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 plans to release the latest announcement of opportunity for its Discovery program on Jan. 3, which will raise the budget cap on Discovery missions from its previous limit of $360 million up to $425 million. The Discovery program competitively selects low-cost space science mission proposals for funding. Ten Discovery missions have been selected to date, based on responses to previous AOs. NASA released an AO in 2004, but did not select a major mission from among the responses.
NASA is gearing up for the Jan. 15 re-entry into Earth's atmosphere of a 101-pound canister containing cometary and interstellar dust samples gathered by the agency's Stardust spacecraft. The completion of the mission will mark the first time comet samples have been brought back for study, according to NASA, as well as the longest journey ever taken by a spacecraft that has returned to Earth - 2.88 billion miles round-trip since its launch in 1999.
The stalemate continues between Boeing and the union representing much of the company's Delta rocket work force, which has been on strike since Nov. 2. Roughly half of the company's Delta employees went on strike after a three-year contract between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 725 expired. Talks on a new contract broke down in late October. Some union-represented employees have since returned to work, according to Boeing.
