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US-European Satellite Delivers First Sea Level Measurements; Thomas Zurbuchen Quoted
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US-European Satellite Delivers First Sea Level Measurements; Thomas Zurbuchen Quoted

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, a joint U.S.-European satellite built to measure global sea surface height, has sent back its first measurements of sea level, NASA reported on Thursday. The data has provided information on sea surface height, wave height and wind speed off the southern tip of Africa.

"We're excited for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich to begin its critical work studying sea level and helping us understand the many aspects of our planet's global ocean," said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 21. The satellite will measure global ocean height from space. 

"Data from Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will help us evaluate how the Earth is changing," said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science Division. 

The initial orbit for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich was 11.4 miles lower than its ultimate operational orbit of 830 miles above Earth. Engineers plan to move the satellite into its operational orbit by mid-December, where it will trail the Jason-3 satellite by 30 seconds. 

During this tandem flight, scientists and engineers will spend the next six to 12 months cross calibrating the data collected between the satellites to ensure the continuity of measurements. Following, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will become the primary sea level satellite. 

In addition to measuring sea level, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will monitor atmospheric temperature and humidity, which will help improve weather and hurricane forecasts.

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Boeing Enters Long Term Agreement with Frontier Airlines to Support Operations
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Boeing Enters Long Term Agreement with Frontier Airlines to Support Operations

Boeing has entered a ten-year agreement with Frontier Airlines to implement a range of crew, flight-planning and operations tools to enhance efficiency for the airline, Boeing reported on Thursday. 

Boeing’s Jeppesen product range will provide digital solutions that deliver cost savings across regional and international routes, enhance airline crew-planning processes and increase operational reliability.

“We are fully confident that these robust Jeppesen flight-planning and operational tools will bring tremendous benefit to Frontier’s operations from day one following implementation,” said Brad Lambert, vice president of Flight Operations for Frontier Airlines. 

Under the agreement, Frontier Airlines will leverage a new Jeppesen digital solutions suite that provides day-of-operations decision-support tools, including flight-planning and scheduling services, crew management, tail assignment and operations-control tools. 

“From maintenance and operational planning to day-of and irregular operations, the Jeppesen automation and crew-management tools will complement our low-cost business model while contributing to our system reliability and efficiency,” Lambert added. 

“Boeing’s analytics-powered tools [will] maximize performance and reduce costs during this critical moment for our industry,” said Ted Colbert, president and CEO of Boeing Global Services. “This is a great example of our partnership with customers like Frontier to turn Boeing’s unparalleled digital expertise into operational bottom-line advantages.”

About Boeing

Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading provider of commercial airplanes, defense, space and security systems, and global services. As a top U.S. exporter, the company supports commercial and government customers in more than 150 countries, leveraging the talents of a global supplier base. Building on a legacy of aerospace leadership, Boeing continues to lead in technology and innovation, deliver for its customers and invest in its people and future growth.

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New SEC Rules Seek to Modernize Infrastructure Used in Equity Market Data Collection, Distribution; Jay Clayton Quoted
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New SEC Rules Seek to Modernize Infrastructure Used in Equity Market Data Collection, Distribution; Jay Clayton Quoted

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has implemented rules to update the infrastructure used to collect, consolidate and disseminate market data for national market system (NMS) stocks.

SEC said Wednesday that the newly adopted rules will upgrade and expand the content of NMS market data and create a decentralized consolidation framework that replaces exclusive securities information processors with “competing consolidators” to oversee the collection, consolidation and dissemination of market data to the public.

“Today’s rules are part of our larger initiative and ongoing efforts to modernize our equity market regulatory structure to address significant changes in our trading markets and better fit the needs of investors—both retail and institutional—and other market participants, including issuers,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. “In particular, these rules are designed to increase competition and transparency, which will improve data quality and data access for all market participants.”

SEC has come up with a phased transition plan for the new rules that will kick off in 2021.

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Laura Stanton Offers Update on GSA’s STARS III, Polaris Small Business IT GWACs
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Laura Stanton Offers Update on GSA’s STARS III, Polaris Small Business IT GWACs

Laura Stanton, assistant commissioner of the office of information technology category at the General Services Administration (GSA), said GSA plans to award the potential $50 billion STARS III governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) set aside for small IT businesses in fiscal year 2021, FedScoop reported Wednesday. 

Stanton said a draft solicitation for another small business IT GWAC, Polaris, will be released soon on the beta SAM website.

“I would say that the future is fairly near in this case,” she said of Polaris during an AFFIRM webinar Wednesday.

The report said GSA expects Polaris to help expand the number of HUBZone and women-owned IT contractors supporting agencies. Stanton announced in October 2020 that Polaris seeks to provide customers access to providers of artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud and other emerging technologies.

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John Ratcliffe on Space Force Becoming Part of US Intelligence Community
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John Ratcliffe on Space Force Becoming Part of US Intelligence Community

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe said the U.S. intelligence community will soon integrate the U.S. Space Force as the 18th member, SpaceNews reported Wednesday. Ratcliffe made the announcement Wednesday during a National Space Council meeting at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the DNI told the publication the plan for the Space Force would help strengthen the partnership between the IC and the Department of Defense (DoD) and that ODNI expects a decision on the move “in the next few months.”

Ratcliffe said his office and the Space Force plan to establish a national space intelligence center focused on technical intelligence to help protect space systems from potential anti-satellite weapons from Russia and China.

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New Collaborative Pilot Program Aims to Bolster DHS Tech Dev’t
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New Collaborative Pilot Program Aims to Bolster DHS Tech Dev’t

The Department of Homeland Security has co-launched a collaborative pilot program that aims to accelerate the development of technologies in support of the DHS mission.

