This will be short because I’m trying to finish a bunch of mundane chores and miscellaneous loose ends so I can leave tomorrow on a last-minute adventure with a clear conscience, but I couldn’t let this pass without mention. Remember Lisa Nowak, a.k.a. The Jealous Astronaut? The woman who drove nonstop from Florida to Texas while wearing a space diaper so she could confront (and possibly do major damage to) her romantic rival?

When last we encountered Captain Novak roughly 18 months ago, she had entered a “not guilty” plea. Well, I just spotted the news that she’s now pled guilty to lesser charges of felony burglary of a car and misdemeanor battery as opposed to the original charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary and battery. The prosecutor in the case has complained that Nowak’s attorney has “chipped away” at the case until there’s nothing left, i.e., the defense has fought to have evidence thrown out and managed to get a prohibition on any discussion of the diapers.

Nowak and her paramour, Commander William Oefelein , were both throw out of the astronaut core in 2007. The woman Nowak was apparently after is now living with Oefelein and they’re reportedly engaged. So I guess that’s the end of this strange tale. I have to admit that it feels rather anti-climatic…

It was a beautiful launch this morning for the Ares 1-X rocket, a unmanned prototype for the next-generation Constellation spacecraft that are intended to replace NASA’s aging space shuttle:

It looks to me like the ship wobbles a little bit right after ignition, when it’s balancing on the thrust column but hasn’t actually started lifting yet, and I had a nervous moment when I wondered if it was going to spiral over and blow up like some of the spectacular accidents from the very early days of spaceflight (many of which are shown in the movie The Right Stuff, if you’ll remember). But I haven’t seen anyone commenting on that motion, so perhaps it’s normal for this design. Or maybe I’m not seeing what I think I am.

The Ares is really kind of strange-looking, in my opinion, oddly proportioned with an anorexic body — which is actually a derivative version of the solid rocket boosters you see on either side of the shuttles during their launches — beneath a bulky payload section way up high. It looks top-heavy, although I would guess the weight of the propellant balances it out. Strange or not, though, this is what the future of American manned spaceflight is going to look like. Assuming there is one, of course. Right now, that’s somewhat questionable, since the shuttle is slated to stop flying next year, the International Space Station may very well be abandoned after its funding runs out in 2015, and the Constellation ships — the Ares booster combined with a manned Orion capsule — likely won’t be ready to safely fly humans until sometime after that. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of talk in space circles about sending people back to the Moon or on to Mars, but frankly I don’t see that there’s much public or political interest in doing either, and some experts are now questioning whether the Ares rockets are even the right hardware to meet those goals. So we’re essentially developing a whole new spacecraft system with no clear idea of where we’re going to send it or what we’re going to do with it.

That’s not smart. Especially these days, when everyone is so concerned with return on investment instead of merely wanting to do great things for the sake of doing great things. But still, no matter what the future holds, I have to admit that I got a genuine thrill this morning as I stood in the coffee shop, watching on the flatscreen over the counter as a whole new type of bird took flight over Cape Canaveral. It reminded me of those early mornings when I was a boy, getting up before dawn to watch the first few shuttle launches with my dad.