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.
DISTANT THUNDER: NASA’s Swift satellite has found the most distant gamma-ray burst ever detected, the agency announced Sept. 19. The blast came from an exploding star 12.8 billion light-years away, “near the edge of the visible universe,” according to Lead Scientist Neil Gehrels at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Because the energy came from such a distance, the burst occurred less than 825 million years after the birth of the universe. It was detected Sept. 13, and Swift quickly cued ground telescopes to observe it as well.
By next month, NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope will have the ability to quickly re-point itself to more closely study the unpredictable cosmic explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. Formerly known as the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), Fermi was launched in June and released its “first light” image of the ever-changing gamma-ray sky last month (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 27). The observatory features two primary instruments – the Large Area Telescope (LAT), which can survey the entire heavens in three hours, and the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM).
Orbital Sciences Corp. has completed full-scale “pathfinder” ground operations of the Minotaur IV at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., paving the way for the rocket’s first flight carrying a Space Based Space Surveillance satellite in early 2009. The exercise included the assembly of a full-scale Minotaur IV with inert rocket motors to validate interfaces with the booster, ground support equipment and facility structures, according to Orbital. Three Minotaur IV missions are planned from Vandenberg next year.
