ORION CREW EXPLORATION VEHICLE Update... And the winner is... Yup, you guessed it— The same company that built the F-117A Stealth Fighter, the F/A-22 Raptor, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and...um, NASA's now-defunct X-33 spaceplane. Of course, you probably didn't guess right if you don't know anything about American military aircraft, but oh well. I actually thought Northrop Grumman and Boeing were gonna win the contract, since they’re comprised of old companies that were actually responsible for building the Apollo spacecraft in the 1960’s (although most of the people who built Apollo are obviously not around anymore to lend their experience to building Orion), but whatever. Northrop and Boeing should be used to getting the short end of the stick... What after the YF-23 and Joint Strike Fighter losses (respectively). What’s really cool is that we finally have a contractor that will be responsible for bending metal and doing wiring on the vehicle that will hopefully take us back to the Moon by 2020. Go Lockheed! Don’t screw it up again... We don’t need another X-33 debacle...









On another topic, I'm heading to New York within 5 hours... This is gonna be my first time there. Click here for more details. BE BACK ON SEPTEMBER 5TH!

58th annual Primetime Emmy Awards... In case you didn't watch the show tonight (I didn't. I was watching Star Wars: Episode II on Fox. No seriously.), 24 won the award for Best Drama while Kiefer Sutherland received kudos as Best Actor for his role as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer in the hit Fox TV series. Kudos... Haha. Maybe I should see if I could get a job at The Hollywood Reporter or Variety or something. It's too bad Gregory Itzin (nominated Best Supporting Actor for his role as U.S. President Charles Logan) or Jean Smart (nominated Best Supporting Actress as First Lady Martha Logan) didn't take home awards. Oh well. They should take solace in the fact they were major players in the best season of 24 so far. Despite the fact I've only watched Seasons 4 and 5 in their entirety, and most of Season 2. In all, 24 took home five Emmy wins: Best Drama Series, Best Actor in a Drama Series, Best Directing in a Drama (Jon Cassar), Best Music Composition (Sean Callery) and Best Single Camera Editing (David Latham).

STS-115 Update... The launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis has been delayed to Monday so Kennedy Space Center workers can check for damage after lightning struck at the pad yesterday. The countdown at the top of this page mentions the new liftoff time.

UPDATE (August 27): The launch may be pushed back to this Tuesday because the damage assessment after Friday's lightning strike wasn't completed yesterday, and Hurricane Ernesto may pose a concern for Kennedy Space Center.

UPDATE #2 (August 27): There are unofficial reports that Atlantis may be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for protection from the looming hurricane threat...thus jeopardizing the entire launch window from August 28 through September 7...forcing NASA to wait till either October (where only 2 days are available for launch), or mid-December...which was the time slot reserved for Discovery as it is currently being prepared for mission STS-116.

UPDATE #3 (August 28): Around noon tomorrow, NASA management will make the final call on whether or not to roll Atlantis back to the VAB in preparation of Ernesto's arrival at Florida on Wednesday. If NASA decides to have Atlantis stay at the pad, the shuttle will not be able to launch no sooner than this Sunday. If it's rolled back, Atlantis' next launch opportunity will be on October 26...assuming the Russians don't budge on moving the date of their Soyuz rocket launch to the space station beyond September 14.



UPDATE #4 (August 30): In a first for the space shuttle program, Atlantis was brought back to the launch pad yesterday after NASA management decided that Tropical Storm Ernesto wouldn't be strong enough to cause major damage when it arrived over Cape Canaveral today. Atlantis was halfway through its journey back to the VAB when the order to cancel rollback was made. Now, the shuttle has from September 6 through September 8 to launch on flight STS-115.

Less than a week from now, a couple of friends and I are headed to Connecticut and New York City. Yea, can't wait! Especially considering this is my first time out on the East Coast. Much like for my last journal entry on this trip, it's Hammer-time!


Just felt like finding a lame-ass excuse to repost this icon, haha.

PLUTO NO LONGER CONSIDERED A PLANET... Well that certainly sucks. I was rooting for the twelve-planet scenario mentioned in this earlier entry to be approved. Now, there are only eight... Mercury through Neptune. Whatever... Astronomers blow. They blow big time. Thank God I got a 'D' in astronomy during my first year in college. Then again, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that.

UPDATE: One of the reasons why Pluto was demoted was because of the new rule stating that it must "clear out its neighborhood" (neighborhood being nearby asteroids, comets or other icy objects) to be a planet. Well, being that scores of asteroids reside near Earth (Near Earth Objects) and "Trojan" asteroids share Jupiter's orbit, then Earth and Jupiter SHOULDN'T be planets either.


On the plus side, having only eight official planets means that our exploration (or at least America's exploration... USA! USA! USA! Just kidding) of the solar system is complete. Sorry Alan Stern and the New Horizons project. I still wanted my name on that probe, though.


