KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Space shuttle Endeavour astronauts are set for launch Nov. 11, on an International Space Station mission that will combine assembly operations with the station’s “roving-robotic” capability more ambitiously than on previous flights while also switching ISS expedition crews.

NASHVILLE, TENN. Signs are emerging that the Pentagon’s electronic warfare interest is on the rise, with the promise of new money and programs, but exuberance is tempered by the recent disbandment of one of the Defense Dept.’s central EW offices.

NASHVILLE, TENN. An attack on Iraq, and other potential military action in support of the U.S. war on terrorism, is causing military planners to consider new electronic and information warfare initiatives, although there continue to be signs that the Pentagon doesn’t have a firm grasp on how to treat the disciplines.

WASHINGTON The arcane, secretive mission of jamming enemy radar and communications, an important element in the aerial domination of any foe by a U.S. or a coalition force, is changing rapidly, but the details of this remarkable transformation remain largely hidden.

WASHINGTON Once upon a time SIRTF stood for Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility, a 1-meter-class cryogenically cooled infrared telescope that would ride to orbit as a Spacelab payload and be tended by astronauts. That was in 1979, and scientists on the Space Infrared Telescope Facility today are glad it didn’t work out, because they have a much more capable and probably more reliable observatory.

NASHVILLE, TENN. CAPE CANAVERAL The health of the Global Positioning System satellite constellation is rapidly eroding, and the Defense Dept. is increasingly concerned that it won’t be able to fix the problem on its own. More than half the GPS satellites in orbit are no longer fully operational, said Owen Wormser, the Pentagon’s principal deputy for spectrum, space, sensors and command, control and communications.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER A new substantially upgraded version of the Soyuz spacecraft was launched to the International Space Station with a Russian/European Space Agency crew last week to exchange ISS rescue vehicles. The launch and docking of the new Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft is critical to keeping the Endeavour mission on schedule for launch Nov. 11.

LONDON The Chinese air force’s latest intended addition to its inventory—and ostensibly the country’s first indigenous fourth-generation combat aircraft—might just finally put in some form of appearance at the Zhuhai air show. The J-10 (also called the F-10) marks not only a generational step change from the service’s 1960s-era Soviet inventory (except for its so far limited number of Su-27s), but equally important, it holds out the promise of doctrinal and operational flexibility to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).