Government/Military

[Satellite Today 01-26-09] The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have launched the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (Gosat) satellite aboard the H-2A launch vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center, JAXA announced Jan. 23.     The satellite is one of the first satellites in the world to measure greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and...

[Satellite Today 01-26-09] NASA is in preparations to launch the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) NOAA-N Prime polar-orbiting operational environmental satellite Feb. 4 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., NASA announced Jan. 23.     NOAA-N Prime will be renamed NOAA-19 after achieving proper orbit, and NASA will transfer operational control to NOAA. NASA’s...

[Satellite Today 01-26-09] A team led by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman has sent its SpaceWire data bus technology forward for preliminary design review, Lockheed Martin announced Jan. 22. The development marks a milestone in the risk reduction phase of the U.S. Air Force‘s Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) constellation, the companies said.     The...

A vehicle-mounted laser system shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), The Boeing Co. [BA] announced today. UAVs are threatening U.S. troops in war zones. In tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the system mounted on an Avenger vehicle acquired and tracked three small UAVs flying against a complex background of mountains and desert....

The Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) target detecting system passed a test while executing the lowest altitude intercept thus far, Raytheon Co. [RTN] announced. That SM-2 Block IIIB system was tested by the Navy in an exercise where the interceptor was fired from a destroyer, USS Sterett (DDG 104), during combined combat system ship qualification trials. Test...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was chosen to chair the House Science and Technology Committee space and aeronautics subcommittee that oversees NASA, and authorizes its programs. Gifford’s husband, Mark Kelley, is a NASA astronaut. Her selection means that she will lead the subcommittee next year, when NASA comes to a critical decision point as to whether...

The super fast Starstreak High Velocity Missile (HVM) system used by the British Army and Royal Marines is to get a new lease on life for the next 13 years thanks to a GBP200 million (US$278.8 million) contact with Thales UK, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated. The contract was announced by Quentin Davies, minister...

CBO Sees Missile Defense Annual Outlays Up About $4 Billion Killing European Missile Defense Would Save $4 Billion Yearly Spending on ballistic missile defense (BMD) programs will peak at about $17 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2018, which is about $1 billion more than an estimate a year ago, the Congressional Budget...

Chairman Levin Endorses Lynn, Ex-Raytheon Leader, After OMB Gives Assent A key Senate leader endorsed President Obama’s nomination of William Lynn, a former executive with missile maker Raytheon Co. [RTN], to be deputy secretary of defense. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the Senate Armed Services Committeen (SASC) chairman, gave his approval after Lynn received an ethics...

NASA is a step closer to the first flight test of the rocket that will send humans on their way to the moon as part of the agency’s Constellation Program. Hardware critical for the Ares I-X rocket test was completed this week at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. The flight of Ares I-X will...