Industry News

Engineers have completed the first “Center of Curvature” test on the primary mirror of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in order to measure the shape of the mirror before the telescope goes through a series of launch environment tests. NASA engineers collaborated with technicians from Ball Aerospace & Technologies and the Space Telescope Science Institute to conduct […] More

Leidos has won a potential $42 million contract to continue sustainment work on the Joint Project 2030-Joint Command Support Environment for Australia’s military. The company said Thursday that its Australian subsidiary has supported the JCSE infrastructure since 2009 and the follow-on contract contains a base period of five years plus up to five option years. Australia’s Headquarters Joint Operations Command […] More

The U.K. defense ministry has chosen separate teams led by BAE Systems and Rheinmetall Landsysteme as “preferred bidders” for the assessment phase of a program to modernize the British army’s main battle tanks, Defense News reported Wednesday. Andrew Chuter writes the U.K. defense ministry aims to finalize two contracts by the end of the year to launch a 24-month, […] More

Purdue University will lead a $10 million study to research the stomach’s neural circuitry and discover if bioelectronics medicine could help treat conditions such as diabetes or obesity. Purdue said Tuesday the grant was received from the National Institutes of Health‘s Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions program, which supports research projects that focus on the development […] More

A Comtech Telecommunications subsidiary has received a $2.2 million contract by Sweden’s defense material administration to provide deployable troposcatter systems to the Swedish armed forces. Comtech said Wednesday it will supply MTTS deployable troposcatter terminals that were customized to address deployable communication requirements of the Sweden’s military. Fred Kornberg, president and CEO of Comtech Telecommunications, said the contract award demonstrates a growing […] More

The Naval Sea Systems Command is working on a competitive solicitation in search of industry members that can develop, design, fabricate, integrate and test acoustic device countermeasure special test units, engineering development models, associated products and engineering services. A presolicitation notice published Tuesday on FedBizOpps says the procurement will support the Next Generation Countermeasure program as NAVSEA looks to release […] More

United Launch Alliance has set a Nov. 11 launch date to lift DigitalGlobe‘s WorldView-4 satellite into space on-board a ULA Atlas V rocket on Nov. 11 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. ULA said Wednesday its team is working to address Atlas V booster issues discovered during final launch preparations. Lockheed Martin‘s space systems business built WorldView-4, which will work to […] More

NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has released a request for proposals in search of potential industry partners to design, develop and build robotic spacecraft to capture a multi-ton asteroid boulder. NASA said in Sept. 21  it plans to award an ARM spacecraft build-and-delivery contract in 2017 as part of the space agency’s Asteroid Redirect Mission and will accept responses to […] More

The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin have developed cost-tracking software related to the procurement of F-35 lot 3 aircraft through the FlexFile program, DoD News reported Wednesday. Jim Garamone writes DoD’s cost assessment and program evaluation office developed the FlexFile program in an effort to help DoD estimators facilitate collection of data from contractors and […] More

Accenture will help Finland’s national immigration service offer a program designed to support the digital transformation of the agency’s operations in a push to boost overall customer experience and introduce self-service options for citizens. Accenture said Wednesday that in addition to the Smart Digital Agency program support, it will also work to bolster the Migri agency’s digital capacities […] More

CSRA will integrate information technology systems with high-performance computing services to help government agencies process information at a faster pace in a push to support decision-making speeds in areas such as climate change, scientific research and space exploration. The company said Wednesday the new HPC service model will work to support HPC customer requirements within a common […] More

The General Services Administration has published a request for proposals for a leasehold interest in the Ronald Reagan Building’s international trade center portion. GSA said Monday a third-party service contractor currently runs the ITC and the agency seeks proposals that will cover both operations and management of the entire ITC. “This proposed outlease is another strategy intended to reduce […] More