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.
Liftoff of GOES-N has slipped to the evening of Aug. 16, the last available day at Cape Canaveral, Fla., before the team will have to renegotiate a new launch date with range officials. If the launch is scrubbed again, "we're going to have to work with the Air Force range to see what other launches the delays may have affected," Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva told The DAILY Aug. 16.
NASA-funded researchers have made a breakthrough that will allow space weather forecasters to predict "all clear" periods when astronauts and spacecraft will be safe from potentially dangerous solar flares. Solar flares are explosions in the sun's atmosphere caused by the sudden release of magnetic energy that can equal up to 10 million one-megaton nuclear bombs. The radiation created by solar flares can be harmful to unprotected astronauts, satellites and airplane occupants flying over the Earth's poles.
The transition of the Army's Future Combat Systems to a more traditional contract structure has not resulted in any additional cost or schedule delays, according to the Army. FCS is being switched from an Other Transaction Authority contract to a traditional Federal Acquisition Regulation contract due to congressional concerns that the OTA structure does not provide the appropriate level of taxpayer protection for a program whose total cost is expected to top $108 billion.
