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NASA, Russia’s Space Agency to Conduct Integrated Manned ISS Flights Under Agreement
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NASA, Russia’s Space Agency to Conduct Integrated Manned ISS Flights Under Agreement

NASA and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos have agreed to perform integrated crewed flights to the International Space Station, Reuters reported Friday.

“Flying integrated crews ensures there are appropriately trained crew members on board the station for essential maintenance and spacewalks,” NASA said in a statement Friday.

Under the agreement, the first integrated manned flight to the ISS will occur in September and NASA said U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio will join two cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, who will launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, along with two U.S. astronauts and a Japanese astronaut, will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.

NASA and Roscosmos had previously performed integrated flights to the orbiting laboratory using the Space Shuttle and Soyuz. Upon retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, the U.S. relied on Russian spacecraft to send astronauts to the ISS. NASA started routine flights from Florida following the launch of Crew Dragon in 2020.

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Frank Kendall: Air Force Drops Plans to Build Unmanned B-21 Counterpart
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Frank Kendall: Air Force Drops Plans to Build Unmanned B-21 Counterpart

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the service has decided to cancel the drone wingman concept for the B-21 Raider bomber after carrying out some analysis, Breaking Defense reported Saturday.

“The idea of a similar range collaborative combat aircraft is not turning out to be cost effective, so it looks like we’re not going to go that direction,” Kendall, a three-time Wash100 Award winner, told the publication in an exclusive interview at an event in London.

Bombers are typically large aircraft and he said the idea of building an unmanned counterpart of B-21 seems to be “less attractive than we thought it might be” because a drone of that size could drive cost.

“For relatively small platforms, taking a crew out can make it much cheaper,” said Kendall, who first announced the wingman concept in December.

“But for large platforms, you don’t gain that much because the crew is only a small fraction of the weight, a small fraction of the cost by comparison,” he added.

The Air Force intends to procure at least 100 units of the Northrop Grumman-built B-21 Raider bomber.

Frank Kendall: Air Force Drops Plans to Build Unmanned B-21 Counterpart

Kendall is scheduled to deliver the keynote address during the Potomac Officers Club’s 2022 Air Force Summit on July 26. Visit the POC Events page to learn more about the upcoming in-person event.

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Col. Jeremy Raley Takes Over as AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate Head
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Col. Jeremy Raley Takes Over as AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate Head

Col. Jeremy Raley officially succeeded Col. Eric Felt as head of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s space vehicles directorate and the AFRL Phillips Research Site during a change-of-command ceremony that took place Wednesday at Kirtland AF Base in New Mexico.

AFRL said Friday that Raley assumed his dual-hatted role after serving as director of the strategic capabilities group within the U.S. Space Force’s Space Rapid Capabilities Office.

“Raley’s credentials in science and technology are long-standing, attaining a doctorate early in his career and applying that knowledge as a bench-level scientist,” AFRL Commander Heather Pringle said.

“His assignments have been diverse, spanning research and development and acquisition, and an operational deployment where he was embedded with warfighters, giving him the opportunity to see how our systems and technology work in the field.”

Prior to his role at SpRCO, Raley served as a division chief within the space vehicles directorate where he oversaw three spacecraft missions and research efforts.

Felt, who led the laboratory’s space vehicles directorate for four years, is now USSF’s deputy executive director for the space architecture, science and technology directorate located at the Pentagon.

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NTT DATA Selected to Provide Consulting and Advisory Services for Hawaii Med-QUEST Division’s Health Analytics Program; Christopher Merdon Quoted
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NTT DATA Selected to Provide Consulting and Advisory Services for Hawaii Med-QUEST Division’s Health Analytics Program; Christopher Merdon Quoted

NTT DATA announced on Friday that the digital business and IT services leader has received a contract from Hawaii’s Med-QUEST Division (MQD) to provide government consulting and advisory services to the State of Hawaii Medicaid agency, which serves over 430,900 residents. 

