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 is seeking ideas from industry about communications and navigation services that could be used by future lunar explorers over the next quarter-century. The request for information (RFI) calls for concepts for terrestrial network services and ground stations, Earth-orbiting satellites, Moon-orbiting satellites and lunar surface capabilities, among other categories.
Initial launch pad checks of the space shuttle Atlantis for its mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope should be getting underway during the first week of September, pending the resolution of orbiter/external tank umbilical mating difficulties. Atlantis was to roll out to Launch Complex 39A as early as Aug. 30, but United Space Alliance technicians had difficulty extracting a jammed ground support system bolt used initially to align the hydrogen umbilical side of the tank’s massive rigging structure with the orbiter’s belly.
ROLLOUT RESCHEDULED: The space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 2. Atlantis is targeted to lift off Oct. 8 on an 11-day mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Originally targeted for as early as Aug. 30, rollout was delayed to allow time to resolve issues with umbilical mating equipment used on the shuttle’s external tank (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 27).
