The U.S. Navy has created a new management system to comply with safety requirements at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility.

PSNS & IMF's new safety management system includes job hazard analyses, health policy, technical instruction and other efforts, Naval Sea Systems Command said Friday.

“This system provides a foundation for the safety culture that is expected and demanded in our complex work environment,” said Cody Matheson, deputy director for environment, safety and health at PSNS & IMF.

A signing event took place Friday to formalize the system's establishment with the attendance of Safety Executive Steering Committee members and PSNS & IMF officers.

PSNS & IMF's Environment, Safety and Health Office will implement and oversee the new safety system.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has fielded six small satellites in efforts to optimize the accuracy of weather forecasts and space weather monitoring.

The  Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate smallsats gather "bent" signals from global positioning navigation systems through the use of radio occultation to secure information such as atmospheric pressure and temperature, NOAA said Monday.

The smallsats also work to collect data on the low-altitude ionosphere. Louis Uccellini, director at NOAA's National Weather Service, said the agency seeks to employ moisture measurements and wind vector data to identify the conditions that enhance or weaken hurricanes.

The COSMIC-2 program is a joint effort with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, the Taiwan National Space Organization and the American Institute in Taiwan.

Dovarius Peoples, chief information officer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), said the Army component is leveraging data repositories to enable the use of artificial intelligence for geospatial-related applications, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Peoples told the publication in an interview that USACE’s missions encompass military, civil and disaster response missions that rely on communications and geospatial intelligence platforms.

“We conduct a lot of inventory and consume. We conduct a lot of inventory and use information consumed by each individual program element,” he said. “And we also use our repositories as well. That’s how we identify a lot of our authoritative data sources — through repositories for the various types of information.”

Peoples noted that USACE also intends to invest in training personnel to refine their handling of emerging technologies and procedures.

“Because if not, then that means the data strategy we’re trying to put in place will be flattened,” he added.

The U.S. Navy has begun to set the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier for communication system tests that would occur for more than a year in the Atlantic region, Defense One reported Monday.

The ship's voice and data link systems will undergo sea trials to demonstrate the ability to perform command and control with other ships.

“We’d love to get Ford to start doing some basic interaction with the rest of a strike group type of organization,” Rear Adm. Craig Clapperton, Carrier Strike Group 12 commander, told reporters Monday.

These C2 systems facilitate battle information sharing across naval ships and aircraft. USS Gerald Ford will establish connectivity with USS Harry S. Truman, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, and other ships in the tests.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will push through with the plan to convert the C-band spectrum into a medium for the implementation of 5G connectivity.

The agency said Monday that its Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has already made agreements with satellite operators on the 5G implementation’s schedule. FCC wants to have 5G occupy a large percentage of the C-band spectrum portion.

“The acceptance of accelerated relocation by all eligible satellite operators vindicates the FCC’s approach for making C-band spectrum available for 5G more quickly,” said Ajit Pai, FCC chairman.

The commission’s planned 5G implementation requires operators to shift megahertz settings in the C-band space to accommodate ground-based or terrestrial connectivity. The 5G operators so far are Intelsat, Telesat, Eutelsat, SES and Star One.

FCC plans to commence an auction for the C-band spectrum in December. Spectrum adjustments will occur over two phases through December 2023.

NASA is delaying its plans to reorganize the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) mission directorate following the resignation of associate administrator, SpaceNews reported Monday.

Douglas Loverro, who announced his resignation as HEO head last month, was temporarily replaced by Ken Bowersox who now serves as the directorate’s acting associate administrator.

Steven Jurczyk, the associate administrator of NASA, said at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AA) webinar that the agency intends to appoint a permanent replacement for Loverro before commencing HEO reorganization activities.

“We believe it’s important for the new [associate administrator] to come in and take a look at the organization and the programs, and make sure that where we were headed is the right structure for the new AA, and then make adjustments to the proposed reorganization,” he noted. “Our goal is to have a new AA named with weeks, not months,” added Jurczyk.

Loverro, who assumed his most recent capacity in December, previously spearheaded efforts to restructure the directorate responsible for programs involving the International Space Station and Artemis mission. According to Jurczyk, the restructuring initiative is “really important to the organization” as well as the Artemis program.