Russia has claimed the successful test of a prototype of new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The new missile was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk spaceport in May and its warhead reached a designated area in the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The military also said the missile will have improved capabilities to overcome anti-ballistic missile defenses being deployed by the U.S.—an important new priority for Moscow after years of trying to forestall U.S. missile-defense developments.
Walter J. Zable, the aerospace industry's oldest and longest-serving CEO and a pioneer in the field of global positioning, died June 23 of natural causes at a San Diego-area hospital. He was 97. Zable founded Cubic Corp. in 1951 in a San Diego storefront. Long before GPS was invented, the company developed a satellite-based technology that identified the location of land masses and enabled the U.S. military to pinpoint targets to improve the accuracy of ballistic missiles. Later, Cubic fielded the world's first instrumented air combat training system.
Astrium Services started in 2003 in the wake of a U.K. Defense Ministry decision to outsource secure satellite telecommunications to the private sector. Since then, CEO Eric Beranger has turned the division of European aerospace giant EADS into a high-stakes bet on government outsourcing for key space activities, taking privatization of satellite communications and remote-sensing services further than any other company in the industry and in some cases assuming big risks with little or no government backing.
An article that appeared in the June 25 issue of AW&ST (p. 36) included an incorrect spelling of the name of Intelsat Chief Technical Officer Thierry Guillemin.
In the complex hypersonics test environment, events rarely turn out 100% as planned. But researchers at Germany's DLR aerospace center remain optimistic that they have enough data to refine the future Shefex III (Sharp-Edged Flight Experiment) demonstrator even as data uncertainty hangs over the final seconds of the Shefex II's flight.
The head of satellite services provider Inmarsat says he would like to see more established launch service providers in the market, and hopes that new and returning players such as Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Sea Launch will help foster more choice and competition in the future.
DENVER — Research outcomes on the International Space Station (ISS) will be so important to the future of U.S. human spaceflight that NASA is considering bartering for Russian crew time to help out with research in its facilities.
In a major consolidation to address an era of fixed-price contracts and lower defense and civil space spending, Lockheed Martin Space Systems is establishing two basic business lines — military and civil — rather than the separate talent pools devoted to more specific requirements in each of those areas.
SUN BLOCK: Preflight test layers for the sunshield that will protect NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are meeting performance targets during engineering tests, according to telescope prime Northrop Grumman. The tennis-court-sized sunshield is designed to keep the telescope cool enough in its Earth-trailing orbit for its sensitive infrared instruments to work. The membrane layers of the sunshield, each as thin as a human hair, are made of Kapton. ManTech International produces the sunshield.
James Albaugh, a 37-year veteran at Boeing who has been a management leader in all of the company’s product markets—space, defense and airliners—on Oct. 1 will retire as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). Boeing Chairman and CEO James McNerney has named Raymond Conner, another company veteran, to succeed Albaugh. Conner, who is an executive VP, joined Boeing 34 years ago as a mechanic and currently heads the company’s global sales operations.
FOUL WEATHER: The looming arrival of Tropical Storm Debby has prompted United Launch Alliance and the U.S. Air Force to delay the launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite by 24 hr. The launch of NROL-15 is now set for June 29 at 6:13 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral. The protective Mobile Service Tower will remain around the Delta IV launch vehicle and is scheduled to be moved for launch on June 28.
SATCOM MARKET: The worldwide commercial communications satellite market will be worth $52.7 billion from 2012-2021, according to a new study from consultancy Forecast International. Demand will be especially strong in developing markets such as Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, the study says, driven by a lack of terrestrial networks and rapid growth in demand for communications in these areas. The top manufacturers over the next decade will be Space Systems/Loral, Thales Alenia Space, EADS Astrium, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The most powerful version of Space Exploration Technologies' Merlin rocket engine yet developed has completed its first full-duration mission firing test
LOS ANGELES — NASA is completing fabrication of the first Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration capsule due to be tested in space, while at the same time starting key vacuum tests on the Alliant Techsystems (ATK)-built composite module that could form the basis for future crew transport to Earth orbit. Following final structural work, the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) Orion will be shipped from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it will undergo final assembly and checkout.
In the mid-1990s, the U.S. government decided to merge its military and civilian polar-orbiting weather satellite programs, because they shared a number of similarities. The combination of future weather-satellite systems into a single program, designated the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess), was justified as a cost-saving measure. Consequently, military-civilian weather satellite ground control stations were integrated into NOAA facilities at Suitland, Md.
The independent organization that NASA selected to run National Laboratory work on the International Space Station may be off to a slow start, but outside “pathfinders” on the ISS are demonstrating ways to use its unique environment that already fall outside traditional government methods.
