It is too early to tell if it just another case of engineering exuberance associated with hypersonics or something more substantive, but there is a palpable sense among French developers that high-speed missile and air vehicle concepts are ready for the development stage.
CLASSIFIED SCRUB: The U.S. Air Force has delayed the launch of the latest classified surveillance satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office to allow engineers more time to investigate an issue with the United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket’s upper stage that was discovered during closeout inspections. Liftoff for NROL-25 is now set for April 2 at 4:04 p.m. PDT from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The launch originally was scheduled for March 29.
KILLING MEADS: The government has argued that the cost of ending the U.S. commitment to Lockheed Martin’s Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) was equal or nearly equal to paying to complete development of the missile through the end of fiscal 2013. But a group of senators who are trying to persuade the Pentagon to shift funding for the tri-national Meads program to the Raytheon Patriot system are casting doubt on the government’s position.
Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. is facing a critical shortage of engineers—in aerospace and other industries—and that not enough students are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields to offset this coming shortfall. A corollary to this belief is that U.S. high-school test scores in these critical subjects are low, hampering the country’s future competitiveness. But according to some academics, this conventional wisdom is a fallacy that industry repeats for its own ends.
LIFE-CYCLE SOLUTIONS: Expect to see Rockwell Collins announce renewal of its $17.2 million life-cycle support contract with the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The company says it has a 100% availability rate for helicopter cockpit replacement parts for its common avionics architecture system. Also expect Rockwell Collins to introduce a tailored life-cycle service solution called FlexForce for military and government agencies. The FlexForce program is designed to provide transparent repair and supply-chain visibility on a performance basis.
TRAINING PARTNERS: German glider manufacturer Grob Aircraft will supply its G 120TP computer-based training system for Argentina’s Fadea IA-63 Pampa II lead-in fighter/trainer. State-owned Fadea has completed flight tests of the Pampa, which has been re-engined with the Honeywell TFE 731-40 geared turbofan engine.
It it the most sophisticated piece of space hardware Europe has ever launched, a massive cargo vessel capable of docking automatically at the International Space Station with a precision of better than 6 cm (2.4 in.) and boosting the station to a higher orbit. But with three of the Automated Transfer Vehicle's (ATV) five missions now behind it, the European Space Agency (ESA) is looking for an opportunity to advance its already cutting-edge platform—along with a means to pay for it.
In 1981, during the space shuttle's maiden voyage, co-pilot Robert Crippen proclaimed, “We are really in the space business to stay.” Last week, another veteran astronaut, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, made a similar pronouncement, but under quite different circumstances.
SWEDISH SCANDAL: Swedish Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors has resigned over a Defense Research Agency program to build a weapons plant in Saudi Arabia. The secrecy of the deal has been highly controversial in Sweden since the effort became known.
GENOA — Italy’s Finmeccanica will establish a defense unit in 2013 to combine all of its U.S. operations, including aeronautics, helicopters and defense electronics, to be led by former U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn. The move, unveiled earlier this week by Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi, is part of several significant changes in the beleaguered giant’s strategy, structure and businesses. The changes are necessary, Orsi says, to return Finmeccanica to profitability as soon as this year.
As Europe and China prepare to talk potential International Space Station (ISS) cooperation in Paris this month, NASA’s top official is tempering expectations, absent approval from Congress and all five nations supporting the orbiting outpost.
The future research productivity of the International Space Station (ISS) rests on the delayed startup of U.S. commercial resupply missions within the next year, experts from NASA and the agency’s oversight panels told the House Science, Space and Technology Committee March 28.
Nearing the midpoint of its 254-day journey, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has successfully carried out the second of six planned trajectory correction maneuvers, fine-tuning the rover’s course toward an Aug. 6 landing on the red planet within the scientifically promising Gale Crater. All 10 of MSL’s science instruments have been successfully activated and checked out as well.
