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 Administrator Michael Griffin visited Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Sept. 7 to survey the damage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. Griffin and several other senior emergency operations personnel flew from Washington to Stennis in the morning, then took a previously scheduled supply helicopter flight to Michoud, which still is only accessible by aircraft or boat.
NASA has released a request for information to gauge the interest among commercial geosynchronous satellite operators in using the extra room on their spacecraft to host NASA science instruments. The first instrument that could fly under what NASA is calling the Geo-Quick Ride program is the 31-kilogram (68-pound) Multispectral Imaging System for the Thermosphere and Ionosphere (MISTI) instrument. Responses to the RFI, including a description of how MISTI would be accommodated, are due Sept. 26.
The Class 1 unmanned aerial vehicle being developed for the Army's Future Combat Systems program will participate in a demonstration at Fort Dix, N.J., on Sept. 21-22, according to Brig. Gen. Charles Cartwright, program manager for the FCS Unit of Action. Honeywell is developing the ducted-fan Class 1 UAV, also known as the Micro Air Vehicle, for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as an advanced concept technology demonstration (DAILY, March 24).
