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 long-awaited launch of the first of three next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-N) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA has been postponed from May to late June to allow technicians time to replace potentially faulty pressure vessels onboard the Delta IV rocket.
Administrator Michael Griffin said during a speech in Washington May 3 that NASA will pick the cheapest option for launching the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) into orbit, but added that he will not discard the space shuttle's launch stack "lightly." "It's my job now to be a responsible steward of the government's money," Griffin said during a breakfast sponsored by Women in Aerospace (WIA). "I will be advocating whatever method of getting Crew Exploration Vehicle to orbit that seems to me to be the cheapest."
Layoffs are expected among the 3,800 Atlas and Delta rocket workers as manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Boeing merge government launch operations and attempt to eliminate redundancy. The joint venture, known as United Launch Alliance, will begin with 1,500 Lockheed Martin Atlas employees and 2,300 Boeing Delta employees. However, "we're talking consolidation, eliminating redundancies and duplications, so it's inevitable that the size of the work force would constrict," Boeing spokesman Dan Beck told The DAILY.
