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Old December 4th 03, 02:40 PM
Allen Thomson
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Default FIA: not to worry

Well, maybe worry a little bit.


http://www.msnbc.com/news/1000470.asp


Seems to be a popular theme in the newsrooms:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/04/bu.../04boeing.html

Boeing Lags in Building Spy Satellites
By DOUGLAS JEHL
The New York Times
December 4, 2003
[EXCERPTS]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The Boeing Company is running more than
a year behind schedule and billions of dollars over cost on a
highly classified program to build the next generation of
reconnaissance satellites, forcing the government to shift an
estimated $4 billion from other spy programs, senior government
officials said on Wednesday...


[snip -- most of the story is a rehash of stuff already reported]

Last July, Boeing was denied more than $1 billion in Pentagon
orders after it was found in possession of proprietary documents
from Lockheed Martin, but those documents were related to a 1998
competition to develop a rocket for military satellites rather
than to the next-generation satellite program itself.

[Early on in the stolen-documents story, there was a report in the
5 May 2003 Wall Street Journal that some FIA-related ones were
involved: http://tinyurl.com/xp84. I haven't seen anything more
about that.]

...other senior government officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said they thought there was still no more than a 50-50
chance that Boeing would meet its new scaled-back goal for
launching the first of the new generation of satellites in 2006.