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Space


March 2000 Space News

  • Remarks by Lt Gen Ronald T. Kadish, USAF, Director, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, To The Congressional Breakfast Series, sponsored by National Defense University/National Defense Industrial Association Thursday, 30 March 2000 -- We are striving to deploy an initial NMD capability, or C-1, in fiscal '05. This will consist of 20 interceptors designed to counter a handful of missiles with simple countermeasures. We will move to an "expanded-capability-one" architecture, or Expanded C-1, in fiscal '07. By 2007, in other words, we plan to deploy a total of 100 interceptors. We won't seek approval to procure and deploy the ground-based interceptors and necessary spares until fiscal '03. A decision to build an X-Band Radar in Alaska will mean that site construction must begin in the spring of 2001. As a result of the fixes we have had to make, we postponed by two months the next integrated flight test, IFT-5, to June 26.
  • ATK Successfully Test Fires Titan IV Solid Rocket Motor Upgrade Booster With New Nozzle Material ATK 28 Mar 2000 -- ATK (Alliant Techsystems) (NYSE: ATK), said it successfully test fired a Titan IV Solid Rocket Motor Upgrade (SRMU) booster using a new nozzle material on March 19 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
  • Lockheed Martin Space Systems IMAGE spacecraft launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base Lockheed Martin 27 Mar 2000 -- NASA's Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft, built at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, under subcontract to Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) of San Antonio, Texas, was launched Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California.
  • Boeing Delta II Lifts NASA's IMAGE Observatory into Orbit Boeing 25 Mar 2000 -- Boeing Delta II Lifts NASA's IMAGE Observatory into Orbit -- A NASA spacecraft that will gather images of the magnetic field around the Earth was launched aboard a Boeing [NYSE: BA] Delta II rocket.
  • Excerpts: Defense Secretary Cohen on National Missile Defense Program 24 March 2000 -- Defense Secretary Cohen says that America's European allies have raised a number of concerns about a limited U.S. National Missile Defense (NMD) program including the possibility that pursuing NMD will upset the existing U.S.-Russian strategic stability that they see is provided by the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
  • Sandia satellite launched successfully; technical difficulty worries MTI team Sandia Lab News 24 March 2000 - Vol.52, No.6 - The Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI), the product of Sandia's first full satellite development program, was successfully placed into orbit early Sunday morning, March 12.
  • Sea Launch Assembles Review Board to Investigate Launch Failure Boeing 23 Mar 2000 -- Late last week, Boeing received a Technical Assistance Agreement from the U.S. Department of State. This license enables the Sea Launch Failure Review Oversight Board to begin assessing the data and understanding the root cause of the March 12 launch failure.
  • Pentagon Lowers, Meets Criteria For Missile Defense By Stephen Green San Diego Union-Tribune March 22, 2000 -- "It would be a bad career move for anyone at the Pentagon to tell the administration what it doesn't want to hear," said John Pike, a military expert with the Federation of American Scientists. "Even the original criteria were very modest and forgiving."
  • Spence Reacts to Patriot Missile (PAC-2) Failure, House Armed Services Committee, U.S. Congress, 23 March 2000 -- "I am very concerned by the recent failure rates of the PAC-2 missiles."
  • Testing of U.S. Missile Defense System Raises Many Questions CNN THE WORLD TODAY March 22, 2000 -- JOHN PIKE, FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: They can certainly make this thing work in tests most of the time. The challenge is to make it work in combat all of the time. Well, at the end of the day we are basically betting that unlike all of our other weapons systems, this thing is going to work perfectly in combat the first time because the risk of failure is that if one warhead gets through you have more dead Americans than were killed in every other war put together.
  • Boeing to Launch NASA's IMAGE Observatory on March 25 Boeing 22 Mar 2000 -- A Boeing [NYSE: BA] Delta II rocket is poised to lift a NASA imaging satellite into orbit to help scientists understand the sun's activity and its effect on satellites and astronauts in orbit and communications and power systems on Earth.
  • U-S MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 21 March 2000 -- The head of the Pentagon's national missile defense program says a testing delay will not keep President Clinton from deciding this summer on whether to deploy an anti-missile system.
  • U-S - PROLIFERATION Voice of America 21 March 2000 -- Senator John Kerry responded to Mr. Tenet's testimony by warning that the United States must not rush to develop a defense system that would alter the world's strategic balance.
  • New Boeing Rocket Engine Assembly Facility Opens At Stennis Boeing 17 Mar 2000 -- The latest in rocket propulsion from The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] will roll off the assembly line in Hancock County, Miss., following's opening of the SSC Engine Assembly Facility. Dignitaries from Boeing, the Army, NASA, and local, state and federal government dedicated a facility that eventually could produce as many as 40 RS-68 rocket engines each year.
