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.
At the first meeting of NASA's International Space Station (ISS) Management and Cost Evaluation (IMCE) team, committee chairman Tom Young expressed bewilderment over the management philosophy governing the early days of station development, which he said created a "100 percent" probability of cost overruns. During the meeting, held at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Aug. 20, NASA Comptroller Malcolm Peterson told the committee that NASA has been focused exclusively on staying within yearly cost limitations, at the expense of the total program cost.
Prototype rocket engines being developed under NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI) will incorporate a number of new technologies to help achieve SLI's goal of reducing launch costs, as well as nearly 30 years of lessons learned from development of the space shuttle's main engines. The prototype SLI engines are Pratt&Whitney/Aerojet's COBRA (Co-optimized Booster for Reusable Applications) and Boeing Rocketdyne's RS-83.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he is "increasingly comfortable" with his alternative to the two major-theater-war (MTW) force sizing construct as the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) progresses, although he doesn't know yet if it will result in force structure cuts. At a Pentagon briefing Aug. 17, Rumsfeld said his alternative will reduce force requirements to bring them in line with current capability.
