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 Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High program has made "tremendous progress" since last year, when the troubled effort's third Nunn-McCurdy violation led the Pentagon to truncate Lockheed Martin's contract for satellite production, says Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
NASA has delayed the planned Sept. 20 landing of space shuttle Atlantis by at least 24 hours while flight controllers attempt to identify two mysterious objects seen drifting near the orbiter on Sept. 19. The first object was inadvertently spied by mission controllers over a video feed from a camera in the shuttle's open payload bay at 2:45 a.m. Eastern time. Viewed as a small black object moving against the backdrop of the Earth, its size could not be determined.
The U.S. Air Force plans to offer a "healthy incentive" to the prime contractor of the Global Positioning System III (GPS III) program to try to advance the launch of the first spacecraft to 2011 from its current projected date of 2013, according to Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base. "We believe speed-to-market is a key element of our future success," Hamel said during a teleconference Sept. 19.
