EDIT (January 17): The countdown below is revised to reflect the 10:16 AM (Pacific Standard Time) liftoff time for tomorrow, January 18. However, because of morning showers and more gusty winds that are expected to be in the forecast for Wednesday, there is a huge chance that New Horizons will end up being launched on Thursday, January 19 (when the weather should improve considerably...with acceptable launch conditions improving from 70% expected for tomorrow to 90% for Thursday).

EDIT #2 (January 18): As expected, New Horizons will not be launched today. The liftoff was scrubbed once more when bad weather caused a power outage in the Baltimore-Washington area, where the Mission Control Center for New Horizons is located (at the John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory). Mission Control was running on backup power, but that is not enough to support critical launch and early flight operations. A decision will be made later today to see if a launch can be attempted tomorrow. If it is, there is an 80% chance of acceptable launch conditions for January 19. The launch window for this day opens at 10:08 AM, PST.

EDIT #3 (January 18): After the main power had been restored at the John Hopkins University in Maryland, NASA officials gave the go-ahead to proceed with another launch attempt for tomorrow, January 19. Tomorrow SHOULD be the day...considering the forecast calls for sunny weather and wind speeds that should be well within the acceptable limits for launching New Horizons. We shall see...


EDIT #4 (January 19): LIFTOFF!


Photo by NASA Kennedy Space Center

17 HOURS, 24 MINUTES AND 59, 58, 57, 56, 55 SECONDS REMAINING... By tomorrow afternoon (if you're living on the East Coast of the United States) or late morning (if you're on the West Coast), the fastest spacecraft ever flown should be off its launch pad in Florida and begin its 9-year journey towards the last(?) planet(?) in our solar system. Yes, those question marks were intentional. Last week, New Horizons underwent the final NASA Flight Planning Board, and passed its Flight Readiness Review...followed by Sunday's Launch Readiness Review...which basically means the Pluto-bound explorer is now officially ready to roar off the ground on 2.5 million pounds of rocket thrust, and start an approximately 50-minute long journey out of Earth orbit. Below is a timeline showing how long each of the Atlas V's engines will burn before running out of fuel and sending New Horizons on its way into deep space. The Atlas V carrying New Horizons actually has three stages (as opposed to two used by past Atlas rockets): The RD-180 first stage rocket motor, the Centaur second stage rocket motor and the Boeing third stage kick motor. The Boeing motor was specifically installed for this flight:

5-24 seconds after liftoff: The RD-180 engine will be ramped down from 100% throttle to 67% to keep maximum dynamic pressure ("Max-Q") to 900 psf (pounds per square foot).

45 seconds after liftoff: The RD-180 will be throttled up to 86% to increase control and performance until ramped down again to 75% throttle to better limit vehicle loads for solid rocket booster (SRB) burnout.

1 minute, 33-45 seconds after liftoff: SRB burnout and separation at an altitude of 23 miles and 0.8 miles-per-second velocity. The RD-180 is then throttled back up to 100%, but adjusted down at specific times to maintain the proper G-force loads.

3 minutes, 23 seconds after liftoff: Fairing jettison at an altitude of 72 miles.

4 minutes, 27 seconds after liftoff: RD-180 shutdown and separation of the Atlas V first stage, followed immediately by Centaur second stage ignition.


ABOVE: At Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the New Horizons spacecraft is put on
display for a media junket back in November of last year. (Photo by Ben
Cooper of LaunchPhotography.com)

10 minutes, 8 seconds after liftoff: Centaur cutoff after placement of the vehicle in a 90 X 115 nautical-mile parking orbit for a coast over the Atlantic Ocean.

32 minutes after liftoff: Centaur re-ignition over southern Africa to begin the Earth escape maneuver.

41 minutes, 45 seconds after liftoff: Centaur cutoff and separation at a velocity of 7.7 miles-per-second and an altitude of 435 miles and climbing.

42 minutes, 37 seconds after liftoff: The New Horizons spacecraft and Boeing upper-stage motor will be spun up to about 80 RPM for stabilization. This will be followed by ignition of the 15,000-lb.-thrust Boeing motor for 88 seconds. Depending upon the launch day, the burn will take place near or over Australia. The spacecraft rotation will be slowed by "yo-yo-weights" after the burn.

47 minutes, 32 seconds after liftoff: The spacecraft, flying at 10.07 miles-per-second, will be separated from the Boeing stage. New Horizon's rotation rate will be slowed to 5 RPM for cruise.

