Can Lockheed-Martin's Joint Venture With Boeing End Years Of
Bitter Rivalry?
It's a bit of a shock. Not that the aerospace arms of
Lockheed-Martin and Boeing aren't struggling to some degree -- in
the post telecommunications boom era, that's a given. It's not even
that the two have spotted economies of scale in a partnership that
would produce most of the launch vehicles for NASA and the Air
Force. What's surprising is, after years of bitter rivalry,
executives from these two aerospace behemoths could even sit in the
same room, much less strike a deal.
...And The STS-114 Commander Is Just Fine With Delay
With the space shuttle's Return to Flight delayed for at least
two months, Discovery's crew is getting in a little extra practice
this week. Commander Eileen Collins and her six crew members were
at the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday for a countdown exercise to be
conducted before the space plane is rolled back to the Vehicle
Assembly Building. There, engineers will further modify Discovery's
external fuel tank to mitigate the possibility that falling debris
might damage the orbiter.
Former Rivals Say They'll Team Up And Split The Proceeds
Boeing and Lockheed Martin say they've agreed to create a joint
venture that will combine the production, engineering, test and
launch operations associated with US government launches of Boeing
Delta and Lockheed Martin Atlas rockets. The joint venture, named
United Launch Alliance, will reduce the cost of meeting the
critical national security and NASA expendable launch vehicle needs
of the United States.
A team of engineers and scientists led by NASA have begun
investigating the physics and performance of magnetic nozzles --
innovative devices that could support development of plasma-based
propulsion systems.
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