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.
Discovery's crew spent much of Aug. 2 preparing for the next day's delicate on-orbit repair job during which Astronaut Steve Robinson will remove two protruding tile gap-fillers from the shuttle's underbelly. "It's conceptually very simple, but it has to be done very, very carefully," Robinson said during a press conference from orbit Aug. 2.
The STS-114 spacewalk team is planning ahead for the possibility that Discovery's crew will have to perform an unprecedented on-orbit repair of two protruding "gap-fillers" on the shuttle's underbelly before coming home. "We're getting everything staged and ready to go," STS-114 Lead Spacewalk Officer Cindy Begley said during a press conference Aug. 1. If the repair is approved, STS-114 Mission Specialist Steve Robinson will perform it as part of the mission's third spacewalk on Aug. 3.
On-orbit inspections of shuttle Discovery have shown no serious damage that would prevent the orbiter from safely re-entering Earth's atmosphere, according to NASA. Shuttle astronauts used the new Orbiter Boom Sensor System on July 29 to perform a series of "focused inspections" of six areas where the orbiter may have suffered damage during launch, including the chipped tile near the nosewheel landing gear door (DAILY, July 28).
