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.
Pentagon officials are lobbying appropriators on Capitol Hill in a last-ditch effort to shore up support for the beleaguered Conventional Trident Missile (CTM) program, with particular focus on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Worried about international reaction, Congress last year denied funding to CTM entirely (DAILY, Aug. 6, 2006). The Bush administration requested $175 million in fiscal 2008 for the program, which would tip submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional warheads for prompt global strike.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski has received what she calls a "tepid" response to her request that President Bush convene a bipartisan summit with lawmakers to discuss the future of the U.S. space program. The administration's letter to Mikulski (D-Md.), signed by outgoing Office of Management and Budget Director Robert Portman and White House Science Adviser John Marburger, does not address the summit idea directly, instead inviting Mikulski to meet with Portman, Marburger and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.
In addition to the control problem that caused the most recent flight of SpaceX's Falcon 1 to fall short of orbit, the company plans to fix seven other anomalies discovered during post-flight analysis before the next scheduled flight, which will carry the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's TacSat-1 spacecraft.
