30 years before?

if he hasn't been there (sent someone) already...

Exactly! I can't figure oit how he would even LOOK in that same system just by accident.

"MAY 14TH, 2039 - DISCOVERY OF ACHERON LV-426 Weyland astronomers discover multiple moons and a ringed planet just outside the Zeta 2 Reticuli system, which are possibly able to support life. Weyland expects to travel there within the century." There a few things I would take from this... 1) Acheron/LV-426 is one of these moons and likely, one of its smallest. 2) I've become increasing convinced, though not entirely, that the planet in 'Prometheus' is a different moon from Acheron/LV-426. 3) Given that the planet and its moons are known celestial bodies and that it is also believed they could be habitable, it may not have been prudent to mount a journey to the system until the discovery of the 'star map' pictogram found in civilizations all over the world clearly depicting THAT system when applied to actual star charts.

I think the later entry says a lot. Based on recent classified findings by Weyland researchers, the company determines the exact coordinates of a new destination for long-time pet project: Project Prometheus. New round of investment is immediately opened and mission planning enters full-swing. January 1, 2073 To me this indicates that they are going to an entirely new planet recently discovered, not Acheron, a planet which was discovered 44 years previously. I also have an idea that this will not have a direct tie in to the Derelict craft on Acheron, or explain specifically what went wrong with it. You will just be able to surmise what probably happened after seeing Prometheus. From the entire corporate timeline, one gets the impression that Weyland is intent on making a profit from whatever they can discover in the universe. Since they have received other pings back, and also discovered planets, it seems to me that the signal from the derelict was probably finally heard on earth by Weyland. The acquistion of private and government agencies and technologies illustrated in the timeline leaves me to believe that they have a monopoly on these sorts of things. A quick check of which ships would pass closest to Acheron in the near future would have allowed Weyland execs to hash out Order 937, and quickly switch out the Science officer on the USS Nostromo with Ash, before it departed.

It's the entry 2yrs before that, that's more facinating ... [quote] DECEMBER 21ST, 2037 - DISCOVERY OF THE OUTER VEIL Weyland astronomers note an area of space appearing very rich in minerals and other natural resources. Weyland expected to travel there within the century. [/quote] Isn't that the cargo Nostromo was hauling back? ... So with a possible new life-sustainable system and the right minerals for building blocks to creating a liveable colony including the use of the Atmospheric Processor ... I was gonna say 'I give you Hadley's Hope' ... soon ... lol ...

@craigamore ... Me too ... I still reckon it's LV-223 (some other person said on the net somewhere) ... and not LV426 ...

Maybe this is LV-426, hear me out what if weyland/or Yutani sent a man to this system (Patrick Wilson) and he found "something" but they lost contact with the astronaut. Now when prometheus reaches there and the movie begins Spoiler* the crew steals or takes something important to the space jockeys, which leads the jockeys to unleash the giant storm (Artificial atmosphere), which then leads to the derelicts liftoff and the prometheus ships destruction stopping the derelict. Now when that happens the atmospheric machine thingy breaks down and causes the planet to be ravaged by the fake atmosphere...also how an alien impregnates the space jockey.....this was all in my head, no facts

@namtraz: I thought the same way. If the SJ have climate altering tech is logical to think that during the Prometheus/SJ conflict this tech may end up broken and the planet's atmosphere was messed up because of it...

Personally I hope its not the same planet that's in Alien. It seems strange that they would wait 30 years before finding out the fate of Prometheus, especially if Mr Wayland is indeed aboard. I also find it hard that the Nostromo picked up that signal on a shipping lane that others past by. In the script they were 10 months off course.... the plot thickens Muuhaha

One could argue the same point regarding Alien. Why did the company have to fake the Nostromo's voyage being interupted when they obviously already knew what was there.......

Well what if standard physics are (were) being used in the Alien Universe? ... [b]The reason why it took 37yrs to get to LV-426:[/b] (This theory is based on Humans not having any communication capabilities that are able to transmit @ faster than light speed) The main reason why it took 37yrs for the company to be alerted by the signal from LV426 is because the radio signal took 37yrs to reach Earth (radio waves travel @ the speed of light in space) ... Zeta II Reticuli is 37 light-years from Earth (The Sun) (1 light-year = time it takes light to travel in 1 year ... fact) ... workable? ... But it's possible that within those 37yrs (before they get the signal) they have invented better communications that are way more advanced ... hence a rapid deployment to LV-426 is able to be setup and put into action because of advancements in technology ...

I think you all missed a VERY important entry prior to the discovery of the "outer veil" and other things.... JANUARY 17TH, 2034 - [b]HELIADES[/b] Weyland Industries introduces the [b]first FTL-capable[/b] SEV (space exploration vehicle.) So more than 4 decades PRIOR to PROMETHEUS getting under way, there had been another expedition (the HELIADES). What happened to it? What did it find? Where they all killed or did they disappear and were their findings or warnings only received back on Earth decades later?? (Notes: In Greek myth, the Heliades -'children of the sun'- were the offspring of Helios the sun god and the Oceanid Clymene, the latter of whom is also the mother of several Titans - including Prometheus

FTL-capable SEV. FTL = Faster Than Light. How much faster than light. If they travel with light speed it will still take 37 years to travel 37 light years. So the term FTL mightbe several times faster than light. Let's see, anything can evolve into this amazing universe.

While I am certainly no rocket scientist (lol).. the confusing parts about this are that a LIGHT YEAR & the SPEED OF LIGHT are two completely different things, but they get mistaken for each other. A [b]LIGHT YEAR[/b], is a essentially a unit of [b]LENGTH/DISTANCE[/b], equal to just under [b]10 trillion kilometres[/b] !!! The light-year is often used to measure the HUGE distances to stars and other distances on a galactic scale, especially in non-specialist and popular science publications. The [b]SPEED OF LIGHT[/b] is just that.. a measure of [b]VELOCITY[/b]. The speed of light in vacuum (call it [b]c[/b]), is a universal physical constant important in many areas of physics. Its value is 299,792,458 metres per second, a figure that is exact since the length of the metre is defined from this constant and the international standard for time. In metric units this speed is approximately [b]300,000 kilometers per second[/b]. In imperial units this speed is approximately [b]186,282 miles per second.[/b] According to special relativity, this is the maximum speed at which all energy, matter, and information in the universe can travel. It is the speed that all massless particles and associated fields (including electromagnetic radiation such as light) travel in vacuum. It is also the speed of gravity (i.e. of gravitational waves) predicted by current theories. Such particles and waves travel at regardless of the motion of the source or the inertial frame of reference of the observer. In the Theory of Relativity, c interrelates space and time, and also appears in the famous equation of mass–energy equivalence E = mc2. Anyway, thats my paraphrased summary...for what its worth.