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.
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V orbited the U.S. government’s classified “PAN” communications satellite following a picture-perfect countdown and launch Sept. 8 from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Atlas V 401 rocket lifted off at the very beginning of its launch window, at 5:35 p.m. EDT. The rocket used a single common core booster first stage powered by an RD-180 engine, which fired for about the first four minutes of the mission until stage separation. Centaur
SUPPORTING SOFIA: NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center has awarded a contract modification to L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, L.P., of Waco, Texas, for further developmental engineering on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) — the agency’s 747-based astronomical observatory. The option is valued at about $8.7 million, bringing the total value of the contract to about $37.7 million and extending the performance period through the end of this year. Two further option periods could extend the agreement another two years.
BACK ON: NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) have rescheduled the first ground test firing of the Ares I developmental five-segment solid-fuel rocket motor for Sept. 10 at ATK’s facility in Promontory, Utah. The first try at the potentially historic static test was scrubbed 20 seconds before ignition Aug. 27 when test conductors received an indication an auxiliary power system fuel valve had failed to open (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 28).
