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 continues to hold to May as the launch date for the space shuttle's second return-to-flight mission, STS-121, which will further verify safety procedures and equipment developed in response to the 2003 Columbia accident. But the agency is not rushing any steps to ensure it makes the window, according to STS-121 Commander Steve Lindsey.
The Bush administration is requesting $1.726 billion in fiscal 2007 to reduce the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which is a 6.9 percent increase over the FY '06 request. The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) budget request includes $638 million for Fissile Material Disposition, $551 million of which will go toward disposing of U.S. and Russian plutonium, and $87 million of which will be used to dispose of U.S. highly enriched uranium.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin defended NASA's fiscal 2007 science budget on Capitol Hill Feb. 16, saying that what some science stakeholders characterize as "cuts" are actually just unavoidable delays that follow years of robust growth in agency science funding. NASA's FY '07 budget proposes to reduce science programs at NASA by $3.1 billion through FY '10 as compared to projections in the FY '06 budget, to fund pressing human space flight efforts.
