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 final NASA fiscal 2007 spending bill passed by the U.S. Senate Feb. 14 shifts $460 million in space shuttle and earmark funding over to exploration, which Sen. Barbara Mikulski thinks should be enough to keep the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and Ares I rocket programs on schedule. The continuing budget resolution essentially freezes FY '07 spending at FY '06 levels, which for NASA amounts to a $544 million cut to the agency's topline request. This led to concern that the Orion and Ares might miss their scheduled 2014 debut.
The U.S. Navy hopes to finally release its master plan for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) within the next two months, according to service officials. The document's expected completion slipped from last year while the service wrestled with its overall USV strategy (DAILY, Aug. 20, 2006). Once the final draft undergoes internal review, the plan will be posted on the Internet.
NASA's current strategy of favoring large astrophysics missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope at the expense of smaller missions could be closing the door on future scientific discoveries, according to the National Academies' National Research Council (NRC). The NRC's Space Studies board performed a one-year survey of NASA's astrophysics portfolio at the agency's request to assess, among other things, how well it matches with the priorities of the National Academies' decadal survey, which polls scientists on their highest-priority research goals.
