NASA Extends Information Technology Contract For $214.4 Million

NASA extended the Unified NASA Information Technology Services, or UNITeS, contract with Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] of San Diego.

This extension permits completion of an information technology infrastructure realignment and implementation through competition of various NASA agency-wide contracts.

That $214.4 million contract extension provides NASA with agency-wide information services, information technology services to Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and support for Marshall’s Integrated Enterprise Management Program, which combines agency financial resources and travel office information.

The modification provides additional support from Jan. 1, through Nov. 30 next year. With this extension, the value of the contract, including options, is approximately $1.1 billion. The UNITeS contact was awarded to SAIC in January 2004.

Air Force Still Plans TSAT Award This Year As DoD Examines AEHF Implications

By Marina Malenic

The Air Force still plans to award a multibillion dollar contract in the coming months for the next generation of secure military communications satellites, a top Air Force official said.

The service anticipates selecting either The Boeing Co. [BA] or Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] to build and launch the Transformation Satellite (TSAT) system to provide military users secure communications on the move, said Gen. Robert Kehler, chief of Air Force Space Command.

However, the service is still analyzing implications of moving ahead with TSAT for its Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite communications system.

"We think it is prudent for us to take a look at all of these factors together," Kehler told reporters at the annual Air Force Association meeting in Washington.

Earlier this month, the Air Force informed Congress that the AEHF program had exceeded a 25 percent cost-growth cap and must be recertified by the Pentagon. The program cost grew by just over $2 billion to approximately $9.2 billion. Most of that overage was due to a congressionally mandated fourth satellite being added to the program after Lockheed Martin’s production line had been shut down.

TSAT is the follow-on system. Congress added the extra AEHF satellite because of concerns that there could be a capability gap if the TSAT program schedule slipped. However, Congress has made considerable cuts to TSAT.

Pentagon officials are now examining the two programs closely. Kehler said a revised plan is expected to emerge in coming weeks. The contractors, meanwhile, are proceeding with TSAT risk-reduction efforts leading up to a possible downselect in December.

"We continue to make progress with our customer on the risk reduction phase" of the program, John Peterson, Boeing TSAT space segment program director, told Defense Daily, sister publication of Space & Missile Defense Report.

"We are leveraging capabilities that we already have on-orbit and operational today," he added.

Lockheed Martin and industry partner Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] announced the successful test of a deployable radiator system for TSAT. The High Performance Loop Heat Pipe (HP-LHP) Deployable Radiator System has been "demonstrated to significantly improve the heat dissipation capability over existing systems," according to a statement released by Lockheed Martin.

Orbital Gains Order For New Minotaur IV Launch Vehicle

The Air Force ordered a new Minotaur IV launch vehicle from Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB].

The Force Space and Missiles Systems Center (SMC) recently placed an order under the company’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-2 (OSP-2) contract.

That order consists of one Minotaur IV launch vehicle that will be used to launch a military technology demonstration payload in 2010. The new order brings the total number of Minotaur launch vehicles procured by the Air Force, including space launch and target vehicles, to 25 since the inception of the program in 1997.

It also represents the eighth Minotaur IV under contract for launches beginning next year.

Lockheed To Build Mars Atmospheric Surveyor That Will Launch In 2013, NASA Announces

NASA selected Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] to build a spacecraft that will examine the atmosphere of Mars, a mission launching in 2013 that will carry an overall pricetag of $485 million, the space agency announced.

The robotic atmospheric scientist, called Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), will seek clues to answer a long-time question as to why Mars long ago lost most of its atmosphere.

MAVEN will check the Martian climate history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before.

To initiate the MAVEN program, NASA issued an Announcement of Opportunity in August 2006, and reviewed 20 competing proposals, finally selecting the offering of Lockheed and a researcher at the University of Colorado as providing the best science value and lowest implementation risk.

"This mission will provide the first direct measurements ever taken to address key scientific questions about Mars’s evolution," said Doug McCuistion, director of the NASA Mars Exploration Program.