Timeline courtesy of AviationNow.com


Photo by NASA Kennedy Space Center

ABOVE AND BELOW: The Atlas V rocket carrying New Horizons now sits atop its
launch pad, following a rollout from the rocket's vehicle assembly building that took
place at 7:30 AM (Pacific Standard Time) yesterday, January 16. Click here to view the live
webcam feed from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida ( RealOne Player is
required for viewing).


Photo by Ben Cooper of LaunchPhotography.com


Photo by NASA Kennedy Space Center

ABOVE: A scientist approaches the Stardust return capsule after it parachuted to the ground around 2:10 AM (Pacific Standard Time) this morning. The touchdown occurred at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

STARDUST Returns... Congratulations to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena for successfully bringing a space capsule carrying the remains of a malevolent alien species back to Earth. Haha, just kidding! No seriously though— Kudos to the JPL folks for bringing back the first ever material taken from a comet. Launched in 1999, the Stardust spacecraft collected samples from Comet Wild 2 (pronounced "vilt-two"... Those wacky Swiss) in 2004 and spent the rest of that time heading back to Earth. While the Stardust 'mothership' is in a safe permanent orbit around the Sun, the return capsule will be brought back to the Johnson Space Center in Texas this Tuesday so scientists can pry it open and check out the dead alien— err, dust samples collected from the comet. Nice.


ABOVE: A NASA aircraft took this image of the Stardust capsule
re-entering Earth's atmosphere above Utah...at a 'sluggish' speed of
29,000 MPH. Courtesy of NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory

EDIT: Don't forget that the Season 5 premiere of FOX's 24 airs tonight at 8 PM.

EDIT #2: Whoa, those two episodes were intense! C'mon Jack Bauer, avenge President Palmer's death!! And you gotta regulate on those terrorists at Ontario Airport!! Can't wait for the season premiere's conclusion tomorrow... Of course, my Monday nights will officially be off-limits till May now that everyone's favorite Counter-Terrorist Unit agent is back.

Tristan & Isolde... What kind of friggin' title is that?? Oh wait, this story is based on an actual Arthurian legend. Whatever, the title still blows. 'Kay, move along... Move along...

Click here for more photos of New Horizons' launch preparations.

NEW HORIZONS Update: Only 10 days till launch... It has been relatively quiet at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida over the past two weeks because of the holidays, but things are scheduled to pick up on Monday when final preparations are made to launch the world's first ever robotic mission to Pluto. This week, inspection was completed on the Atlas V’s first stage fuel tank after there were concerns over its structural integrity during the rocket’s flight into space. No defects were found. Also, the White House gave NASA final launch approval...since New Horizons is carrying a nuclear generator on board, and all launches that involve the use of nuclear power requires the White House's Office of Science, Technology and Policy to green-light the liftoff. Below is a list of activities that remain before New Horizons lifts off on January 17:

Yesterday, January 6
Completion of launch vehicle ordnance installation. By ordnance I think they mean the explosives used to separate the five solid rocket boosters (SRBs... Three of the boosters can se seen in the pic above) from the Atlas V launch vehicle, the self-destruct mechanism used in case there is a launch mishap and the bolts used to separate the various stages (for the Atlas V carrying New Horizons, there are three stages: The first stage core with the RD-180 engine, the Centaur second stage motor and the Boeing third stage kick motor directly attached to New Horizons).

Monday, January 9
Closeout activity for the Boeing third stage motor.

Tuesday, January 10
The safe and arm devices (SAD) will be installed onto the five solid rocket boosters. The devices are used to ignite the fuel inside the boosters as the countdown hits zero for liftoff on January 17.

January 11 – 13
Closeouts and final documentation of the New Horizons spacecraft will take place. This includes the installation of the nuclear generator (also known as, once again, the radioisotope thermoelectric generator...or RTG) to the space probe. And once again, in case you’re wondering, the nuclear generator consists of non-weapons-grade plutonium.


New Horizons sits within the Atlas V's nose fairing after its nuclear generator (the
gray circular object towards the center of the spacecraft) is installed.

Thursday, January 12
The final power-on integrated test between New Horizons and the Atlas V will be conducted.

Saturday, January 14
The fairing doors (including the door through which the RTG is installed onto New Horizons) will be installed for flight. If you don’t know what a fairing is, it’s the huge white nose cone of the rocket that you see in the photo at the very top of this journal entry.

Monday, January 16
Rollout of the Atlas V from the Vertical Integration Facility (the building where the rocket was assembled) to the launch pad at Complex 41 is scheduled to occur at 7:30 AM, Pacific Standard Time (PST). In the afternoon, the storable RP-1 fuel will be loaded aboard the Atlas first stage tank.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17
The launch pad at Complex 41 will be cleared of personnel in preparation for cryogenic fueling operations, which are scheduled to begin 2 hours before liftoff (8:24 AM, PST). Liftoff is still scheduled for 10:24 AM, PST. Click on my December 19, 2005 entry for more details.

