The Air Force Association has named Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel as recipient of the 2007 Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy. Hamel is commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB, Calif. An Air Force release cited Hamel’s stewardship of the service’s space launch enterprise, which has seen 49 successful launches in a row, and his role in the development of the global positioning satellite system, and other accomplishments in the space arena.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…