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.
BAD DOG: NASA is trying to diagnose a problem with the Mars Exploration rover Spirit, which has been behaving erratically for several days. On Jan. 25 – the 1,800th Martian day of what was originally baselined as a 90-day mission – Spirit failed to respond to its daily driving commands, and did not record its main activities onto its hard drive. The next day, controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent a command for Spirit to orient itself by locating the sun, but this also failed. One possible culprit is cosmic rays striking the rover’s electronics, NASA says.
In a Jan. 15 DAILY article on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the quote attributed to Ronald O’Rourke of the Congressional Research Service was a paraphrasing of the U.S. Navy’s position on LCS oversight, and not his own opinion.
MISSILE LAUNCHERS: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon an $18.8 million modification to a previously awarded contract for the production of four Mk 49 MOD 3 Guided Missile Launcher Systems (GMLS) and associated equipment for the LPD 25 and CVN 78 platforms, as well as 10 Mod 1 to Mod 3 GMLS Ordalt Kits. Work will be performed in Ottobrunn, Germany (50 percent), Louisville, Ky. (45 percent) and Tucson, Ariz. (5 percent) and is expected to be completed by Feb. 2012.
