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.
Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) Chairman Joseph Dyer is pleased with NASA's recent progress in developing its Independent Technical Authority (ITA), which has been a major concern for the ASAP since the panel was reconstituted in 2004. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) recommended the establishment of the ITA to provide an unbiased look at safety. In the past, ASAP panel members have expressed concern about the pace of the ITA's development (DAILY, July 22, 2004).
To ensure that current and future Mars exploration missions will be able to communicate their data to Earth efficiently, NASA is in the early planning stages for a new orbiter mission that would launch to the red planet in 2013. "We're studying what that ought to be, and it's going to be a hybrid science/telecommunications orbiter," said Doug McCuistion, NASA's director of Mars exploration.
After traveling roughly 95 percent of its 300 million mile journey since launching last August, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is preparing for the riskiest phase of its mission on March 10 - insertion into the red planet's orbit. NASA has only a 65 percent success rate with Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI), according to the agency. "Now we're starting to enter into the realm where we've lost two spacecraft in the last 15 years," said Orbiter Project Manager Jim Graf, referring to the 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter and the 1993 Mars Observer.