SANTIAGO, Chile — Embraer is hoping to secure two key Brazilian government contracts this year as it looks to expand its defense and security activities. One is the Sisfron domestic security program, estimated at $4 billion, for which Embraer wants to serve as prime contractor and integrator for diverse elements such as radars, unmanned aircraft, communications and other systems, says Luiz Carlos Aguiar, CEO of Embraer Defense and Security, at the Fidae air show here.
RECOGNIZED: Aviation Week Senior Editor for Space Frank Morring Jr. will receive the National Space Club’s Press Award on March 30 in Washington. The club, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting U.S. space activity and interests, will bestow the 2011 award to Morring at its annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner.
Lockheed Martin officials acknowledge that they have learned some things from the company’s loss to rival Boeing of a $3.5 billion contract to continue managing the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) anti-ballistic missile system — and they are likely to apply this knowledge to some forthcoming work as the company continues to try to expand its footprint in that market.
ASTRONAUT HEALTH: NASA has granted a five-year, $120 million extension of its long-running cooperative agreement with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) for studies of the health risks associated with long-duration human spaceflight. The pact includes investigations of proposed countermeasures and their wider application to traditional medicine. Announced March 23, the extension brings to $484.2 million the potential value of the initial collaboration forged in March 1997. The latest of four extensions takes effect Oct. 1.
Controllers are checking out Intelsat 22 after its successful launch on a Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 25. Liftoff was at 8:10 a.m. EDT (6:10 p.m. local time). After a 15-hr., 30-min. mission, the rocket’s Breeze M upper stage released the satellite into a supersynchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) with a 65,000-km (40,400-mi.) apogee. Once operational in May, the spacecraft will replace Intelsat 709 at 72 deg. East and is expected to have an 18-year service life.
Controllers deorbited a stranded Russian-owned communications satellite March 25, after Russian officials rejected a request to keep it operating from a startup company created to salvage the Astrium-built spacecraft for service to scientists in Antarctica.
KOUROU, French Guiana — European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain met with his Chinese counterpart March 22-23 to discuss future cooperation in manned spaceflight, including the potential for a Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). The two sides met at Dordain’s request on the sidelines of the European Space Agency’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) launch to the ISS March 23 to further establish a dialogue and lay the groundwork for potential Sino-European cooperation in manned spaceflight.
The European Space Agency’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) resupply spacecraft is speeding toward a docking with the International Space Station (ISS), following a smooth countdown and liftoff from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, early March 23.
NEW DELHI — India’s Mars Orbiter Mission is getting a boost, with the government allocating 1.25 billion rupees ($25 million) to the effort for the 2012-13 fiscal year. “The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to launch a Mars orbiter as early as November 2013 with a scientific payload weighing nearly 25 kg [55 lb.],” according to the budget document, which was introduced in parliament March 16.
NASA WORK: NASA has selected four Texas companies to perform a range of engineering and architectural services for Johnson Space Center in Houston under five-year contracts worth a combined $49 million. They include PDG Architects; Reynolds, Smith and Hills Inc; and URS Group Inc., all of Houston; and HDR Architecture of Dallas. The agreements, announced March 22, cover feasibility studies; conceptual design work; engineering reports; budget estimates; and designs for alterations, new construction, repairs and refurbishment.
INTELSAT 22: The Intelsat 22 communications satellite is slated to launch on an International Launch Services Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on March 25 at 8:10 a.m. EDT (6:10 p.m. local time). Based on Boeing’s 702MP satellite bus, the 6,200-kg (13,700-lb.) spacecraft will carry two Ku-band mobility beams providing coverage of the Indian Ocean region. From its position at 72 deg. East, it will serve the Middle East and eastern Africa with its Ku-band capacity.
HOUSTON — Researchers could be at work soon on new techniques for the detection and treatment of vision problems found in astronauts assigned to long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS). A report earlier this month in the journal Radiology, based on magnetic resonance imaging studies on 27 long-duration astronauts, found some with symptoms similar to idiopathic intercranial hypertension, including swelling of the optic nerve and an outward pressure on the eyeballs (Aerospace DAILY, March 15).
