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.
The launches of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the NASA/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration GOES-N spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Fla., are proceeding as scheduled despite recent technical problems. MRO is set to lift off on an Atlas V rocket during a one hour and 45 minute window opening at 7:50 a.m. EDT Aug. 11. Originally scheduled for Aug. 10, liftoff was pushed back 24 hours while engineers tried to assess the health of a Redundant Rate Gyro Unit (RRGU) on the rocket after a similar unit failed in manufacturer testing.
After two weeks in space and 5.8 million miles traveled, Space Shuttle Discovery and its seven-person crew landed safely at 8:11 a.m. EDT Aug. 9 in near-perfect weather at Edwards Air Force Base in California. "We have had a fantastic mission," STS-114 Commander Eileen Collins said after she and her crewmates performed the traditional post-landing walk-around inspection of the shuttle on the runway. "The crew was really anxious to walk around and see what the outside looked like, and it looks fantastic."
The Army more than doubled the expected buy for the Extended Range Multipurpose unmanned aerial vehicle when it awarded the winning contract to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, going from 60 UAVs to a projected 132. The final downselect between General Atomics' Warrior and Northrop Grumman's Hunter II was delayed by several months while the Army increased the order and sought congressional approval to shift the money needed for the buy away from the canceled RAH-66 Comanche helicopter accounts.