DHS said Tuesday its Science and Technology Directorate has partnered with technology company BMNT, nonprofit Common Mission Project and other DHS components to pursue the Hacking for Homeland Security or H4HS pilot program.

The program engages with academia to identify and develop new concepts and technologies that address real-world problems faced by DHS.

“The H4HS Program will be an opportunity for S&T and DHS components to test a unique innovation program focused on reframing problems and developing unique solutions,” said Megan Mahle, director of industry partnerships at S&T.

H4HS builds on the Hacking for Defense academic course that trains students to address national security and intelligence issues via modern entrepreneurial approaches.

Student participants of H4HS will receive opportunities to learn from experts about homeland security technologies. The program's next course will take place next spring with a focus on issues faced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

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NASA Tests 3D-Printed Parts for Future Spacecraft
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NASA Tests 3D-Printed Parts for Future Spacecraft

NASA has demonstrated the hot-fire performance of 3D-printed rocket engine parts designed for future lunar landers.

The space agency said Tuesday it tested a copper alloy combustion chamber and a hydrogen-resistant alloy-made nozzle that were produced via additive manufacturing.

NASA’s Alabama-based Marshall Space Flight Center conducted the tests under the Long-Life Additive Manufacturing Assembly project that seeks to produce 3D-printed parts for lunar landers.

“This 3D printed technology is a game-changer when it comes to reducing total hardware manufacturing time and cost,” said Tom Teasley, a test engineer at Marshall.

The effort’s assigned team ran 23 separate hot-fire tests within a 10-day period and generated data on pressure and temperature conditions.

NASA locally melted metal powder to produce the iron-nickel superalloy nozzle through a method known as laser powder directed energy deposition.

The LLAMA project is part of the larger Game Changing Development program that aims to explore new approaches to space technology and operations.

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Army, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Prototype Quadrotor Drone Maneuverability Element
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Army, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Prototype Quadrotor Drone Maneuverability Element

The U.S. Army has partnered with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York to develop a “trajectory planner” element to help improve vertical takeoff-and-landing maneuverability for quadrotor drones. 

Researchers integrated the tail-sitter onto a Common Research Configuration quadrotor biplane to test the element's ability to affect rotor movement and wing aerodynamics particularly in dense locations and urban areas, the Army Research Laboratory said Tuesday.

Jean-Paul Reddinger, an aerospace engineer at ARL’s Vehicle Technology Directorate, said the trajectory planner’s capacity to transition the platform between hover and forward-flight could help the Army in applications such as aerial resupply and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

“The goal of this work was to use a model-based trajectory planner that could capture the quadrotor’s dynamic characteristics sufficiently while executing quickly enough to provide trajectories in-flight,” he said. 

“The direction we’re trying to take this in is to incorporate obstacles and additional kinds of constraints on its maneuverability.”

RPI and the Army plan to conduct further simulation trials for the tail-sitter ahead of hardware integration activities and flight tests.

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Cyware Names Rob Jacobs & Thomas Bain to VP Positions
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Cyware Names Rob Jacobs & Thomas Bain to VP Positions

Cyware has appointed Rob Jacobs as vice president of Finance and Thomas Bain as vice president of Marketing to expand the company’s global go-to-market and business operations, Cyware reported on Wednesday.

“Adding Rob and Thomas will help us further consolidate and enhance our core competencies in Finance and Marketing, as Cyware plans to make an aggressive push into the global marketplace. Both have extensive experience and exceptional levels of expertise channelizing the scale-up of very fast-growing companies," said Anuj Goel, founder and CEO, Cyware.

In their new roles, Jacobs and Bain will work to deliver innovation in cyber fusion, threat intelligence and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) for its enterprise and mid-market customer base.

Jacobs most recently served with Bluecore, where he held the position of vice president of Finance. Prior to Bluecore, he served in financial leadership roles for Eyeview, Hailo and Willcare.

"I'm excited to join the team at Cyware to help drive the company's aggressive growth goals," said Jacobs. "My role is to help continue the build-out, including the financial infrastructure that sets the organization up for massive scale."

Prior to joining Cyware, Bain served with RiskRecon as senior vice president of Marketing. He previously served in marketing leadership roles for Morphisec, Centripetal Networks and GoSecure. 

“Cyware is supporting some of the biggest global brands by optimizing security operations and enabling security collaboration for customers and partners. Anuj has assembled a talented and experienced team and I'm honored to join as the company continues to experience rapid growth and innovation in the market," said Bain.

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DoD Releases Guide on Mission Engineering; Stephanie Possehl Quoted
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DoD Releases Guide on Mission Engineering; Stephanie Possehl Quoted

The Department of Defense (DoD) has published a document designed to guide industry partners in mission engineering activities.

 The DoD Mission Engineering Guide would help companies and military entities coordinate with each other in pursuit of ME efforts, the department said Tuesday. The guide offers a set of tools and depicts result scenarios to inform ME personnel as they develop technologies.

"The guide details an approach to ME analysis that delivers results to identify enhanced technology, capabilities and system interdependencies from a mission perspective as opposed to the traditional 'bottom-up approach,'" said Stephanie Possehl, acting deputy director for engineering and director for engineering policy and systems at the advanced capabilities directorate within the office of the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. 

Possehl said ME emphasizes the mission architectures in the earlier phases of design and development. This approach provides the necessary information for prototyping and system requirements.

The acting deputy director added that ME breaks down and assesses activities and technologies relevant to the mission.

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