Back To Work. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Jan. 6 after their holiday recess and face the immediate task of working out a compromise fiscal year 2014 appropriations bill. Congress passed a budget deal just before Christmas, which set an overall spending limit, and the bill the House and Senate appropriations committees are now working on will set individual spending lines for each program within each government department and agency. Senate Appropriations Committee spokesman Vince Morris says Jan. 2 that “our staff worked across the break and we’re aiming for things to come together next week.” Lawmakers must debate and pass the compromise bill and send it to the president before Jan. 15 to avoid another government shutdown. 
SpaceX Thaicom.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) delays its Friday launch of the Thaicom 6 satellite until no earlier than Monday, Jan. 6, according to Patrick AFB, Fla., public affairs. SpaceX spokeswoman Hannah Post says Friday the company decided to conduct additional inspections of the upgraded Falcon 9 launch vehicle to “ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance.” Post says additional launch opportunities would be Jan. 8-12. Thaicom 6, manufactured by Orbital Sciences for Thailand, is based on the company’s GeoStar-2 satellite platform. It will be located at 78.5 degrees East Longitude and will carry a hybrid Ku- and C-band communications payload that will generate approximately 3.7 kilowatts of payload power.
Antares ISS. Orbital delays its Antares launch originally scheduled for Tuesday to no earlier than Wednesday and most likely Thursday, the company says in a statement. The launch will carry a Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) to supply it with needed supplies and equipment. The launch was originally scheduled for December but was pushed back when NASA decided to fix the ISS’ malfunctioning exterior cooling loop pump.
XTAR Promotion. Commercial satellite communications (COMSATCOM) provider XTAR promotes Andrew Ruszkowski to chief commercial officer, according to a company statement. In this newly created position, Ruszkowski will continue to support XTAR’s fleet development to sustain current and anticipated government and military requirements, including working with the Defense Department to assist its acquisition and procurement of COMSATCOM. Ruszkowski joined XTAR in 2010 as vice president of global sales and marketing and has nearly two decades of experience in the commercial satellite industry, including senior positions at SES, New Skies and PanAmSat. XTAR is a privately owned satellite operator delivering X-band services to United States and allied government users.
XTAR ISR Contract. L-3 Communications Systems-West awards XTAR a $5.6 million, one-year contract renewal to provide X-band satellite connectivity to the Army for manned airborne, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission support, according to an XTAR statement. XTAR will deliver space segment capacity on multiple XTAR-EUR beams, including the Middle East and global beams. The satellite will support connectivity to Army-operated King Air 350 and Dash 8 aircraft. XTAR-EUR, at 29 degrees East Longitude, provides commercial X-band coverage from eastern Brazil across the Atlantic Ocean to as far east as Singapore. The contract went into service Nov. 1.
WGS-6 Service. The sixth Boeing Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite, funded by Australia, reaches orbit for the U.S. Air Force in December, according to a Boeing statement. Australia is the first WGS partner outside of the U.S. WGS-6 was launched Aug. 7 and was the second WGS satellite delivered to the Air Force in 2013. Six WGS satellites have been launched and Boeing has four additional satellites in production at its El Segundo, Calif., facility. WGS-8 and beyond will include an upgraded digital channelizer, which will increase the satellites’ bandwidth by more than 90 percent. WGS is an Air Force next-generation communications platform.
Quickstep C-130J. Quickstep Holdings signs a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Lockheed Martin for the manufacture and delivery of 120 sets of C-130J carbon-fiber wing flaps through 2018 at a rate of approximately 24 sets per year, according to a Quickstep statement. The MoA, which includes previous purchase orders, is worth $75 million and is subsequent to Quickstep’s March 2012 announcement that the company was awarded to tender the manufacture wing flaps for C-130Js. Each wing flap contains more than 100 individual parts including carbon ribs, spars and skins and more than 200 tools are used for the parts’ development and manufacture. The wing flaps are expected to be delivered at a rate of two sets per month beginning this month.
F-35 GBU-32. A F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant in December completes a successful flight test and verification year for weapons integration by successfully deploying a Guided Bomb Unit-32 (GBU-32) Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) from the aircraft’s internal weapons bay against a fixed ground target, according to a Lockheed Martin statement. The latest series of weapons tests was accomplished with Block 2B software, which the company says is a major milestone for the program. The F-35B separated the GBU-32 from its internal weapons bay above a restricted military precision impact test range in California’s Mojave Desert. The GBU-32, released from an altitude of 25,000 feet, guided to a direct hit on its intended target of eight stacked cargo containers. Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 along with subcontractors BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman.
Sabtech Private. Sabtech CEO Michael Carter in December acquires the privately-held company by acquiring 100 percent of Sabtech stock, according to a company statement. Sabtech provides technologies for command, control, communications, computers, combat, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems. Sabtech will still concentrate on the C5ISR market, the company says, but it has also identified market opportunities in industrial controls, factory automation and telecommunications. Carter says in a statement Sabtech is further penetrating into military and defense markets with new technology in both electronic hardware and software. Sabtech is based in Yorba Linda, Calif.
Cathodic Sealing. The Navy has developed a process for inspecting and replacing anti-corrosion anodes in the water jet propulsion system for the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) without having to drydock the vessels. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and the Southwest Regional Maintenance Center (SWRMC) have developed a plate and external patches to seal the waterjet inlet and create a dry environment so anodes can be inspected and replaced while the ships remain in water. The Navy tested the system on the USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) in San Diego. The service estimates it can save $100 million in drydocking costs in San Diego, the main hub for the LCSs. On the Freedom variants of the LCS, the inspections and replacements must take place about every four months. The Navy also plans to test the sealing system on the Independence variants and hopes to have it completed by March. This was a unique problem for the Navy, as the LCSs are the only class of ships that employ water jets rather than propellers. The water jets take in water, increase pressure on it then thrust it out to drive the ship.
Effective Maritime Info Sharing. To provide a secure maritime domain that enables the efficient flow of commerce requires an “effective maritime awareness and information sharing arrangement,” according to the Obama administration’s recently released National Maritime Domain Awareness Action Plan. Such an information sharing arrangement must “improve detection, collection and identification capabilities” to ferret out potential threats and challenges, “recognize threats early” through the integration of information from different agencies and sectors, boost the protection of maritime infrastructure, and “maximize legitimate use of the maritime domain” through modernized information sharing and expanded stakeholder collaboration, it says.
DHS Hearing. As Congress revs up its workload next week after the holiday recess, not much activity is planned by committees that oversee the Department of Homeland Security. As it stands now, only the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will meet meet, with a confirmation hearing set for Jan. 8 to consider the nomination of John Roth to be the department’s inspector general.