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 Senate Commerce Committee will vote on the nomination of Johns Hopkins University physicist Mike Griffin to be the next administrator of NASA during a markup hearing on Capitol Hill April 14. If the committee approves Griffin, his nomination will go to the floor of the Senate for a vote. During Griffin's confirmation hearing April 12, Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and other lawmakers said they hoped that Griffin might be able to take the reins at NASA as early as next week.
Mike Griffin, the Bush Administration's nominee to head NASA, told Senate lawmakers April 12 that fixing NASA's accounting will be one of his top priorities if confirmed and that he will meet with Chief Financial Officer Gwendolyn Sykes immediately upon joining the agency to discuss the recent cuts made to its financial reform effort.
Mike Griffin told Senate lawmakers April 12 that if confirmed as NASA administrator he will push to accelerate the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) from its current schedule, which has manned flights beginning in 2014, four years after the proposed retirement of the space shuttle. "I think that's too far out," Griffin said during his nomination hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee in Washington. "President Bush said not later than 2014. He didn't say we couldn't be smart and do it early. And that would be my goal."
