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.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Jefferson Morris (Washington)
The first Obama space budget almost certainly means NASA will not be able to return humans to the Moon by 2020, the agency’s acting administrator said last Tuesday, although he backed away from flatly predicting a delay in another Capitol Hill appearance two days later. “Clearly, the situation as it stands right now means we couldn’t do the program of record—putting humans on the Moon by 2020,” acting Administrator Chris Scolese told House lawmakers May 19. But on May 21 he was telling senators only that it would be “a challenge.”
A low pressure system in Florida is making an on-time May 22 landing of Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) appear somewhat unlikely, although the orbiter itself is clean and ready. “I’ll tell you, it doesn’t look great,” STS-125 Entry Flight Director Norm Knight said of the weather during a press conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston May 21. “We’re waiting for that system to move out. We expect it’s going to improve over the next couple of days, but again, it’s just a matter of waiting and seeing.”
WASTE NOT: NASA has given the Expedition 19 crew aboard the International Space Station the formal go-ahead to begin drinking the water from the station’s urine recycling system. Mission control in Houston radioed the good news to the crew May 20. The move is a key milestone toward supporting the six-person crew that will be occupying the orbiting outpost by the end of this month, and also will help reduce water transport requirements in the post-shuttle era.
