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.
With the Mars Exploration Rover "Spirit" finally perched atop the summit of Husband Hill in Mars' Gusev Crater region, mission planners are taking measurements of the surrounding area to develop a route and schedule for descending the other side. Spirit's slow climb has taken well more than a year, bringing the golf cart-sized rover to a point 106 meters (348 feet) higher than the area where it first landed in January 2004.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is receiving help from the National Reconnaissance Office's classified spy satellites as it scrambles to help people in areas of the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina. FEMA asked NRO for the assistance, according to recently appointed NRO Director Donald Kerr. "At the end of the day, there's nothing like some of our capabilities for providing people a view of things as they are, rather than as they were," Kerr said during a press briefing at the Pentagon.
The military services are considering a proposal from F-35 Joint Strike Fighter builder Lockheed Martin for a suite of JSF pilot training simulators ranging from traditional high-fidelity cockpit trainers down to applications that could run on laptop PCs. Rapid improvements in commercial computer and gaming technology are allowing for certain training tasks to be offloaded onto cheaper, off-the-shelf simulators, according to Lorraine Martin, vice president of flight solutions for Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training & Support.
