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 team consisting of Atlas V rocket prime United Launch Alliance, ILC Dover of Delaware and NASA has completed preliminary design of an inflatable sun shield for the Atlas intended to prevent supercooled fuel in the rocket’s upper stage from boiling off.
NASA is seeking information from potential industry partners interested in building a follow-on to the agency’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). Targeted for launch in 2014, ICESat-2 would continue the measurements taken by ICESat, which was orbited in 2003 to measure the Earth’s polar ice mass. Ball Aerospace built the original spacecraft.
Early next month NASA will begin conducting seaworthiness tests of a full-size mockup of the Orion capsule in the Atlantic Ocean to give engineers a feel for how difficult it will be to recover the spacecraft, as well as what kind of conditions the crew can expect.
