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.
While NASA's field centers work on in-house concepts for lunar landers, the agency's Johnson Space Center (JSC) has released a request for information (RFI) to industry calling for its ideas as well.
Boeing's Spectrolab division believes it is making headway in its attempt to convince the U.S. government to take its space-qualified solar cells off the State Department's munitions list and put them back under Commerce Department control. "I've been at Washington, D.C., and talked to the Department of State a number of times and we're hoping everything is going to come under Department of Commerce jurisdiction shortly," Spectrolab President David Lillington told The DAILY.
Lockheed Martin has begun testing a new type of vehicle armor designed to protect against both improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and armor-piercing bullets that the company hopes will cost as little as 1/10th as much as current ceramic armors. U.S. troops in Iraq often experience coordinated attacks by insurgents that employ an IED blast followed by armor-piercing sniper fire or other projectiles, according to Lockheed Martin.