An illustration depicting NASA's New Horizons spacecraft passing by the dwarf planet Pluto.

CREW EXPLORATION VEHICLE Update... The logo above wasn't suppose to be revealed till next week, when NASA announces the winning company (Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman/Boeing) that will build the spacecraft. But because current International Space Station astronaut Jeff Williams spilled the beans, NASA confirmed today that Orion will be the new name for the CEV. So much like how the moon missions in the 1960's were labeled Apollo 1, Apollo 11, Apollo 13 and so forth, the next lunar missions will be labeled Orion 1, Orion 11 and Orion 14 (one wonders if NASA will be superstitious enough not to label a CEV mission Orion 13). Of course, that's assuming things stay on track for a 2018-2020 launch of the next moon flight. That, and NASA finds the right launch vehicle to lift the Crew Exploration Vehicle into space. Click here for more details on that.

PRISON BREAK: Season 2... Don't forget that the hit FOX series returns tonight at 8 PM, Pacific Time. Can't wait... And no, I wasn't paid to do this little shameless plug-in...

SNAKES ON A MOTHERF***IN’ PLANE... I saw the Samuel L. Jackson film during a free screening at the Ontario Mills in California today, and needless to say, it rocked! Or maybe I just have low standards when it comes to critiquing movies. Anyways, the filmmakers—or should I say, the geeks on the online message boards who gave suggestions about what they wanted to see in the film (RE: more violence, profanity and nudity)—did not run out of creative ways of showing the snakes wreak havoc. Highlights of the film (Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD): The hot blonde chick getting bit on one of her tits, that fat dude getting bit on the ass, that other dude getting bit in the crotch while taking a piss (ouch!) and that one geezer who gets crushed and eaten by a boa constrictor. Oh, and don't forget that dog that gets also eaten by the boa constrictor. Then again, maybe "creative" wasn't the right word to use there...but "predictable". As in, predictably amusing. Of course, how can we overlook that much-anticipated Sam Jackson line: "I’ve had it with these motherf***in’ snakes...on this motherf***in’ plane!" You rock, Shaft—err, Mace Windu—err, Jules.



Though I’m kinda surprised... A couple of coworkers and I were actually doing an exit poll at Ontario Mills...and most of the screenings we polled yesterday and tonight had a measly average of 30 to 40 people attending each show. Wow, I guess all that Internet buzz isn’t gonna help the box office take for Snakes on a Plane at all. I wonder if this film is gonna even make $20 million this weekend. We'll see.



UPDATE (August 20): Snakes on a Plane made $15.2 million during opening weekend. Considering the hype— GOOD GOD, that's sad...

The Planet...CERES? For those of you who didn’t read any article on this yesterday, the International Astronomical Union (the world's governing body in charge of naming stars, planets, asteroids, wormholes, Star Destroyers and whatnot. Just kidding about the wormholes and Star Destroyers) is set to vote on August 24 to increase the number of known planets in our solar system from 9 to 12. The list of planets will now include: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres (formerly an asteroid), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon (which used to be Pluto’s moon...now it is Pluto’s sister world) and "Xena" (not its official name. Its current designation is 2003 UB313... Its official name will be decided later). I know, I know... That listing above is pointless considering the image I posted below. But the number of planets could increase in the near future...since other worlds beyond Pluto are candidates for planethood (like Sedna and Quaoar).



On another space-related note, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is getting even closer to entering interstellar space. Two days ago, the probe’s distance from the Sun passed the 100 AU (astronomical units... 1 AU equals 93 million miles) mark, and is getting farther by 1 million miles a day. For those of you wondering just how vast 100 astronomical units is, that’s 9.3 billion miles...or 15 billion kilometers, for you metric system-loving ninnies out there. Voyager 1 could cross into interstellar space within the next 10 years or so. Wow... Imagine having my name on a compact disc onboard that spacecraft... Just kidding about calling you guys ninnies.



An illustration showing the location of Voyagers 1 and 2 in our solar system.

UPDATE (September 13): Xena (also known as 2003 UB313) and its moon have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union: Eris and Dysnomia. That is all.

Atlantis a "Go" for liftoff... As expected, a green light was given today to launch NASA’s third space shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster, and the first space station assembly mission since 2002. As shown on the countdown at the top of this page (which has been posted there for about a month), liftoff is targeted for 1:30 PM (PDT) on Sunday, August 27. One major issue remains, and that's whether or not engineers should open Atlantis' cargo bay and replace two screws that were inadequately fastened on the vehicle's main communications antenna. If the replacement does need to be done, hopefully it could take place at the launch pad this weekend, and the August 27 liftoff date won't be jeopardized. *Crosses fingers.*

UPDATE (August 20): The bolt replacement job was successfully completed today.


The crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-115.