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.
NASA is considering an alternate stage separation scheme for its Ares I rocket that would use struts driven by compressed gas rather than the modified shuttle hardware in the current design, and is asking industry to weigh in. The current design uses Space Shuttle Booster Separation Motors (renamed Booster Deceleration Motors, or BDMs) to separate the Ares I after the first stage has spent its fuel and prior to upper-stage ignition.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) dual-spacecraft Orbital Express mission had its first free-flying undocking and re-docking demonstration May 5. The two satellites - Boeing's Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) servicing spacecraft and Ball Aerospace's NextSat - undocked, separated to a distance of roughly 10 meters and flew separately for a full orbit around the Earth before re-docking, according to Robert Villanueva, spokesman for mission prime Boeing.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the industry team behind the Airborne Laser (ABL) program are mobilizing to try to persuade Capitol Hill to reverse the $400 million cut to ABL's $549 million fiscal 2008 budget levied by House defense authorizers. "We're working with the Hill to mitigate their concerns," MDA spokesman Chris Taylor told The DAILY.
