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.
Democratic leaders of the House Committee on Science and Technology criticized NASA's fiscal 2008 budget request during a hearing on Capitol Hill March 15, saying the White House has consistently failed to request enough money for the agency over the past few years. "I'm afraid that NASA is headed for a train wreck if things don't change," Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) said. "There are certain challenges that NASA is facing as a result of the FY '07 Joint Resolution, but the agency's budgetary problems run much deeper."
The Pentagon says it will wait for the results of the upcoming SpaceX demonstration scheduled later this month for the company's Falcon 1 rocket before cementing a launch date for the TacSat-1 spacecraft on the vehicle. The Office of Naval Research/Naval Research Laboratory (ONR/NRL) is the spacecraft owner and makes the decisions on launch changes. The U.S. Air Force holds and maintains the contracts, and service officials say they are concerned about launch reliability.
The security ambitions of some members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are not matched by their political will or funding commitments, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander told House lawmakers March 15. While NATO requires that members spend 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on their militaries, only six countries out of 26 do so, and "the trends are negative," Gen. Bantz Craddock said.
