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.
In the run up to the planned launch of space shuttle Discovery later this month on STS-128, NASA is still analyzing the surprising foam debris shedding on the previous mission, with some engineers calling for the shuttle to be rolled back from the launch pad for more in-depth analysis. STS-127 saw worrisome foam losses from three areas of the big external fuel tank — the forward bipod area, an ice/frost ramp on the liquid oxygen tank, and the intertank area.
Early results of cost analysis by the Augustine human spaceflight panel have found no good options for continuing human exploration of space within the constraints set by the Obama administration’s fiscal 2010 budget plan for NASA. “This budget is simply not friendly to exploration,” panel member and former astronaut Sally Ride said during the group’s final public meeting in Washington Aug. 12. “It’s very difficult to find an exploration scenario that fits within this very restrictive budget guidance that we’ve been given.”
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini South telescope in Chile to peer nearly 11 billion years into the past have discovered stars in a small, distant galaxy moving at speeds of 1 million miles per hour – roughly twice the speed at which our sun moves through the Milky Way.