“As a trusted global innovator, NTT DATA is pleased to be chosen by Hawaii’s Med-QUEST Division to help improve data and analytics used to enhance health and wellness for citizens of Hawaii,” said Christopher Merdon, Group President of the Public Sector with NTT DATA. 

Through the Department of Human Services (DHS), the State of Hawaii is building a Health Analytics Program by developing a single integrated data and analytics platform to support the comparison of health outcomes.

In addition, the platform will also consolidate multiple data sources to support the comparison of health outcomes, access to care, service utilization, costs and other key performance indicators of the Medicaid Program.

NTT DATA’s Government Consulting and Advisory will provide overarching program and project management across multiple DHS contractors working in parallel to achieve DHS’ goals.

“Our proven advisory and consulting work with other states has helped to modernize systems for the future,” Christopher Merdon added.

Visit NTT DATA Public Sector Services for more information on NTT DATA’s work with federal and public sector organizations. 

During a recent Executive Spotlight with ExecutiveBiz, Christopher Merdon discussed the three legs of NTT Data’s IT and delivery services, including building the foundation as well as driving modernization of the company’s digital capabilities and its advisory and consulting services. 

“The threat leg of the stool is a little bit unique for NTT DATA because of our offerings in terms of advisory and consulting services. I’d mentioned before that those areas have been a core solution that we’ve brought to the state governments. We’re now moving up to offer the same for our federal partners as well.”

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DOE’s Ames Laboratory Changes Name to Ames National Laboratory; Geraldine Richmond Quoted
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DOE’s Ames Laboratory Changes Name to Ames National Laboratory; Geraldine Richmond Quoted

The Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has officially changed its name to Ames National Laboratory to reflect the institution’s history and its existing and future work as a DOE national laboratory.

Geraldine Richmond, undersecretary for science and innovation at DOE, said in a statement published Thursday the name change underscores the Ames National Laboratory’s “respected role as one of our seventeen national laboratories, now and into the future.”

Established in 1947, Ames National Laboratory is operated by Iowa State University and supported by the DOE Office of Science. It is tasked with creating materials, technologies and energy platforms designed to solve global challenges.

Adam Schwartz, director of Ames National Laboratory, said the move to change the name of the institution has been under consideration for more than a year.

“This clarifies and reinforces our identity as a DOE National Laboratory and the science we do in service of helping our nation meet its clean energy goals and objectives,” Schwartz explained.

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Pentagon Announces Industry Engagement Day for Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve Program; Heidi Shyu Quoted
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Pentagon Announces Industry Engagement Day for Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve Program; Heidi Shyu Quoted

The Department of Defense will host an industry engagement day on July 26 to discuss with company representatives its plans and objectives for the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve initiative.

The event, which will be held at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, will include classified briefings on RDER’s technology capability requirements and proposal cycle and will provide an opportunity for the private sector to present technology concepts and proposals to defense officials, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and a 2022 Wash100 Award recipient, said the private sector will play a key role in supporting the RDER program.

“Engagements like these are essential to ensure that we all understand the warfighting challenges and solicit the most creative ideas from industry,” Shyu said.

The RDER project aims to advance prototyping and experimentation to support joint fires, information advantage, logistics, command and control and other joint warfighting concepts.

In November, Shyu said 32 prototype projects were selected from the 203 proposals submitted to her office for funding that could address joint capability gaps.

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LMI’s Kimberly Stambler Discusses Navigating the Federal Landscape With Potomac Officers Club
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LMI’s Kimberly Stambler Discusses Navigating the Federal Landscape With Potomac Officers Club

Kimberly Stambler, vice president of growth at LMI, was featured recently in an Executive Spotlight interview with the Potomac Officers Club, in which she spoke about her journey in the federal contracting space and credited the colleagues and mentors who have helped shape her career trajectory. Stambler joined LMI in May 2022 from ManTech, where she served in multiple strategic capture roles. 

