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.
Lockheed Martin announced May 8 that it is one of the four contractors on the U.S. Air Force's Hybrid Launch Vehicle (HLV) Studies and Analysis program, which is laying the groundwork for a quick-turnaround rocket with a reusable first stage that the service hopes to introduce by 2018.
NASA and Boeing Phantom Works soon will be wrapping up wind tunnel testing of a 21-foot blended wing body (BWB) aircraft at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., in anticipation of beginning flight-testing at Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., later this year.
NASA can't accomplish all that is on its plate with its current and projected budgets, and science at the agency is threatened as it bears the brunt, according to a new report from the National Academies' Space Studies Board (SSB). "NASA is being asked to accomplish too much with too little," the May 4 report says. "The agency does not have the necessary resources to carry out the tasks of completing the International Space Station, returning humans to the moon, maintaining vigorous [science] programs, and sustaining capabilities in aeronautical research."
