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.
In a campaign speech Aug. 2 in Titusville, Fla., near Kennedy Space Center, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) expressed support for the addition of an extra space shuttle mission beyond the currently planned shuttle phaseout in 2010 to carry the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument to the International Space Station.
International Launch Services says the Aug. 14 launch of the third Inmarsat 4 satellite on a Proton M Breeze M has been delayed because of a problem with a vendor-supplied onboard computer. A new date will be released once a new unit has been installed and tested. The flight will be the Proton M’s first since a failure in March stranded an SES satellite. The new spacecraft will enable Inmarsat to expand its Broadband Global Area Network over the Asia-Pacific region, giving the high-speed mobile satellite network worldwide coverage.
Lockheed Martin will begin cutting its 2,445-strong workforce on NASA’s space shuttle external tank project this fall as the shuttle fleet moves toward a planned retirement in 2010. Employees at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the tanks are built, as well as at company facilities at Kennedy Space Center and Huntsville, Ala., will be affected.