In this excerpt from her spotlight, Stambler shares how her seemingly disparate areas of focus have helped her to bridge career transitions seamlessly:

“While my most recent roles in federal contracting have been focused on growth and capture, my technical background is in crisis, risk and emergency management. On the surface, these focus areas may seem worlds apart; however, the connection for me with respect to long range planning and managing with uncertainty and high stakes has become a valuable aspect of my approach to winning large contracts. 

My career progression has aligned well to the phrase ‘it’s a jungle gym and not a ladder’ — navigating the evolution of the federal landscape requires leaders to manage both the ‘wildfires’ happening right now and planning for what will be needed to keep growing in the future. My emergency management background, combined with focus in engineering and experience in federal contracting have all helped me adapt and evolve throughout my career so far.”

To read the full Executive Spotlight interview with LMI’s Kimberly Stambler, visit PotomacOfficersClub.com, where you can learn more about the platform’s membership options.

New MQ-9 Reaper Facility Unveiled at Robins Air Force Base
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New MQ-9 Reaper Facility Unveiled at Robins Air Force Base

A U.S. Air Force contractor for depot maintenance, engineering support and software development has opened a new MQ-9 Reaper aircraft facility at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, as part of a collaborative depot activation effort.

USAF said the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex led a ribbon cutting ceremony for the facility that will accommodate aircraft electronics repair activities to ensure that the intelligence-collection asset remains capable of conducting strike, coordination and reconnaissance missions for long-time periods.

The establishment stemmed from a partnership between the 402nd Electronics Maintenance Group and 402nd Software Engineering Group with the WR-ALC, and L3Harris Technologies.

“Work done at the MQ-9 Reaper facility will ensure the communications and information transmission components operate effectively to support the warfighter,” said Ron Fehlen, vice president and general manager at L3Harris.

Meanwhile, Tim Avera, WR-ALC Business Office director, commented, “The workload is expected to extend into the 2040’s or until the sunset of the aircraft.”

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Navy Shares Procurement Agenda With Small Biz Leaders; Carlos Del Toro Quoted
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Navy Shares Procurement Agenda With Small Biz Leaders; Carlos Del Toro Quoted

The Department of the Navy highlighted its priority acquisition programs and contracting opportunities for small businesses at a roundtable held Thursday.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro led the discussion that was attended by DON’s major buying commands, contracting officials, senior leaders and industry representatives, the department said Thursday.

“Through forums like this, the buyers, purchasers, and contractors collaborate to remove barriers and bring advances through small business opportunities,” Del Toro said. 

“We have to remember that this is both transformative for the business, their communities, and our Navy and Marine Corps.”

DON seeks to contract with companies owned by service-disabled veterans, disadvantaged individuals and women as well as those operating in historically underutilized business zones through its Office of the Small Business Programs.

The federal government has an annual goal of awarding 23 percent of prime contracting dollars to the small business community.

House OKs Fiscal 2023 Defense Policy Bill in 329-101 Vote; Rep. Adam Smith Quoted
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House OKs Fiscal 2023 Defense Policy Bill in 329-101 Vote; Rep. Adam Smith Quoted

The House voted 329-101 Thursday to pass a bill that authorizes $839.3 billion in Department of Defense spending for the next fiscal year, The Hill reported.

The lower chamber authorized $808.4 billion for DOD’s discretionary topline, plus $30.5 billion for national security missions within the Department of Energy and roughly $400 million for other defense programs in the federal government.

Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., and Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, introduced in June an amendment to the House’s 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that reflects a $37 billion increase over the $773 billion DOD budget sought by President Biden.

Sixty-two Republican lawmakers and 39 Democrats voted against the annual defense policy bill, according to the publication.

“At a time when democracies worldwide face both old and new threats, the FY23 NDAA supports investments in what makes our country competitive around the world and strong at home: a diverse and talented military and civilian workforce; groundbreaking science and technology research, especially at Historically Black Colleges and Universities; and the alliances and partnerships we need to meet our biggest global security challenges,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.

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