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 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced the 78 Track B teams that will vie for a chance to compete in the 2007 Urban Challenge robotic vehicle race, bringing the total number of teams in contention to 89. Unlike the first two Grand Challenges, the Urban Challenge has two different "tracks" by which teams can participate. The Track A teams, competitively selected by DARPA, receive up to $1 million in development money in exchange for limited licensing rights. Eleven teams already have been chosen for Track A (DAILY, Oct. 4).
SES Global has successfully priced a two-tranche €800-million ($1-billion) bond offering--the second time this year it has ventured into the market to refinance drawn bilateral credit facilities issued notably to cover high-cost bonds held by its New Skies Satellites affiliate. The offering, which includes a €300-million three-year floating-rate note and a €500-million fixed-rate note priced at the tight end of price guidance, was oversubscribed 2.6 times, SES said.
NASA is eyeing slips of roughly one month in the launch dates for at least the first three space shuttle missions of 2007 as it prepares to launch Discovery on the STS-116 International Space Station (ISS) assembly flight as early as Dec. 7. The schedule changes are related to external tank production scheduling at the NASA/Lockheed Martin Michoud facility in Louisiana, which is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. The delays also are related to spacing between Russian Soyuz and Progress launches to the ISS in 2007.
