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.
The Orbital Express mission began its end-of-life maneuver late in the evening of July 16 and both spacecraft should be fully decommissioned by the end of the week, according to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency spokeswoman Jan Walker. The decommissioning will take place after one final maneuver in which Boeing's ASTRO will undock and travel much farther away from Ball Aerospace's NextSat than ever before (300 kilometers), then reapproach it to test the acuity of its visual sensors at long ranges (DAILY, July 11).
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) official Mary Kicza downplayed the importance of NASA's aging QuikSCAT satellite to hurricane forecasting during Senate testimony July 11, saying that its loss would not significantly affect predictions of when and where the storms make landfall.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is still holding off for now on plans to decommission Orbital Express, pending the results of U.S. Air Force senior leadership discussions about what else might be done with the two spacecraft.
