Ball Aerospace names new vice president roles

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has promoted Mike Gazarik, Technology Director, to the position of Vice President for Engineering and named Jeff Osterkamp Vice President for Mission Assurance.

Gazarik joined Ball in March from NASA where he was the Associate Administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters. Since then, he has worked to align Ball's technology development with business development and growth strategies. As the vice president of engineering, he will provide overall strategic and operational leadership of the organization, which includes all disciplines of engineering as well as manufacturing, testing, supply chain management, facilities, IRAD and intellectual property.

Gazarik earned a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a master's and Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology, also in Electrical Engineering.

In transitioning from the role as VP for Engineering to VP of Mission Assurance, Osterkamp replaces Sherri Fike who retired in December. Osterkamp has more than 30 years of experience at Ball Aerospace. His previous roles include executive leadership of the company's component technologies business area; the National Defense strategic business unit; the Program Management Office; Sensor and Video Technologies; and Advanced Antenna and Video Systems.

Osterkamp earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho and an M.S. in Engineering Management from the University of Colorado.

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Passengers aboard Air Canada flight sent to hospital

Air Canada Flight 088, en route to Toronto from Shanghai, was diverted to Calgary where it landed without incident at 5:23 EST.

Air Canada teams are meeting with passengers. At this time the airline can confirm that passengers and crew have been examined by medical personnel following turbulence encountered en route and 21 passengers have been transferred directly to local hospitals from the airport comprising eight with non-life threatening injuries and 13 for observation. Air Canada will be making arrangements to accommodate all other passengers including those continuing on to Toronto.

The passenger list indicates the Boeing 777-300ER was carrying 332 passengers and 19 crew members.

A full investigation of the incident is being undertaken.

Turn your daily shopping receipts into cash

A fun and rewarding phone app called Receipt Hog can turn your everyday receipts from shopping into cash – no matter where you shop or what you buy.

Shop anywhere. Buy anything. Then take a picture of your receipt with Receipt Hog on your phone.

“Your receipt data along with the answers you provide to optional surveys is made anonymous and summarized in market research reports that brands purchase,” according to the Receipt Hog website. “These companies pay for information such as, 'Families in the Phoenix area are 20 percent more likely than the rest of the United States to shop for laundry detergent at a super center than a traditional grocery store.'" And its not just shopping receipts.

On Tuesday, Receipt Hog announced it now accepts all receipts from restaurants, cafes, and gas-only purchases and rewards users with sweepstakes entries.

Grabbing a pizza for dinner? Filling up the gas tank? Purchasing some new clothes or a new phone? All receipts count and can be converted into cash.

Users can receive their cash by PayPal or in the form of a Amazon gift card once they reach 1,000 coins in the app.

MDA modifies Boeing contract for Re-designed Kill Vehicle

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) intends to award a modification to the existing Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Development and Sustainment Contract (DSC) to The Boeing Company in Huntsville, Ala.

“This effort is for the acquisition of Re-designed Kill Vehicle (RKV) development including: payload development; payload ground testing; integration with the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) and GMD Ground System; flight testing; several test assets; and up to eight initial production units,” MDA said in contract documents released Friday. The anticipated period of performance for this effort will be six years, extending the current DSC period by three years, but only for this additional RKV development effort.

Boeing is the designer, developer, manufacturer, and integrator of the GMD GBI. Boeing, along with its RKV Cross-Industry team of sub-contractors, comprised of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, and The Raytheon Company, provide a consolidated product that includes the collective knowledge of all three contractors.

Currently, the GMD system is using a Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) designed to intercept and defend U.S. territory against long-range missile attacks. The new RKV program was hatched following a string of EKV intercept failures.

“The Cross-Industry team will incorporate the most viable technical approaches from each contractor, combining resources that will complement each other's unique capabilities to shorten the learning curve, and reduce the time needed to develop and begin initial production,” MDA said in contract documents.

Air Force Helicopter Maintenance Services contract at four locations

The Specialized Contracting Division at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., intends to solicit competitive proposals to provide Helicopter Maintenance Services at four locations: three state-side Air Force bases and one location overseas at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

The contractor will be responsible for Helicopter Maintenance Services for Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command and the Pacific Command at the following locations for UH-1N model helicopters: Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., Minot Air Force Base, N.D., F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., and Yokota Air Base, Japan.

The Helicopter Maintenance Services consist of maintaining mission capable (in serviceable condition, safely operable, and properly configured to meet mission requirements) UH-1N helicopters to support safe operations, exercises, and Search and Rescue Support, off-station aircraft recovery, Aircrew Flight Equipment,  and weapons system maintenance requirements 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Possible breakup of NOAA weather satellite

The U.S. military's Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) is investigating the possible breakup of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather satellite in Earth orbit.

“On 25 November 2015 at 0816z (3:16 a.m. EST) the JSpOC identified a possible breakup of NOAA 16,” officials reported. “All associated objects have been added to conjunction assessment screenings, and satellite operators will be notified of close approaches between the debris and active satellites. The JSpOC will catalog the debris objects as soon as sufficient data is available.”

After more than 13 years of helping predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced in June 2014 it had turned off the NOAA 16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite. It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a planned lifespan of three to five years.