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.
NASA's Genesis solar sample return mission ended in disappointment Sept. 8 when its sample capsule failed to properly deploy its parachute and crashed at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft spent two years orbiting a libration point between the sun and the Earth, trapping solar atoms on delicate wafers of gold, sapphire, silicon and diamond. It released its sample capsule into Earth's atmosphere at approximately 9 a.m. PDT Sept. 8.
During a Capitol Hill hearing Sept. 8, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) urged NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe to quickly deliver cost estimates of the damage done to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) by Hurricane Frances so the agency can get its share of the emergency relief bills being drafted by Congress.
NASA's Genesis spacecraft completed its final course correction on Sept. 6 in preparation to release its sample capsule containing solar particles into Earth's atmosphere on Sept. 8. The Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft spent two years trapping solar atoms on delicate wafers of gold, sapphire, silicon and diamond. The samples will shed light on the composition of the sun and the origins of our solar system, according to Don Burnett, Genesis principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