Mars once had a denser atmosphere that supported the presence of liquid water on the surface. As part of a dramatic climate change, most of the Martian atmosphere was lost. MAVEN will make definitive scientific measurements of present-day atmospheric loss that will offer clues about the planet’s history.

Principal investigator for the mission is Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The university will receive $6 million to fund mission planning and technology development during the next year.

Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will manage the project.

Lockheed, at its Littleton, Colo., facility, will build the spacecraft based on designs from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey missions.

The team will begin mission design and implementation in the fall next year.

Launched in August 2005, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a multipurpose spacecraft that carries the most powerful telescopic camera ever flown to another planet. The camera can show Martian landscape features as small as a kitchen table from low orbital altitudes. The mission is examining potential landing sites for future surface missions and providing a communications relay for other Mars spacecraft.

The 2001 Mars Odyssey, launched in April of that year, is determining the composition of the Red Planet surface by searching for water and shallow buried ice. The spacecraft also is studying the Martian radiation environment.

After arriving at Mars in the fall of 2014, MAVEN will use its propulsion system to enter an elliptical orbit ranging 90 to 3,870 miles above the planet. The spacecraft’s eight science instruments will take measurements during a full Earth year, which is roughly equivalent to half of a Martian year.

MAVEN also will dip to an altitude 80 miles above the planet to sample the entire upper Martian atmosphere. During and after its primary science mission, the spacecraft may be used to provide communications relay support for robotic missions on the Martian surface.

"MAVEN will obtain critical measurements that the National Academy of Science listed as being of high priority in their 2003 decadal survey on planetary exploration," said Michael Meyer, the Mars chief scientist at NASA headquarters.

"This field of study also was highlighted in the 2005 NASA Roadmap for New Science of the Sun-Earth System Connection."

The Mars Scout Program is designed to send a series of small, low-cost, principal investigator-led missions to the Red Planet. The Phoenix Mars Lander was the first spacecraft selected.

Phoenix landed on the icy northern polar region of Mars on May 25. The spacecraft completed its prime science mission on Aug. 25. The mission has been extended through Tuesday next week.

One important finding of Phoenix, a robotic geologist and chemist, was confirming that there is water in abundant quantities just beneath the reddish dusty surface of the planet. Phoenix used a power shovel, a scoop, to uncover whitish materials that then were proven to be ice — frozen water.

That is hugely important for eventual manned missions to Mars, whether by NASA or by voyagers from other nations. Water can be used for drinking and cooking, and also can provide humans with oxygen for breathing and fuel for heating homes and offices in the frigid Martian nights. It also can be used to irrigate plants that would grow in the Martian soil to provide food.

With its Mars Exploration Program, NASA seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential.

Arianespace Signs Deal To Use 10 Soyuz Launch Vehicles

Arianespace Saturday signed a deal with Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, to acquire 10 Soyuz launch vehicles.

The contract was signed during a French-Russian governmental seminar, attended by both the French and Russian prime ministers.

These Soyuz rockets will be launched from either the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, South America, or the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, starting in the second half of next year.

The contract provides for 10 Soyuz ST launchers (three stages, fairing and Fregat upper stage), along with the preparation and launch operations. It follows the contract signed in June last year covering the first four Soyuz rockets to be launched from the Guiana Space Center.

The Soyuz launcher will be operated from the Guiana Space Center starting in the second half of next year, along with the Ariane 5 heavy launcher and the Vega light launcher.

Raytheon Given $220.5 Million Phalanx Contract Change

The Navy gave Raytheon Co. [RTN] a $220.5 million contract modification for MK15 Phalanx Close-In-Weapon System (CIWS) Block 1B upgrades and conversions, system overhauls, and associated hardware.

Phalanx is an automatic system designed to detect, track, engage, and destroy anti-ship missile threats penetrating other defense envelopes.

