Flight of the Hornet: Two F/A-18s Soar Above San Diego County, CA...

As mentioned in this earlier entry, I was going to share pics (which were shot with my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera) that I took of two F/A-18 Hornets in flight during the Miramar Air Show last Saturday. In the photo above, the Hornets are traveling just below the speed of sound as they soared above the air field at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Along with AV-8B Harriers and a C-130 Hercules, the pair of F/A-18s conducted a combat demo that simulated them attacking targets on the ground. Pretty cool... There were lots of explosions (not caused by actual bombs, of course) during this demonstration. You'll see that when I post images that I took of the Blue Angels in my next entry. Happy Friday!

Celebrating Birthday #39 with Skydive #5...

Earlier today, I drove down to Oceanside in San Diego County, California to mark my 39th birthday by jumping out of an aircraft for the fifth time ever (courtesy of GoJump Oceanside)! As usual, it was awesome...despite the fact that I had to constantly turn my head to the side (and keep my mouth closed) during free fall because I felt like I couldn't breath with the continuous gust of air blasting upwards and hitting me directly in the face. (My tandem instructor and I descended towards the ground from an altitude of 13,000 feet at 120 MPH. The free fall lasted 60 seconds.) You can see this for yourself on my YouTube video—which is posted at the very bottom of this entry.

I plan on marking my 40th birthday next year by skydiving for the sixth time! I already know which jump zone I'm planning to drive to (Hint: It's still in California), but I won't divulge it here since I'm a big believer in not jinxing plans by talking about 'em (moreso, that is) before they take place. So yea— I'm gonna keep you guys out of the loop about that till next autumn, heheh. In the meantime, check out these photos and watch my skydive video below. Happy Thursday night! And a happy free-falling birthday to me once more!

LINK: Click here for more images from my Oceanside tandem skydive

Hayabusa2 Update: A European Lander Is Deployed to the Surface of Asteroid Ryugu!

German Aerospace Center - DLR

Over ten days after it successfully deployed the two MINERVA-II rovers onto the surface of asteroid Ryugu, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft repeated the feat again last night when it released the German-made MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) lander...which touched down on the rocky body 186 million miles (300 million kilometers) from Earth. Due to the life span of its lithium primary battery, MASCOT will only operate for 16 hours—which amounts to two asteroid days on Ryugu—before its mission ends. With three landers now safely on its target's surface, Hayabusa2 will now shift to sample-gathering operations. The first attempt can occur as soon as this month.

The photo above was taken by MASCOT as it descended towards Ryugu yesterday. If you look to the upper right, you can spot the lander's shadow on the asteroid's surface. So amazing! Hayabusa2 will deploy the final rover, MINERVA-II-2, sometime next year.


JAXA

Photo of the Day: LeBron's First Home Game as a Laker...

Los Angeles Lakers

Tonight's exhibition game was the second out of six contests for the Los Angeles Lakers before the regular season starts on October 18 (against the Portland Trailblazers in Oregon), while it also marked LeBron James' first home game as a Laker at STAPLES Center. The King scored 13 points, grabbed 3 rebounds, earned 3 assists and got 2 steals during his 15 minutes on the court tonight. The final score? 113-111, Denver Nuggets. All I can say is this: You're cut from the team, Isaac Bonga. That is all.

LeBron goes coast to coast for the 🔨#LakeShow (📺: @SpectrumSN & TNT) pic.twitter.com/Brm5FlCrLG

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) October 3, 2018

The M1A1 Abrams Tank: (Almost) 70 Tons of Armored Awesomeness...

As stated in this previous entry from yesterday, I was going to post photos that I took of the M1A1 Abrams battle tanks that made an appearance at the Miramar Air Show this past weekend. As mentioned in my preceding post, I geeked out when this armored behemoth came rolling down the tarmac during a combat demo held on the airfield at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. I first heard about the M1A1 during Operation Desert Storm in January of 1991 (I was in 5th grade at the time, FYI)...and was in such awe of this badass piece of weaponry that I bought a book about it at my local mall—yes, I still have it—and played a video game titled Super Battle Tank for my Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992 (the game was fun to play...despite it having a crappy ending). It comes to show you how formidable the Abrams is that the U.S. military still uses it almost 30 years later. Of course, the U.S. Air Force has been flying the B-52 Stratofortress bomber for about 66 years now (and plan to utilize the aircraft for a full century), so that's probably not as noteworthy as I made it out to be.

Most of the photos in this entry were taken with my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera (the images of me posing with the Abrams were shot with my smartphone). I plan to share pics that I took of the Blue Angels and regular F/A-18 Hornets in San Diego next! Happy first day of October.

Snapshots from Miramar Air Show 2018!

