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.
Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are looking to conduct the next flight of the X-50A Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle in January, according to a company spokesman. Following a 30-second "pop-up" flight in early November to build confidence, the X-50A completed a four-minute hover flight Dec. 2 in which it reached an altitude of 15 feet at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. They were the first flights for the aircraft since March 2004, when a crash ruined the first prototype.
NASA is considering a two-year extension to the Cassini mission that would extend the probe's exploration of Saturn and its moons through 2010. "NASA has given us some additional funding to study what the options would be" for the extra two years, said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "About a year from now, I'm expecting that NASA will give us an [answer] one way or the other."
NASA plans to release the latest announcement of opportunity for its Discovery program on Jan. 3, which will raise the budget cap on Discovery missions from its previous limit of $360 million up to $425 million. The Discovery program competitively selects low-cost space science mission proposals for funding. Ten Discovery missions have been selected to date, based on responses to previous AOs. NASA released an AO in 2004, but did not select a major mission from among the responses.
