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.
A House Armed Services Committee panel devoted to military research and development has held the first of what chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said he hopes will be a series of hearings spotlighting cost-effective new technologies with defense applications. At the hearing - devoted to what Hunter called quality goods at low cost - small businesses got a chance to showcase their new innovations, ask for funding, and air their frustration at being little fish in the big pond of defense acquisitions.
Engineers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility are developing a "flight modem" package that could allow suborbital vehicles to transmit information to the ground via satellite systems such as Globalstar. The three-pound package would eliminate the need for much of the expensive ground tracking equipment currently in use, resulting in "a magnitude of difference in costs," according to Dwayne Morgan, project manager at Wallops.
NASA and some of its international partners remain at loggerheads with the Russian Aerospace Agency over the possible presence of millionaire Dennis Tito on an upcoming Soyuz flight to the International Space Station Alpha. Mike Hawes, deputy associate administrator for space development, said at a NASA press conference yesterday that "we're concerned first and foremost about the safety of the Station and its crew."
