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.
Following the recent cancellation of NASA's Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, the upcoming Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is poised to play a larger role in relaying science data from future Mars missions back to Earth, according to program officials. Originally scheduled for launch in 2009, MTO was to have been the first spacecraft sent to another planet for the express purpose of relaying communications, marking the beginning of what NASA calls an "interplanetary Internet." The mission was canceled to free money for other priorities.
NASA will try again to launch Space Shuttle Discovery from launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:39 a.m. EDT on July 26, the agency announced. Engineers have spent the past week troubleshooting a problem with one of the shuttle's four liquid hydrogen engine cutoff (ECO) sensors that caused the agency to scrub the first launch attempt for STS-114 on July 13. NASA now suspects the intermittent failure of the ECO sensor, which has been showing false "wet" readings, may be the result of electromagnetic interference due to improper grounding.
In late summer or early fall the U.S. Navy plans to assess a miniaturized Cooperative Engagement Capability terminal developed by prime contractor Raytheon that takes advantage of modern computer technology to reduce the system's size and power requirements. CEC links radar systems on Navy ships and aircraft to create joint radar tracks and enhance targeting. Based on 1990s technology, the current Block I CEC system costs roughly $6 million per installation.
