Jeff has been involved in aerospace journalism since the mid 1990s. Prior to joining Aviation Week, Jeff served as managing editor of Launchspace magazine and the International Space Industry Report. He has been the editor and chief of Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily & Defense Report since 2007 and has been a regular contributor to Aviation Week magazine. He received his B.A. from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
HAWK SUPPORT: NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center has awarded a multi-year contract to L-3 Communications for support of the center’s pending operation of two Global Hawk aircraft. The contract is worth up to $15 million and covers through Sept. 4, 2013. Dryden inherited the unmanned aircraft from the U.S. Air Force, and will use them for science missions that need high-altitude, long-endurance airborne capability. The first mission is tentatively scheduled for the spring of 2009.
Set to launch Oct. 19, NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission will use a new orbit-raising method that could enable a variety of future small science missions to get beyond low Earth orbit without upgrading to large launch vehicles.
Top NASA managers will decide next week the fate of the Mars Science Laboratory, a nuclear-powered astrobiology rover that already has cost $1.5 billion and is likely to hit the 30-percent overrun ceiling that could trigger cancellation by Congress. Officials from the agency’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are set to brief Administrator Mike Griffin and Science Associate Administrator Ed Weiler on the program next week.
