At Boeing's Space Systems Div., design engineering is proceeding toward an environment in which IPTs design in 3-D solids to create electronic virtual mock-ups of products. In this process-managed environment, either CATIA or IDEAS is used as the geometry engine, and analysis is performed in embedded or linked programs. The GPS program is the first to fully utilize the process. Elements of the new techniques are being integrated into established programs such as the Space Shuttle.

The NASA/Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) X-36 28%-scale prototype tailless fighter, a remotely piloted vehicle intended to test new flight control technologies, demonstrated advanced low-cost design and manufacturing techniques pioneered by the Phantom Works R&D operation. Design engineers, as part of a collocated IPT, designed and built the X-36 in 28 months, creating a common digital Unigraphics database for the entire vehicle.

Phillips Lab, Honeywell Satellite System Operation, and JPL completed the design and qualification testing of the vibration isolation steering and suppression (VISS) platform for the space technology Research Vehicle-2. VISS provides a stable, jitter-free platform for optical payloads. Boeing Commercial and General Electric have pursued integration of propulsion systems into aircraft through digital preassembly and mockups on common modeling systems for the development of new aircraft engine combinations. A recent derivative design initiative on the 767ERX seeks to resolve the digital preassembly problems of dissimilar modeling systems through implementation of ISO10303-STEP, the standard for the exchange of product model data.

Design integration of old government-furnished equipment into new launch vehicles is under way at Coleman Research. Millions of dollars have been saved by reusing guidance systems from deactivated Pershing II missiles and rocket boosters from deactivated Minuteman II missiles, and integrating these with modern instrumentation, telemetry, and flight control systems. The feasibility of using aluminum lithium material in the design of welded launch vehicle propellant tanks was demonstrated by Lockheed Martin and NASA with the successful structural test of the first super-lightweight version of the Shuttle external tank.

Northrop Grumman engineers will provide the infrared transducers for the space-based infrared's (SBIR) high element, consisting of cryogenically cooled detector arrays, analog flex cable, and analog processing electronics to convert photons in to bits out. The challenge for the mechanical designer is to maintain thermoelastic stability of the focal plane array detectors and minimize thermal parasitic load on the passive cryogenic cooler while providing all the required interconnects between the cooled array and the warm analog processing unit. Design engineers must meet these requirements while maintaining design commonality between the different environments of SBIR's geosynchronous and highly elliptical orbit systems.

The first HS composite fairing flew on the Delta MS-1 launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base in May.

Orbital Sciences accomplished initial deployment of Orbcomm, a near-Earth orbit constellation of 34 satellites. Design completion and structural assembly and test of the X-34, a suborbital reusable rocket powered research vehicle capable of autono-mous flight and landing, was completed.

NASA-Ames has contracted the University Space Research Association to design, build, and operate the stratospheric observatory for infrared astronomy. Scheduled to fly in 2001, SOFIA consists of a 2.5-m infrared telescope installed in a modified Boeing 747SP. It will carry up to about 30 scientists, mission crew, and guests.