September 6, 1999

September 6, 1999

View Full Issue Table of Contents
HEADLINE NEWS

Data Link, Ew Problems Pinpointed By Pentagon

By DAVID A. FULGHUM,ROBERT WALL7 min

HEADLINE NEWS

Beal Surveys Cape for Heavy Booster

By CRAIG COVAULT4 min

HEADLINE NEWS

Pentagon Overhauls Launch Monitoring

By ROBERT WALL4 min

View Full Issue
More Features
8487
HEADLINE NEWS

Data Link, Ew Problems Pinpointed By Pentagon

Kosovo report is expected to call for more aircraft to destroy air defenses, and fault the Army's immobility

By DAVID A. FULGHUM,ROBERT WALL7 min

2223
HEADLINE NEWS

Beal Surveys Cape for Heavy Booster

The BA-2 would be largest all-liquid-fuel vehicle launched from the U.S. since the Apollo Saturn V

By CRAIG COVAULT4 min

2223
HEADLINE NEWS

Pentagon Overhauls Launch Monitoring

WASHINGTON The Defense Dept. is assembling a new cadre of launch monitors who will face the tough challenge of trying to maintain U.S. secrets without creating unnecessary, burdensome hurdles American companies have to overcome to launch satellites on foreign rockets.

By ROBERT WALL4 min

2629
HEADLINE NEWS

Ico Faces Long Climb Out of Bankruptcy

WASHINGTON ICO face an Global even Communications tougher climb than could Iridium does to emerge from bankruptcy, because the company still needs another $1.7 billion just to get its medium-Earthorbit constellation up and running, financial analysts say.

By JOSEPH C. ANSELMO4 min

2629
HEADLINE NEWS

Crew Abandons Mir as Deorbit Looms

PARIS The Mir space station's last long-duration mission has come to an end, marking the first time in a decade that no astronaut has been in orbit. The team of Victor Afanassiev, Sergey Avdeyev and JeanPierre Haignere touched down on the Kazakh steppe at 4:34:34 a.m. (Moscow time) on Aug. 28.

By MICHAEL A. TAVERNA3 min

8889
HEADLINE NEWS

Maverick Fix Tested in Kosovo

WASHINGTON Faced with the possibility that 7,000 of its Maverick missiles would miss small targets, the U.S. Air Force rushed a planned upgrade to the field for Kosovo air operations. The U.S. Air Force had been working on an upgrade to AGM-65G Mavericks once it realized the missiles had problems hitting tank-size targets when fired from low altitude and at short range.

By ROBERT WALL3 min

2425
HEADLINE NEWS

Gnat Exploits Advanced Sar

Washington The Central Intelligence Agency’s favorite unmanned aerial vehicle, General Atomics’ Improved-Gnat, is now carrying a synthetic aperture radar that can see details smaller than a baseball—including footprints in soft terrain like sand or dust— through the heaviest clouds on the darkest night.
2425
HEADLINE NEWS

Japan Considers Bigger Defense

TOKYO Rising concern about national defense has prompted Japan's Defense Agency to request a $45-billion budget for fis cal 2000, a 1.6% increase that may not seem like much but signals a shift in Japan’s downward spiral in military spending since the end of the Cold War.

By EIICHIRO SEKIGAWA2 min

8889
HEADLINE NEWS

New U-2 Production Pitched to Pentagon

Washington Lockheed Martin officials believe there is an opportunity to pitch new production of the company’s long-lived U-2. They see promise in the wrangling between senior Defense Dept. civilians and Air Force leaders over spending $390-500 million on additional Global Hawk unmanned, long-endurance reconnaissance aircraft.

By David A. Fuighum2 min

2425
HEADLINE NEWS

Bigger Delta II to Loft Sirtf

Los Angeles Boeing will build an uprated version of the Delta II for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) that carries about 10% more payload, or a total of 4,550 lb. to geosynchronous transfer orbit. The uprated launcher is called the Delta II Heavy Lift, and borrows the 46-in.-dia.
August 301999 September 131999