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.
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.
Launch of the U.S. Air Force’s first Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite aboard a Minotaur rocket has slipped as engineers try to ensure that the flight does not suffer the same fate as NASA’s Orbital Carbon Observatory (OCO). The Block 10 SBSS launch, which had been expected to take place in April or May, is now likely to slip to July, according to Craig Cooning, CEO of Boeing Satellite Systems International.
ANOTHER TRY: United Launch Alliance is targeting March 31 for its next attempt to launch the U.S. Air Force’s second Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. An attempt last week had to be scrubbed and the vehicle rolled back to its integration facility following the discovery of a leaky oxidizer valve on the rocket’s Centaur upper stage that has since been replaced.
