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Crewed Spaceflight International Space Station Soyuz

Soyuz TMA-05M

Soyuz TMA-05MPart of the 32nd full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-05M. Yuri Malenchenko, Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide take up residence on the ISS for 127 days, becoming part of the Expedition 32/33 crews. All three return to Earth in November 2012 aboard the same vehicle.

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Television

Eureka: Just Another Day…

EurekaSyfy airs the 77th and final episode of the science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Joe Morton. Matt Frewer (Max Headroom), Debrah Farentino (Earth 2), James Callis (Battlestar Galactica), Felicia Day (Mystery Science Theater 3000), Tembi Locke (Sliders), Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and Grant Imahara (Mythbusters) guest star in the series finale.

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Eureka now streaming on Amazon Prime

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Crewed Spaceflight Enterprise Space Shuttle

Enterprise re-retired

Space ShuttleHaving already been donated to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in 1985, Space Shuttle Enterprise, a test vehicle not built to spaceflight specs, is removed from the custom-made hangar at the Smithsonian and prepared for re-gifting. With NASA donating the space-flown shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian, Enterprise will now become a major display at New York City’s Intrepid Museum, based on the retired aircraft carrier U.S.S. Intrepid. For the first time in nearly 20 years, Enterprise is loaded onto one of the modified Boeing 747s from which it made its in-atmosphere test flights in 1977 and is transported to New York.

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death

Mary Tamm, Doctor Who actress, dies

Mary TammActress Mary Tamm, who appeared in a single (but very high-profile) season of Doctor Who as the first incarnation of the Time Lady Romana, dies at the age of 62 after a battle with cancer. Having revived her version of the Romana character in recent years for Big Finish Productions’ Doctor Who audio stories (and the spinoff series Gallifrey), Tamm has remained popular with fans and has also recently completed her autobiography. Several days later, mere hours after delivering a eulogy at her memorial service, her husband of 34 years, Marcus Ringrose, also dies of a heart attack.

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Curiosity Uncrewed Spaceflight

Curiosity rover lands on Mars

CuriositySurviving a previously untested landing method involving a rocket-firing sky crane, NASA’s Curiosity rover (or, more formally, the Mars Science Laboratory) lands safely on Mars, at the base of a mountain near Gale Crater. The first images from the surface arrive within seconds of landing, confirming the safe delivery of NASA’s latest mobile Mars explorer. The landing is especially suspenseful due to the “seven minutes of terror” – the one-way time for a signal to reach Earth from Mars – and the fact that the entire reentry and landing procedure takes 14 minutes.

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Uncrewed Spaceflight Voyager

Voyager 1 close to the edge of the solar system?

Voyager35 years after its departure from Earth, NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe registers major changes in its environment, including a large spike in radiation readings believed to indicate the presence of interstellar cosmic radiation. Some scientists claim that these changes in Voyager 1’s surroundings meet the expected criteria for space beyond the influence of Earth’s sun, making Voyager 1 the first man-made craft to reach interstellar space; others, including former Voyager project scientists, disagree with that assessment. Voyager 1 has no further planetary stops, and is expected to pass within two light years of the star Gliese 445 in 40,000 years.

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death

Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, dies

Neil ArmstrongAmerican astronaut – and the first human being to walk on the surface of the moon – Neil Armstrong dies at the age of 82. On July 20th, 1969, he took the “giant leap” onto another world that instantly made him perhaps the most famous citizen of the 20th century – moreso than the Beatles, more than Hitler or Churchill, more than any actor. That century will be defined by the exploration of the moon forever, and as many men walked on its surface, Armstrong’s will be the name that is forever associated with that exploration.

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Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: Asylum Of The Daleks

Doctor WhoThe 787th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1 (the 89th episode since the series’ revival). Asylum Of The Daleks opens the seventh season of the revived show, and features a surprising first appearance by new series regular Jenna-Louise Coleman, whose new companion character was originally announced as debuting in the 2012 Christmas special. (The most surprising thing about this is that preview audiences keep this secret from the entire internet for several weeks.)

