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.
Right on schedule at 10:39 a.m. EDT July 26, Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, returning the orbiter to flight after a two-and-a-half year hiatus and marking the first step in the execution of America's vision for space exploration. STS-114 Commander Eileen Collins and her six crewmates are scheduled to spend 12 days in space testing new safety procedures and equipment developed in response to the Columbia accident, as well as delivering supplies to the International Space Station.
Preparations continued without a hitch over the weekend at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as NASA counted down to its second attempt to launch Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-114, currently scheduled for 10:39 a.m. EDT July 26.
While still trying to sort out precisely what happened to its Cosmos-1 solar sail spacecraft, the Planetary Society hopes to be able to build and launch another solar sail by the end of next year, according to Director Louis Friedman. "We're going to make plans to try and do Cosmos-1 again and to have another attempt at flying the first solar sail mission," Friedman told The DAILY. "We have a lot of ground spares and we could probably build a spacecraft fairly quickly ... maybe in a year."