Schedule courtesy of NASA.gov


ABOVE: A chart showing the flight path the Atlas V rocket will take over the planet.
New Horizons will begin its escape boost out of Earth orbit above Australia. Courtesy
of SpaceflightNow.Com

TEXAS: 41, USC: 38... Ughhh... On the plus side, at least it was a close game. But how could've this happened? Well, overlooking the fact Reggie Bush turned the tide of the game by pitching that lateral in the second quarter, the refs making a bad call by allowing Texas' 9-7 score to stand when it shouldn't have (Vince Young's knee was down!), the Trojan defense breaking down with only 19 seconds left to allow Young to score the game-winning touchdown, and me not being able to watch the entire game on TV because I was attending the screening of a comedy sketch show's pilot episode in Hollywood (funny show, by the way... It's called The Loading Zone). Just being facetious with that last one. But do you think Reggie Bush will still be one of the top picks in this year's NFL Draft? Well, duhhh... Of course he will. Though it's ironic that 2005's Heisman Trophy winner was partly responsible for his team's loss by making a bad play that changed momentum early on in the game. Meh, can't win them all. One thing's for sure: Young no longer needs to feel bad about not being able to take the Heisman back to the Alamo. Bah!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!! Hope all of you are having a safe and fun holiday. I’ve posted a list below of key dates and events that should be of interest this year...that is, if you’re a sports fan or a movie buff. Or a space geek for that matter, haha. I’d add more dates in, but who really cares about when the second round of the Finnish presidential election is gonna be (January 29)? Or what day the planet Mercury will be in transit in front of the Sun (November 8)? I certainly don’t, hahaha. Anyways, carry on...



January 2006
-Rose Bowl: USC vs. Texas (Jan 4)
-Season 5 premiere of 24 (Jan 15, 16)
-63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards (Jan 16)
-Launch of NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft (Jan 17)
-Season 5 premiere of American Idol (Jan 17, 18)



February 2006
-Super Bowl XL (Feb 5)
-Grammy Awards (Feb 8)
-Opening Ceremony – XX Olympic Winter Games of Torino (Feb 10)
-NBA All-Star Game (Feb 19)
-Closing Ceremony – Olympic Winter Games (Feb 26)



March 2006
-78th Academy Awards (Mar 5)
-V For Vendetta (Mar 17)
-FOX show Prison Break returns after a 4-month hiatus (Mar 20)



April 2006
-Daytime Emmy Awards (Apr 28)
-NFL Draft (Apr 29, 30)



May 2006
-NASA's Return to Flight mission #2 (STS-121)... Space Shuttle Discovery (May 3 - tentative)
-Mission: Impossible 3 (May 5)
-The Da Vinci Code (May 19)
-X-Men 3 (May 26)



June 2006
-Start of World Cup 2006 (June 9)
-Superman Returns (June 30)
-Sin City 2 (TBA)



July 2006
-NBA free agency begins: Peja Stojakovic, Ben Wallace, Jason Terry, Alonzo Mourning and Bonzi Wells are among the available players
-Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (July 7)
-End of World Cup 2006 (July 9)
-Miami Vice (Jul 28)



August 2006
-World Trade Center (Aug 11)
-PGA Championship (Aug 14-20)
-The 26th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, Czech Republic (Aug 14-15... This could be big. Pluto could be downgraded from a planet to a ‘Kuiper Belt Object’ after the conference. Don’t ask, haha)



September 2006
Sweden holds elections for the Riksdag (Sep 17... Hey, I had to add something for this month)

October 2006
-General elections in Brazil (Oct 2... Ditto with September)



November 2006
-U.S. Mid-term Elections (Nov 7)
-Casino Royale – James Bond 21 (Nov 17)



December 2006
-Muslim feast of Eid ul-Adha (Dec 31... I had to add something for this month as well, hahaha)

2005 BOX OFFICE WRAP-UP... With all of its contenders for the box office crown either in release or now gone, ranging from this summer's War of the Worlds with $234 million to Hairy Pothead and the Goblet of Fire and The Chronicles of Narnia currently at $262 and $165 million each, respectively, it’s safe to say that this year was indeed the Year of the Sith. Revenge of the Sith made an overall $380.3 million at the domestic box office alone, with potential threat King Kong not being potential at all. In its 13th day of release, Kong has made $121 million in the domestic B.O., while Sith made $275 million within the same amount of days. Sith is currently #1 in opening day grosses, top 4 and 5-day grosses, and the fastest film to reach the $100 and $300 million marks, while King Kong is number one in the, um, err...let me check—nothing? Sorry, just expressing some pre-Academy Awards bias against Kong before it takes the Best Visual FX Oscar away from Sith this March, haha. Just kidding. I mentioned this to point out the fact that Sith is the fifth Star Wars film to be the box office king for the year it came out. Attack of the Clones is the only exception...with Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers both taking the spotlight away from it in 2002.



