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.
The space shuttle program is facing a budget shortfall of $3 billion to $5 billion through its scheduled retirement date in 2010, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told members of the House Science Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill Nov. 3.
Roughly half of Boeing's Delta rocket work force went on strike just after midnight on Nov. 2, dimming hopes for timely launches of three waiting satellites from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Reconnaissance Office. There are 365 Delta employees on strike at Boeing's Huntington Beach, Calif., Delta facility. At Cape Canaveral, Fla., there are approximately 288 Delta workers striking, and at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., there are about 100 striking.
The Air Force's Global Hawk program team is close to finding the root cause of the high-altitude engine failures that occurred on two separate Global Hawks this past July, according to engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce. The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle is capable of operating at altitudes up to 65,000 feet. "There are some unique things when the air gets very thin up there, and they cause any anomaly to be magnified," Rolls-Royce Defense North America President Dennis Jarvi said during a press luncheon in Washington Nov. 2.
