Progress is steady in meeting goals
for HOMELAND Security

Bob Blunk calmly opened the door to the conference room and walked into a sea of uncertainty. The room was packed, standing room only. Airline representatives, airport officials, law enforcement officers and newly-appointed government aviation security specialists were there with questions about new airport security procedures.

Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, Blunk knew nothing about aviation or airport security. Now he is the new Federal Security Director for Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle, an assignment that falls under the responsibility of the Transportation Security Administration. The Department of Transportation formally houses the TSA. This fledgling organization, which Congress created in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, is responsible for protecting the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.

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Watching over down under

The 737-700 fuselage loaded on a rail car wasn’t your everyday shipment pulling into Renton, Wash. last month. It was the first of four platforms for Australia’s airborne early warning and control system, known as Project Wedgetail.

The fuselage arrived from the Boeing facility in Wichita, Kan. It has completed final assembly and will now undergo ground testing.

Early next year, the plane will fly to Delaware for installation of auxiliary fuel tanks. It will return eight weeks later to Puget Sound where it will undergo major modifications, including attachment of its distinctive top-mounted radar, at the Military Flight Center in Seattle. Flight testing begins late next year.

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Amplifying quality

They may be small—about four square inches apiece—but they form the heart of the Spaceway phased array downlink antenna.

They are also highly complex.

But that did not stop Boeing Satellite Systems RF (Radio Frequency) Electronics from cranking them out at rates approaching 500 per week.

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Digging in

It’s been more than three months since Boeing broke ground for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program’s missile defense test bed in Fort Greely, Alaska. Construction has progressed steadily with a plan to complete the first phase of heavy construction before winter. In fact, work across much of the site is actually several weeks ahead of schedule.

Fort Greely, near Fairbanks, is the site for a segment of the expanded missile defense test bed, which will house five Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptor missiles, command-and-control buildings, as well as support facilities.

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Comprehensive test on GOES N a success

Boeing Satellite Systems teamed with government and industry partners recently to complete a successful end-to-end systems test on all satellite and ground systems hardware and software subsystems on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite N spacecraft.

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'High' tech bypass

A remarkable, on-orbit procedure—perhaps best described as a remote-control coronary bypass—has placed NASA’s Boeing-built Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-I into geosynchronous orbit.

The spacecraft’s inability to reach its proper orbit began when one of two propellant fuel tanks did not pressurize properly shortly after TDRS-I’s launch on March 8. Boeing Satellite Systems’ satellite controllers, working with NASA personnel, rerouted fuel tank pressurant around a blocked valve and conducted a series of engine burns over the past four months to raise TDRS-I’s orbit to 22,300 miles. They performed the last burn on Sept. 30.

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FDNY thanks IDS employees

Len Schieff of the New York Fire Department Rescue No. 2, signs the T-shirt of a Boeing Integrated Defense Systems-Long Beach employee last month. The shirts were sold by FDNY Rescue No. 2. as part of a fundraiser to support families of Rescue 2 members lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

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