It’ll be interesting to see if Sith gets more Oscar nominations (in the technical categories such as Costume Design and Sound Editing, that is) than the two previous prequels. If not, then oh well. As long as it doesn’t get any Razzie nominations, that's for sure! And it doesn’t deserve any, unlike Clones and The Phantom Menace (Natalie Portman was the weakest link in Episode III, but not to the point where she deserves a Raspberry Award. Hmm... Actually, let me think about that). Other than that, bring on 2006!! There are absolutely NO films coming out next year that I am as eager to see as Sith, but whatever. Let’s see how much Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, The Da Vinci Code and X-Men 3 make in the box office... Don’t get me wrong, I definitely want to see those films. But it's not like I'm gonna buy their soundtracks or any related merchandise (Da Vinci Code action figures? Haha) before they come out. Anyway... I called Harry Potter Hairy Pothead on purpose. I’ve been doing that ever since The Sorceror’s Stoned came out in 2001. ‘Nuff said.

SUPERNATURAL... I began watching the WB hit a few weeks ago, and needless to say, it is one cool and at times scary TV show...even scarier than The X-Files (though I don’t think The X-Files wasn’t necessarily suppose to be scary, but just deal with Area 51 and the paranormal, haha). In case you don’t watch the show, it revolves around two brothers who are out to find their dad, who went missing after a hunting trip. The dad just so happens to be a ghost hunter, and he left behind a book with all the notes he took on dealing with different supernatural occurrences and evil spirits. The brothers use that book to fight these demons as they go about searching for their dad.

I only watched two episodes of the show so far, but these episodes were definitely fascinating. The first episode I watched dealt with the Wendigo—a half man/half beast who in Indian myth preys on human beings in the forest. The other episode I watched dealt with (should I even type this? Haha) Bloody Mary. Even though this episode borrowed an element or two from the film The Ring (especially at the end of this episode... The pic above is from the climax), the story was still interesting. I think what makes Supernatural so appealing, other than the fact the two brothers ride in a sleek '67 Chevy Impala (just being facetious), is that the show borrows from actual ghost legends... The X-Files did too—and so did other shows that copied the Chris Carter hit—but mostly during the “monster” episodes (The X-Files had two kinds of episodes... The ‘mythology episodes’, which is the overall storyline of Fox Mulder trying to find his sister amidst a government conspiracy, and the ‘monster episodes’, where Mulder and Scully literally dealt with creatures like the Chupacabra. Sorry for veering off-topic). Supernatural is gonna be aired everyday this week, so I definitely need to watch it and catch up on all the episodes I missed. It’s at 9 PM (Pacific Standard Time)...which means I’ll miss the special episode of FOX’s House tonight. Oh well... Tonight’s House episode is a rerun anyway, haha. Unless Supernatural airs at 8 PM, the same time slot as the new episode of Arrested Development, then I'm screwed.


EDIT: Nope, Supernatural aired at 9 PM. And tonight's episode was about Sam and Dean (the two brothers) trying to stop a demon who possessed air travelers and caused them to crash the planes. Cool.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!! Hope you and yours are having a safe and tubular holiday... Tubular, haha... Yes, this is the same thing I typed for my Xmas entry last year...except for the ‘tubular’ part. Anyways, to bring up news that I was too lazy to type more than a week earlier, on December 14, I worked the very last taping of the TV sitcom, Yes, Dear (in case you don’t know yet, this is the CBS show’s final season). This was the first and last time I ever worked on that show. Oh well. The next day, I attended the annual Christmas party at Paramount Studios (where Yes, Dear was filmed). Par bought off Dreamworks just a few weeks ago...which obviously gives Par employees something to cheer about for the holidays, and hopefully next year’s holidays...when the studio store on the Par lot will presumably be able to sell Dreamworks DVD titles like Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan. Once again, I reiterate the word presumably. Oh, and Par is what Variety magazine calls Paramount in its articles (Variety calls TV shows "skeins", or something like that...the ABC channel the "Alphabet", NBC the "Peacock", filming a movie is "lensing" a movie, and film directors are called “helmers”...as in James Cameron was Titanic's helmer. Or I may be wrong. That's showbiz jargon for ya, haha).