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Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight

Radiation Belt Storm Probes find new belt

Radiation Belt Storm ProbesThe Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission launched by NASA begins activating sensors just a few days after liftoff, weeks ahead of schedule, just in time to reveal a finding that forces a rethink of over half a century of widely-accepted science. The probes find that, in response to the recent eruption of a solar prominence, the two Van Allen radiation belts discovered in 1958 by Explorer 1 have expanded to include a third belt, which traps and repels additional solar radiation back into space. The third radiation belt dissipates after four weeks, and scientists begin rethinking their theories on Earth’s magnetosphere.

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Dawn Uncrewed Spaceflight

Dawn departs Vesta

Vesta from DawnNASA’s Dawn unmanned space probe fires up its ion propulsion system, breaking its orbit around the large asteroid Vesta. Having orbited and mapped Vesta since 2011, Dawn must now survive a nearly-three-year trip through the main asteroid belt to reach the largest body in that region, Ceres. Successful arrival at Ceres, planned for 2015, would make Dawn the first unmanned spacecraft to have orbited two bodies in the solar system.

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Music

Battlestar Galactica Volume 3 soundtrack

Soundtrack specialty label Intrada releases a third volume of Stu Phillips’ episode soundtracks from the TV Series Battlestar Galactica. The complete scores from the episodes The Long Patrol, The Lost Warriors, The Magnificent Warriors, The Young Lords, Murder On The Rising Star, The Hand Of God and the Galactica 1980 episode The Return Of Starbuck are included.

More about Battlestar Galactica soundtracks in Music Reviews

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Crewed Spaceflight Endeavour Space Shuttle

Endeavour retired

Space ShuttleNASA donates the retired Space Shuttle Endeavour, stripped of working engines and other vital equipment, to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The last shuttle to be built, construction on Endeavour began in 1988 from spare parts to replace the destroyed Challenger; Endeavour lifted off for the first time in 1992, ultimately flying 25 missions, including many of the International Space Station construction missions. This also marks the final flight of the modified Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, which flew for the first time in 1977.

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death

Michael O’Hare, Babylon 5 actor, dies

Michael O'HareMichael O’Hare, who starred in the 1993 pilot movie and the first full season (1994) of the science fiction series Babylon 5, dies of complications from a heart attack he suffered the week before. An accomplished stage actor who made infrequent forays into television, O’Hare had been out of the public eye (including the science fiction convention circuit) for several years.

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Crewed Spaceflight International Space Station

SpaceX Dragon CRS-1

Dragon at ISSHaving successfully demonstrated an unmanned cargo vehicle to make supply runs to the International Space Station, SpaceX launches the first Dragon capsule to the ISS under its new commercial resupply contract with NASA. The flight is not without difficulties: one of the nine engines of the Falcon 9 booster’s first stage shuts down in flight without impacting the Dragon capsule’s ability to reach the right orbit, but a secondary payload – a commercial satellite to be launched from the Falcon’s upper stage – is stranded in the wrong orbit and falls back into Earth’s atmosphere in days. NASA and SpaceX begin a joint investigation into the mishap, while the Dragon capsule docks with the ISS and remains in orbit for nearly three weeks as Expedition 33 crew members unload new cargo and stow items for return to Earth aboard the capsule, which will be recovered on Earth after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

Arrow: Pilot

ArrowThe first episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero, premieres on the CW, starring Stephen Amell. The series has been developed for TV by Greg Berlanti, creator of past TV successes including Everwood and Eli Stone, and will lead to a string of successful series developed by Berlanti around popular DC characters, which will also lead to a successful “shared universe” of TV comics adaptations frequently referred to by fans as the Arrowverse.

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Crewed Spaceflight International Space Station Soyuz

Soyuz TMA-06M

Soyuz TMA-06MPart of the 33rd full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-06M. Oleg Novitskiy, Evgeny Tarelkin and Kevin Ford take up residence on the ISS for 143 days, becoming part of the Expedition 33/34 crews. All three return to Earth in March 2013 aboard the same vehicle.