Government/Military

The International Space Station, an amazing sky laboratory, will celebrate its 10th anniversary Nov. 20. Built 210 miles above the ground while traveling at 17,500 miles an hour, the space station has grown steadily, and will reach full size in 2010, just before the space shuttle fleet retires. Although the space station is being built...

The AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) program completed a Milestone C review and received approval for entry into Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP), Alliant Techsystems Inc. [ATK] announced. Sean J. Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition, rendered the decision in an Acquisition Decision Memorandum (ADM). That signaled the program...

A U.S. spaceship early this month raced just 125 miles above the planet closest to the sun, Mercury, and came away with a treasure trove of 1,200 pictures. The fleet-footed photographer is the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft, or MESSENGER, spacecraft. It snapped closeup pictures of most of the remaining unseen side...

A satellite that India launched carries systems to seek ice in polar regions of the moon that are aided by new technologies, Raytheon Co. [RTN] announced. The Forerunner miniaturized-radio frequency system was delivered by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to the Indian Space Research Organization in March, integrated onto the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, and launched...

Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] delivered the latest block of flight software for the first geosynchronous orbit (GEO-1) spacecraft in the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) program. Lockheed also completed acoustic testing of the first geosynchronous orbit (GEO-1) spacecraft in the SBIRS program. The Air Force SBIRS program is designed to provide early warning of missile...

NASA gave Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas, a $350,000 prize during the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge in Las Cruces, N.M. The challenge is a two-level, $2 million competition designed to accelerate commercial space technology and is sponsored by NASA’s Centennial Challenges program. After Armadillo’s $350,000 first place win for level one this year, $1.65...

The Missile Defense Agency broke ground on its new Headquarters Command Center (HQCC) at Fort Belvoir, Va. The new $38.5 million MDA faciity is part of the Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure 2005 process and supports 292 employees. The project will consist of a 99,001 square-foot, multi-story building, which includes administrative space, reception...

[Satellite Today 10-24-08] Aerojet, a subsidiary of GenCorp, received a contract to provide propulsion systems for a NASA mission to study the Earth’s radiation belts, Aerojet announced Oct. 24.     Under the contract from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Aerojet will provide a monopropellant hydrazine propulsion systems for a pair of spacecraft that...

[Satellite Today 10-24-08] Northrop Grumman Corp. was awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center to provide technical support for the operational Defense Support Program (DSP) spacecraft, primary infrared sensor and mission analysis, the company announced O)ct. 23.     Northrop Grumman built the DSP infrared sensors and integrated them with...

[Satellite News 10-22-08] Harris Corp. has been awarded a $60 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to continue work under the first-year option for the Network and Space Operations and Maintenance program, Harris announced Oct. 22.     Harris, which was awarded the contract in January, provides operations and maintenance support to the 50th Space...