  • ATK Solid Rocket Motors Help Orbital's Taurus Rocket Successfully Launch Satellite for U.S. Department of Energy ATK 15 Mar 2000 -- ATK (Alliant Techsystems) (NYSE: ATK) said three solid propulsion rocket motors manufactured by Alliant Aerospace Propulsion Company, Magna, Utah, helped an Orbital Sciences Corporation Taurus® rocket successfully boost the U.S. Department of Energy's Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) satellite into its targeted orbit on March 12.
  • General Dynamics Selected by SpaceData as Prime Contractor for Deployment of SeismicStar Satellite Communication Systems General Dynamics 15 Mar 2000 -- General Dynamics Worldwide Telecommunication Systems, a subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), was selected by SpaceData International LLC as the prime contractor for its SeismicStar program.
  • ORBITAL'S TAURUS ROCKET SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SATELLITE ON MARCH 12 Orbital Sciences Corp. 13 Mar 2000 -- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) announced that its ground-launched Taurus® rocket successfully boosted the U.S. Department of Energy's Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) satellite into its targeted orbit in a mission that originated from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), California on Sunday, March 12.
  • Imaging Satellite To Keep Eye on Worldwide Weapons Production By Andrew Bridges space.com 12 March 2000 -- "What MTI is intended to do is develop a target signature database of known facilities using a space-based sensor that will correct for atmospheric interference," said John Pike, an analyst with the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.
  • Sea Launch Rocket Lost During Third Launch Boeing 12 Mar 2000 -- After an apparently successful liftoff at 6:49 a.m., PST, the Sea Launch rocket carrying the ICO F-1 mobile communications satellite suffered an anomaly.
  • ORBITAL RESCHEDULES LAUNCH OF TAURUS ROCKET FOR MARCH 12 Orbital Sciences Corp. 09 Mar 2000 -- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) announced that it has rescheduled the launch of its Taurus rocket, which is carrying the U.S. Department of Energy's Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) satellite, for Sunday, March 12, during a launch window that extends from 1:21 a.m. to 1:49 a.m. (PST).
  • MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 07 March 2000 -- The director of space policy at the Federation of American Scientists - John Pike - told V-O-A in a telephone interview that Washington has very little diplomatic room to maneuver on the issue. He says, in the end, the system will only make the world a more dangerous place.
  • Ex-Employee Says Contractor Faked Results of Missile Tests By WILLIAM J. BROAD The New York Times March 7, 2000 - Dr. Schwartz's allegations center on TRW's certifying to the government that interceptors using its computer programs would succeed more than 95 percent of the time in picking out enemy warheads, even if they were hidden in a confusing blur of decoys in space. In fact, Dr. Schwartz said in court documents, the interceptors could do so only 5 to 15 percent of the time.
  • 100th Delta Booster Rolls Out of Boeing Pueblo Facility Boeing 07 Mar 2000 -- The 100th booster built in this southeastern Colorado facility for Boeing Delta rockets is being readied for delivery to Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla.
  • Government Fraud and False Project/Technologies Dr. Nira Schwartz - For over ten years Contractor BOEING/TRW/NRC provided fraud and false technologies relative to a project known as Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV). Contract # DASG60-90-C-0165. Exo-atmospheric-kill-vehicle. BOEING/TRW/NRC provided to the Government false EKV performance reports, false test results, false test procedures, false robustness evaluation, false Risk Reduction test results and analysis. False discrimination performance that was based on alleged prior knowledge that was stated by the Government Technical Requirement Document (TRD) not to be available.
  • 100th Delta Booster Rolls Out of Boeing Pueblo Facility Boeing 07 Mar 2000 -- The 100th booster built in this southeastern Colorado facility for Boeing Delta rockets is being readied for delivery to Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla.
  • NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY March 6, 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) has published a notice of availability (NOA) for a supplement to the National Missile Defense (NMD) deployment draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that addresses the potential environmental impacts of proposed replacement of interior electronic hardware and computer software at existing early warning radar (EWR) facilities.
  • Boeing Studying Air-Launched Addition to Launch Vehicle Family Boeing 02 Mar 2000 -- A new air-launch system under development by The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and Thiokol Propulsion could increase U.S. military tactical responsiveness and expand Boeing civil and commercial launch capabilities.
  • Boeing, Raytheon Top Off Nation's Newest Launch Tower Boeing 02 Mar 2000 -- Workers from Boeing and Raytheon Engineers and Constructors took another step toward converting a historic Saturn 1 launch pad, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37).
  • Rogue States Cannot Hope To Blackmail America Or Her Allies William S Cohen London Times March 1, 2000 -- Traditional deterrence rests on our ability to launch a devastating counter-strike against any country that uses weapons of mass destruction against America, its allies or deployed forces. Such measures worked against the Soviet Union, whose leaders were rational and risk-averse, but they may not deter rogue states whose leaders are indifferent to their people's welfare.



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