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.
China’s second unmanned lunar mission, Chang’e 2, will be an orbiter, not a rover as implied earlier by Chinese reports. Planned for launch in 2009-10, it will carry somewhat different instrumentation than Chang’e 1, but will make no attempt to land, according to Ye Peijiam, who helped design the first spacecraft, which is still operating in lunar orbit. The initial Chinese Moon landing attempt will not be made until about 2012 with a rover that could be followed by a sample-return mission as early as 2017. Both vehicles will be powered in part by nuclear generators.
NASA has nearly finished a study on the feasibility of accelerating the crew transport portion of its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which for now remains focused exclusively on cargo. During testimony April 3 to the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics, Richard Gilbrech, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration, said the agency would be happy to share the results of the study with lawmakers as soon as it is completed. “We’re in the final stages of vetting that,” he said.
Lockheed Martin announced April 2 that the third VH-71 helicopter built for the Presidential Helicopter program, Test Vehicle 3 (TV-3), has arrived in the U.S. and will be the first VH-71 to undergo final assembly at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, N.Y. The Navy-owned TV-3 was transported aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane from AgustaWestland’s facility in Yeovil, England, to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., before flying to Owego.
