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.
Launch of the U.S. Air Force’s secretive Orbital Test Vehicle Flight 1 (OTV-1) spaceplane has been rescheduled for Apr. 10, 2010, on an Atlas V 501 rocket following several shifts in the busy Cape Canaveral launch manifest. The OTV is the Air Force-led X-37B, a Boeing Phantom Works-built derivative of the X-37 technology demonstrator originally developed for NASA’s “Future X” project of the late 1990s, which the agency hoped to fly as early as 2006 as a precursor to a spaceplane for ferrying space station crews (see image).
The European Space Agency is testing a miniature solid-state gyro sensor that it says will be the smallest ever flown in space. The sugar cube-size gyro uses micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)—a technology already widely employed in the automobile industry that allows moving parts or sensors to be incorporated on a single silicon chip, saving space and weight and improving reliability.
China’s first mission to Mars is on hold for 26 months following a last-minute decision by the Russian space agency Roscosmos to postpone launch of its Phobos-Grunt probe. Originally set for launch on a Zenit rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in a planetary window opening Oct. 6, the mission was delayed until the 2011 Mars launch window, apparently because of problems with the return vehicle that was to bring back samples from the Martian moon Phobos, according to Ma Yongping, deputy director of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.