Just thought I'd end this month with these photos that I took yesterday at the Miramar Air Show in San Diego, California. This is the second time in three years that I attended this military expo. The main reason why I went this year was because the F-22 Raptor was supposed to do a "heritage flight" with a World War II-era P-51 Mustang during the event. Unfortunately, the show was running behind schedule yesterday, so the flight ended up being cancelled. Oh well. On the plus side, I got to see the F-35B Lightning II in action again! I took so many cool snapshots of this stealth jet with my Nikon D3300 camera that I decided to post the majority of those pics in this Blog entry.

I geeked out when I saw the M1A1 Abrams in person (after this badass, nearly 70-ton battle tank first caught my attention over 27 years ago—during Operation Desert Storm), and will post separate photos of that in a future entry. I also took lots of snapshots of the Blue Angels in action with my DSLR, and will write about that too! So yea— Even though I didn't see the Raptor soaring in the air this weekend, there were still lots of other cool combat vehicles to take pics of in San Diego yesterday. Happy last day of September!

LINK: Click here for more photos that I took at the 2018 Miramar Air Show

Hayabusa2 Update: Japan Lands Two Rovers on the Surface of Asteroid Ryugu!

JAXA

Last Friday, Japan made history when it successfully landed two rovers on the surface of asteroid Ryugu...the rocky body from which the Hayabusa2 spacecraft will extract samples from as early as next month. The image above was taken by MINERVA-II Rover-1A last Saturday (Japan Time) while the cheese wheel-sized probe was in the middle of a 'hop' (the MINERVA rovers don't move the same way that NASA's four-wheeled Curiosity rover does on Mars) above Ryugu's surface. The photo directly below was obtained by MINERVA-II Rover-1B as it descended towards the asteroid after being released from Hayabusa2 on September 21. The Japanese orbiter is set to release a German lander known as MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) within the next month, while a third MINERVA rover—dubbed MINERVA-II-2 Rover-2—will be deployed sometime next year.


JAXA

The image below, taken right before the MINERVA rovers were deployed, is of asteroid Ryugu with Hayabusa2's TIE Fighter-like shadow clearly visible on its surface. You can expect to see this type of amazing snapshot a few more times when Hayabusa2 releases MASCOT and MINERVA Rover-2 as mentioned in the previous paragraph, as well as when JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) flight controllers finally command the orbiter to descend towards the small Near-Earth Object to collect soil samples for the first time. Can't wait!


JAXA


JAXA

Photos of the Day #2: NASA Releases 'First Light' Images That Were Taken by the Parker Solar Probe and TESS!

NASA / Naval Research Laboratory / Parker Solar Probe

Space enthusiasts everywhere were treated to amazing new images taken by the recently-launched Parker Solar Probe and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) this week. In the snapshot above, you see our Milky Way galaxy as it was glimpsed by Parker's Wide-field Imager on September 9. In the snapshot below, you see the 'first light' science image that was taken by TESS on August 7 (the satellite's first light test image was publicly released a few months ago). In other amazing TESS-related news, NASA announced that its newest planet hunter has already pinpointed two new exoplanet candidates: a super-Earth orbiting around the bright star Pi Mensae about 60 light-years away, and a 'hot Earth' revolving around LHS 3844—an M dwarf star 49 light-years away. Astronomers need to confirm these two planetary discoveries with follow-up observations, but all signs point to TESS beginning to live up to expectations about five months after its launch!

The Parker Solar Probe, meanwhile, is expected to make its first flyby of Venus on October 3 before cruising through the Sun's corona for the first time in November. Stay tuned.


NASA / MIT / TESS

Photo of the Day: A Blast from the Past...

Earlier today, I stumbled upon this colorized photo of the mushroom cloud above Nagasaki, Japan on Ranker.com. As you know, it was the annihilation of this second city in Japan (on August 9, 1945), that led to the country's surrender and ultimate end of World War II.

It's amazing that Japan, the only country in world history to be attacked with nuclear weapons, is now one of the closest allies of the nation that attacked Japan with nuclear weapons in the first place. I'm talking about the United States, of course. Not that I'll live long enough to see this, but it will be interesting to think about which countries today will be America's closest allies and which ones will be its most hated enemies in another 70 years. That is all.

Five. Simple. Syllables: X-Wing Is AWESOME!

A Random Nerd Note: I don't care if this video game is 25 years old, but I still enjoy playing X-Wing on my laptop computer! And my favorite starfighter to use in this game is the B-Wing...which I hope makes an official return in next year's Star Wars: Episode IX! The Crait ski speeders (which resemble the B-Wing but were built by a different manufacturer) in last year's The Last Jedi don't count.

Happy Monday!