NASA Remembers Legendary Astronaut Thomas Stafford

He was 93 and participated in two Gemini missions,Apollo 10 and the rendevous in space with Russian Cosmonauts,ending the space race.He was an Air Force General Officer who had flown more than a hundred types of aircraft.

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission Overview (Official NASA Briefing) - planetary science

Atlas V AEHF-5 Live Launch Broadcast - Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite providing secure connectivity for the United States Air Force

Upcoming:The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch the US Department of Defense Space Test Program-2 Mission,an extremely complex mission with DOD,NASA and university research projects.The mission,scheduled for a 24 June 2019 launch,is managed by the US Air Force and will be launched from Kennedy Space Center.

Boeing and International Partner Win Air Force Contract

Boeing and its Italian partner Leonardo have been awarded a US Air Force contract potentially worth 2.38 billion dollars for up to 84 Leonardo MH-139 helicopters.Leonardo will manufacture the choppers at its AgustaWestland plant in Philadelphia,while Beoing will missionise the aircraft to meet the Air Force's special needs.The choppers will be used by Air Force Security Forces to protect the nation's land-based ICBM deterrent.They will also be used for training and VIP transport.*
The MH-139s,which are the military version of the commercial AW-139,will replace the venerable UH-1N Huey,which entered service in 1970.The companies will get 367 million dollars for the first four helicopters.Then the Air Force will decide whether to proceed with further production.*
Leonardo,formerly known as Finnmecanica,is based in Rome and is exclusively an aerospace and defence firm with numerous subsidiaries,such as AgustaWestland and Thales Alenia Space.*
The Boeing Company (BA),Leonardo S.p.A. (Italy:Milan LDO)

NASA Goddard:Webb Move from Houston to LA

Lockheed Martin Team Makes Bid For JSTARS Aircraft Contract

Lockheed Martin,Raytheon and Bombardier have teamed up on a joint bid to deliver a low risk,affordable solution for the US Air Force JSTARS Recapitalization Program.The firms promise to provide the Air Force with capabilities superior to the current JSTARS,with a true open architecture that allows the government to own the technology baseline for further upgrades and reduce lifecycle cost.
Lockheed Martin will be lead systems integrator for the project;Raytheon will bring their experience with ground surveillance,intelligence,surveillance and reconnaissance,mission systems integration and JSTARS communications to the team.Bombardier will provide its ultra-long-range Global business jet platform,less costly to operate than a modern airliner,and uniquely suited to the JSTARS mission by allowing onboard radar to see further and deeper into valleys and survey the battlespace for long periods of time without refueling,Lockheed Martin said in a press release.
Bombardier,based in Montreal,added that the track record it built over the past years with the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) programme for the Air Force using the Bombardier Global platform makes it very well positioned in this market segment.A concept illustration depicts the Global business aircraft air frame with several antennae on the undersides of the wings,plus radomes above and beneath the fuselage.
The JSTARS mission,standing for Joint Surveillance Attack Radar System,is currently carried out by Boeing 707 E-8C aircraft.These aging planes have been heavily utilised since the 9-11 attacks,averaging 19.4 hours per day.
The Air Force needs ground-moving target indicators,said Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh.That intelligence has been phenomenally successful:all the combatant commanders want it.*
Lockheed Martin (LMT),Raytheon (RTN),Bombardier (TSX:BBD:B)

US Strategic and Cyber Commands:Facing the Range of Threats

General Robert Kehler,US Air Force,Commander,US Strategic Command,made a joint appearance with General Keith Alexander,US Army,Commander,US Cyber Command and Director,National Security Agency,before the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Tuesday.Uncertainty and complexity continue to dominate the national security landscape,General Kehler said,citing Iran's nuclear ambitions;North Korea's ballistic missile launch;civil war in Syria;with the fiscal uncertainty adding additional steep challenges.Our enemies and potential enemies are watching.
Our STRATCOM men and women wield an array of complimentary capabilities.While our heritage is nuclear,today's STRATCOM is far more diverse than ever before.I'm most concerned with the impact fiscal concerns are having on our people.Civilians are 60% of our staff.I believe they will cope with it in the near term;but they may eventually retire early.
Overall,the fiscal concern is like an avalanche.In the longer term,it will affect our sustainment needs.Our responsibilities have not changed,but the pathway we're on is posing growing risk.
For his part,General Alexander said we need cyber legislation.We can both protect civil liberties and privacy and protect our nation in cyber space.Cyber effects are growing.There have been over 140 attacks on Wall Street in the past six months.There was a destructive attack on Saudi Aramco last summer.
We are ahead of developing the teams that we need,our cyber cadre.It is an offensive team DOD would use to defend the nation if attacked in cyber space.We face two issues:1.Command and Control-how will the joint cyber centers work with Cyber Command;2.situational awareness-an attack on Wall Street will be seen by the private sector first.We have to see it in real time,building the operational picture we would share with the Combatant Commands,the FBI and others.This is a new area for many of our folks.
From my perspective,no one actor is to blame for our current lack of preparedness.The US government has made significant strides in the cyber realm.
On nuclear Command and Control,General Kehler added we are very concerned with a cyber-related attack on Command and Control and our nuclear weapons themselves.I am confident today that the Command and Control system and nuclear platforms themselves do not have such a vulnerability.We have looked at that.We need to do better at exercising and detecting such threats.We have a way to go there until we can put an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence.
I'm confident in the deployed weapons and the stockpile.Every year,I and my predecessors have been responsible for assessing the stockpile.
With regard to our ballistic missile defense,I am satisfied that our 30 interceptors can defend against a limited North Korean attack on the West Coast.We are not in an optimal position against Iran.I am cautiously confident we can defend the East Coast from an Iranian attack.It doesn't provide a complete defence against Iran.It would depend on the azimuth of the Iranian missile.
An additional interceptor site is being considered for East Coast defence.
When does the DOD step in to defend the nation from cyber attack,General Alexander asked.The distributed denial of service attacks on Wall Street are best addressed by the Internet service providers,or ISPs.What we're seeing with the banks today I am concerned we're going to see grow throughout the year.