--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 01:52:01 -0400 From: Richard Sampson <rjsa@sprintmail.com> Organization: Unknown Organization MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com" <ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com> Subject: IP: NRO TO LAUNCH SATELLITE TO EXPLORE TECHNOLOGIES By Frank Wolfe Sender: owner-ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: Richard Sampson <rjsa@sprintmail.com> Status: U NRO TO LAUNCH SATELLITE TO EXPLORE TECHNOLOGIES By Frank Wolfe Sep. 23, 1998 (DEFENSE DAILY, Vol. 200, No. 24 via COMTEX) -- CHANTILLY, Va.-The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) plans to launch the Space Technology Experiment (STEX) satellite Oct. 1 at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., to test and validate 29 new technologies. "The NRO recognizes the national need and challenges of providing future overhead collection systems with good performance at reduced cost, so we're aggressively pursuing technology options," John Schaub, the STEX program director, told reporters yesterday at NRO headquarters here. The STEX satellite is the first the NRO has announced prior to launch, officials said. With the end of the Cold War and the shrinking defense budget, NRO now believes it needs to justify its programs in a more open forum, officials said. Launched aboard an Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB] Taurus launch vehicle, STEX is designed to explore new commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies to enhance future space missions, like overhead collection, at a lower cost. The 1,540-pound satellite is designed to last two years in space. The STEX program began three years ago when NRO partnered with Lockheed Martin [LMT] in Colorado, the Naval Research Laboratory and the Air Force Research Laboratory. The cost of the satellite--its booster, launch costs and ground support--is less than $90 million, the NRO said. "Keeping the schedule short was a key contributor to keeping the total costs low," Schaub said. "It's significantly cheaper." NRO director Keith Hall has said he wants to increase NRO's research and development efforts from 8 percent to 10 percent of the agency's total budget and STEX is part of that plan (Defense Daily, May 26). STEX is the first in a series of low-cost demonstrations by the NRO's Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate. The technologies to be tested aboard STEX include an Electric Propulsion Demonstration Module using a Russian-built engine, a 51- gigabit solid state data recorder (the world's largest), multifunction solar cells, high-density nickel-hydrogen batteries and an Advanced Tether Experiment, Schaub said. The NRO hopes the Advanced Tether Experiment, which is to use four miles of Spectra 1000-reinforced tether deployed from the satellite, will boost the agency's knowledge about how to do such things as raising and lowering spacecraft by tethers and how to increase the survivability of tethered space systems. "The program has really managed in a streamlined way. We've used commercial practices attempting to speed the development of low cost next generation spacecraft. It's the NRO's version of better, faster, cheaper," Schaub said. -0- Copyright Phillips Publishing, Inc. News provided by COMTEX. [!BUSINESS] [!HIGHTECH] [!INFOTECH] [!PUBLIC+COMPANIES] [!WALL+STREET] [AIR+FORCE] [BUDGET] [COLORADO] [NEWS] [NEWSGRID] [NICKEL] [PHL] [POUND] [RESEARCH] [TECHNOLOGY] [WAR] -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ********************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'