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.
By the end of 2005, NASA expects to choose a systems integrator to manage its ambitious plans to return humans to the moon by 2020 and prepare for human landings on Mars, according to Rear Adm. Craig Steidle (USN-Ret.), head of the agency's Exploration Systems office. The systems integrator team probably will be led by a NASA center partnered with a major aerospace company, Steidle told The DAILY. The agency plans to release a request for proposals (RFP) for the lead integrator over the summer and make a selection by December, he said.
NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous (DART) spacecraft is back on track to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in early March, according to Rear Adm. Craig Steidle (USN-Ret.), head of the agency's Exploration Systems Office. Previous launch attempts in October and November were scrubbed due to weather, range availability, launch vehicle contamination and questions over whether the DART spacecraft would be able to withstand the loads associated with the ignition of the second stage of its Pegasus launch vehicle.
On Jan. 3, NASA celebrated the one-year anniversary of the landing of the first of its twin Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Spirit, which has traveled a total of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) on the martian surface. Three weeks after Spirit landed in Mars' Gusev Crater region, the rover Opportunity landed at Meridiani Planum on the opposite side of the planet, where it has traveled roughly 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) so far. Both vehicles are in "great shape for their age," according to Jim Erickson, MER project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
