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.
Boeing plans to complete a second X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle for the U.S. Air Force, but its launch, scheduled for 2011, will not occur until the first of the reusable spaceplane demonstrators returns from a mission that could last as long as 270 days. “We may be ready to launch the second one before that, but we won’t until the first bird is back on the ground in case we need to make changes to the vehicle [based on the first flight],” says Gary Payton, Air Force deputy undersecretary for space programs.
The Czech government is preparing a national space plan that should lead to the creation of a space steering committee and, ultimately, a space agency. The Czech Republic joined the European Space Agency and provides €7.5-8 million ($10-11 million) a year to the ESA budget, including €2-2.5 million for optional programs. Discretionary spending is expected to increase substantially in the next three-year plan, to be approved in 2011-12, Czech industry officials say.
NASA has awarded a contract to build a testbed for optically guided rendezvous and docking in Mars orbit—a key technique that will be required for a Mars sample return. Such a mission will have to gather a sample from the Martian surface, then launch it into Mars orbit, where it will dock autonomously with the spacecraft that will bring it back to Earth. The Mars Orbiting Sample Retrieval Rendezvous and Docking Testbed will be developed by Aurora Flight Sciences and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Space Systems Laboratory.