This week, I watched Munich, King Kong and Fun With Dick and Jane—all in that particular order. I’m too lazy to write full reviews on them, so I’ll just say Munich was serious, King Kong was less serious, and Fun wasn't serious at all (well obviously). Going back to King Kong, the special effects were a lot better than I thought (I still say WETA isn’t up there with ILM yet). In fact, I think King Kong might take next spring’s Best Visual FX Oscar...even though I’m rooting for Revenge of the Sith to do that. Kong should also be nominated for Best Make-up, since the face prosthetics on those Skull Island natives looked pretty freaky. Naomi Watts, unsurprisingly, looked hot in this pic, though I think, um, helmer Peter Jackson could’ve deleted some of her close-ups at the end. It was a tad bit too many. Her character has feelings for Kong, we get the picture!! Though Watts is pretty darn talented— She juggles, and she does somersaults! Haha. Up next, I want to see Syriana and Memoirs of a Geisha. C’mon now, gotta show that Asian pride!! Oh, and the cinematography on Geisha looks great...from what I saw in the trailers.

Click here to view the live webcam feed from Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station in Florida ( RealOne Player is required for viewing),
or view the snapshots if your computer does not support RealOne.

New Horizons will be the world's first ever mission to Pluto, and just the fifth spacecraft to be sent on an escape route out of the solar system, never to return but to wander the galaxy for millions of years.

29 DAYS, 4 HOURS, 27 MINUTES AND 59, 58, 57, 56, 55 SECONDS REMAINING... Less than a month from now, the New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a 9-year voyage to the distant world of Pluto. Over the next few weeks, you’ll probably see this Blog constantly being updated with news on this historic flight. New Horizons is now installed on the Atlas V rocket that will launch it into space and onto its route towards the outer solar system. New Horizons will be the fastest space probe ever flown (I think... The two Voyager space probes may be faster); being the size of a grand piano, weighing a mere 1,054 pounds when fully fueled at launch and flying at a speed of 36,000 mph...which will allow it to fly past the Moon within 9 hours (it took the Apollo astronauts 3 days to get to the Moon) and reach Jupiter in February of 2007, a brisk 13 months after Horizons’ launch (it took the now defunct Galileo spacecraft 6 years to get to Jupiter). And if all goes well, the craft will arrive at the 9th rock from the Sun (make that the 5th rock... gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Your Anu—err, Uranus and Neptune don’t count. And neither do the Asteroid Field nor the gas giants' hundreds of moons) in July of 2015. Below is the list of things to do before next month’s launch [the schedule can obviously change (and it has)]:

(Warning: LOTS of geek talk below... But I think you can pretty much guess that after reading what I typed above)

Last Tuesday, December 13
The installation of the New Horizons/Boeing third stage rocket motor stack (shown in the photo above) inside the nose cone fairing of the Atlas V-551 rocket (provided by Lockheed Martin) that will launch Horizons into space. The process is known as “encapsulation”. I’m sure you wanted to know that...

Last Friday, December 16
Transportation of the encapsulated New Horizons stack to the launch pad (Launch Complex 41, or LC-41) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Last Saturday, December 17
Mating of the New Horizons stack to the Atlas V rocket inside LC-41’s vehicle assembly building (also known as the Vertical Integration Facility, or VIF in nerd jargon).

Wednesday, December 21
An "Integrated Systems Test" will be conducted to ensure good wiring connections between the Atlas V vehicle and New Horizons payload.

Tuesday, January 3
Launch preps resume after the holiday break. Technicians will begin conducting inspections on the Atlas V's first stage fuel tank that has delayed New Horizons' launch to January 17. Liftoff was originally suppose to take place on January 11.

Around January 13 - 14
The installation of the plutonium power source (also known as the, um, err, Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator...or RTG) onto New Horizons. Solar panels are effectively useless beyond Mars’ orbit, which is why Horizons needs to use nuclear fuel to run its electrical systems. The plutonium used is non-weapons-grade.

Monday, January 16
The transportation of the fully-assembled Atlas V rocket from the VIF to the launch pad.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17
Liftoff is scheduled for 1:24 PM, Eastern Standard Time. Once New Horizons is in space, it will be roughly 47-51 minutes before flight controllers on the ground make radio contact with the spacecraft. Horizons has till Saturday, January 28, to launch on a trajectory that will still take it past Jupiter in 2007 and arrive at Pluto in 2015.

Schedule courtesy of SpaceflightNow.com