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's Merritt Island Launch Annex (MILA) in Florida has been decommissioned, marking another casualty of the end of the space shuttle program. Located on 61 acres of land just west of the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex, MILA provided communications between the orbiters and Mission Control in Houston during launches and landings. The tracking station was established in 1966 by Goddard Space Flight Center as part of a global, ground-based network of 17 tracking stations to support orbital operations of the Apollo program and Earth-orbiting science satellites.
Orbital Technologies Corp. (Orbitech), a Madison, Wis.-based subsystem house, will provide environmental control and life-support system (ECLSS) and thermal control system hardware for the planned Dream Chaser commercial crew launch vehicle under a deal with Hamilton Sundstrand.
International Launch Services (ILS) will orbit three Inmarsat-5 satellites aboard Proton vehicles launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2013-14. Based on Boeing's 702HP bus, the three Ka-band satellites will support Inmarsat's Global Xpress mobile broadband service. Inmarsat is investing $1.2 billion in the Global Xpress program, including launch costs. ILS also launched Inmarsat's most recent satellite, the third Inmarsat-4, from Baikonur in August 2008.
