August 19, 1996

August 19, 1996

View Full Issue Table of Contents
HEADLINE NEWS

Sea Change Looming For Defense Contracting

By ANTHONY L. VELOCCI

HEADLINE NEWS

Study Endorses Commercial Practices

HEADLINE NEWS

TRW Demonstrates Airborne Laser Module

By MICHAEL A. DORNHEIM

View Full Issue
More Features
2021
HEADLINE NEWS

Sea Change Looming For Defense Contracting

Negotiated procurement will change radically under new rules the Pentagon will propose, raising issues of fairness

By ANTHONY L. VELOCCI

2021
HEADLINE NEWS

Study Endorses Commercial Practices

New York Results of a recently completed industry study confirm what a growing number of aerospace/defense companies at all levels of the supply chain are discovering: contractors that adopt commercial manufacturing and sourcing practices are gaining a substantial competitive advantage over rivals.
2223
HEADLINE NEWS

TRW Demonstrates Airborne Laser Module

LOS ANGELES TRW has started testing a prototype module for an anti-ballistic missile airborne laser, and claims the device met Air Force requirements on its third Firing on Aug. 6. The Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser (COIL) produced several hundred kilowatts output for several seconds with an efficiency that would allow a modified Boeing 747-400F freighter to carry enough reactants to kill the desired number of missiles, the company said.

By MICHAEL A. DORNHEIM

2223
HEADLINE NEWS

Cosmonaut Grounding Impacts French, U.S. Mir Flights

CAPE CANAVERAL The Russian/French Soyuz TM-24 mission to the Mir space station was being prepared for liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome late last week with a backup cosmonaut crew after the flight’s primary crew was grounded because of a medical problem discovered only a week before launch.

By CRAIG COVAULT

2627
HEADLINE NEWS

Next Missions to Mars May Prove Too Small

WASHINGTON NASA may be pushing its “smaller-fastercheaper” philosophy so hard it is imposing unreasonable constraints on its upcoming Mars missions, a new National Research Council report warns. Moreover, the major shortcomings the NRC cites in NASA’s Mars program are in the areas most closely related to the search for evidence of life.

By JAMES R. ASKER

2627
HEADLINE NEWS

Testing Underway On Space Station Panel

Seattle The qualification unit for the football field-length E-wing solar panel array for the space station undergoes tests. The apparent curvature is due to the fisheye camera lens used for this photo. Assembly and initial deployment of the test unit took place in May at Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space’s Sunnyvale, Calif., facility.
2829
HEADLINE NEWS

Galileo Views Fire and Ice In Jupiter’s System

PASADENA, CALIF. Higher resolution and broader spectral coverage are again helping the Galileo mission extract more information from the Jupiter system than the quick Voyagers 1 and 2 flybys in 1979. The new pictures include the moons Europa and Io, and Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (AW&STJuly 22, p. 16).

By MICHAEL A. DORNHEIM

3031
HEADLINE NEWS

New Explorer To Study Aurora

CAPE CANAVERAL NASA late last week was preparing for the planned Aug. 18 launch of a new, low-cost auroral research spacecraft on board an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL booster to be dropped from its L-1011 carrier aircraft off Vandenberg AFB, Calif.

By CRAIG COVAULT

3233
HEADLINE NEWS

Ariane 4 Launches Telecom 2D, Italsat F2

3233
HEADLINE NEWS

ChinaSat Due For Launch

August 121996 August 261996