The Phalanx Block 1B CIWS will be installed on low-boy trailers with self contained diesel electric power and cooling water.

This configuration of the Phalanx CIWS is the MK 15 MOD 29 land-based Phalanx, which has been deployed to Iraq.

Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 2012 under the contract, which is managed by the Naval Sea Systems Command at the Washington Navy Yard.

Raytheon Gains $10 Million Contract For New Missile Interceptor

The Missile Defense Agency gave Raytheon Co. [RTN] a $10 million contract to continue research and development for a new interceptor in the Network Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE) program, the company announced.

NCADE is an air-launched weapon system designed to engage short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in the boost and ascent phase of flight. "NCADE fills a critical niche in the ballistic missile defense system and provides a revolutionary, low-cost approach to interceptor development and acquisition," said Mike Booen, Raytheon Missile Systems vice president of advanced missile defense. "The ballistic missile threat is increasing rapidly. Raytheon is committed to getting NCADE to the warfighter as quickly as possible."

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon-Boeing Team Each Receive JAGM Awards

By Ann Roosevelt

Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] and a rival team of Raytheon Co. [RTN] and The Boeing Co. [BA] both signed 27-month firm, fixed-price contracts with a ceiling of no more than $125 million for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) system technology development program, the Army announced.

The dual-source contract will culminate in a system design and development award, a service spokesman said.

That next-generation missile will be carried on U.S. military rotary-wing, fixed-wing and unmanned aerial system (UAS) platforms, with an expected initial operational capability in 2016.

The contract, awarded by the Army Aviation and Missile Command, with participation by the Navy and Marine Corps, is for a competitive risk-reduction phase.

"We look forward to developing this critical new weapon system for our nation’s warfighters," Rick Edwards, vice president of Tactical Missiles and Combat Maneuver Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said.

"Our extensive risk-reduction tests have significantly mitigated risk on the three critical subsystems, our software and simulations are mature and proven, and we have made

significant strides in developing low-risk platform integration solutions. We will continue to apply the same commitment and disciplined performance proven in earlier risk reduction activity on JAGM technologies."

John Weinzettle, Raytheon’s JAGM program director, said: "There is an urgent warfighter need to field this system and meet future needs. The goal of the Raytheon-Boeing JAGM team is to deliver an affordable, reliable and complete system solution that can be integrated into the program’s six required aircraft."

JAGM is the program that replaced the Joint Common Missile (JCM) program, formally ended in 2000 due to concerns over war funding and other pressing needs. Lockheed Martin was the prime on the JCM that at the time was estimated to have a total value of more than $5 billion over its lifetime.

The Army, Navy and Marine Corps are expected to procure approximately 35,000 JAGM rounds to replace the Hellfire II and Longbow Hellfire missiles on the Army’s AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the Warrior extended-range multi-purpose UAS, the Arapaho armed reconnaissance helicopter, the Marine Corps’ AH-1 Super Cobra attack helicopter and on the U.S. Navy’s SH-60 Seahawk armed reconnaissance helicopter.

JAGM also will replace the Maverick missile on the F/A-18 Hornet.

Potential extension to other platforms, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and future international sales could push the total number of rounds much higher.

The Lockheed Martin JAGM team includes more than a dozen major suppliers located across the United States and in the United Kingdom.

JAGM will have a tri-mode seeker combining a semi-active laser for precision-strike, single-shot target defeat with low collateral damage; imaging infrared for passive fire- and-forget capability; and millimeter wave radar for active fire-and-forget capability during day, night, adverse weather and battlefield obscurants.

The missile is designed to defeat moving and stationary targets at extended ranges in all weather conditions.

JAGM also has a single insensitive-munition rocket motor that provides required propulsion in extreme temperatures to deliver maximum range from all required platforms.

"Collectively, these three features will enable Army, Navy and Marine Corps aviators to perform a wide range of close air support missions from multiple platforms against diverse targets to support our forces in whatever scenario they encounter," Edwards said.