (ISS) by Space Exploration Technologies Inc.: governments now have someone else they can call to send their cargo into space. The demonstration of Dragon's capabilities since its May 22 launch make clear that cargo transport to the ISS can be viably outsourced to at least one commercial player.
Here is one simple lesson to be gleaned from Aviation Week's Top-Performing Companies (TPC Study): avoid overconfidence. History shows that a first-place finish is no guarantee of long-term success. Conversely, even consistently strong performers have a bad year every now and then.
As top-tier defense contractors begin to move away from an era of big-ticket weapons procurements, they are scrutinizing their portfolios in an effort to weed out lower-performing businesses. And one problem area keeps coming to the forefront: low-margin government services businesses.
HOUSTON — The SpaceX Dragon capsule rendezvoused with the International Space Station (ISS) May 25, overcoming some late tracking issues to become the first U.S. commercial resupply craft to dock with the six-person orbital science laboratory. Astronauts Don Pettit, Andre Kuipers and Joe Acaba grappled the unpiloted spacecraft with the station’s 17.6-meter (58-ft.) Canadarm2 at 9:56 a.m. EDT, as Dragon flew in formation 10 meters below. The freighter was berthed at the station’s U.S. segment Harmony module at 12:02 p.m. EDT.
When the U.S. Air Force showed only a tepid interest in unmanned aircraft, a small San Diego company, General Atomics, decided to build them on its own dime. So when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks hit and U.S. forces were suddenly sent to combat guerilla-like forces in the mountains of Afghanistan, the company's Hellfire-equipped Predators were not just a concept—they were in production.
Exploration program experts looking for ways to restructure NASA’s downsized Mars program will have about 400 concepts and abstracts to review, following a call for ideas in connection with an upcoming workshop in Houston.
NASA is spending about $3 million on the initial SEP studies, originally set up by the technology element in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
HOUSTON — The SpaceX Dragon, working flawlessly, sailed 1.5 mi. below the International Space Station (ISS) early May 24, clearing the way for the first U.S. commercial delivery of cargo to the orbiting laboratory.
