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Star Wars Television

Star Wars: Rebels: The Siege Of Lothal

Star Wars: RebelsCable channel Disney XD premieres the 15th episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga. This double-length episode opens the show’s second season, though the remainder of the second season won’t air for several more months. James Earl Jones guest stars as Darth Vader, and Billy Dee Williams guest stars as Lando Calrissian. Ashley Eckstein joins the cast, reprising her Clone Wars character, Ahsoka Tano.

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Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death Music

James Horner, film composer, dies

James HornerA renowned film music composer whose early sci-fi works put him on the map, James Horner dies at the age of 61 in the crash of his private plane. After his early genre efforts for sci-fi and horror films produced by Roger Corman, Horner took on the daunting task of succeeding Jerry Goldsmith as the composer of the Star Trek film franchise at the age of 28 with Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (in which he also had a very brief on-screen cameo). Other major films followed: Krull, Aliens, Cocoon, Star Trek III, The Land Before Time, The Rocketeer, Apollo 13, Braveheart, Titanic, and Avatar, among many others. Mr. Horner was 61 at the time of his death.

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New Horizons Uncrewed Spaceflight

New Horizons’ last-minute scare

PlutoNASA’s New Horizons abruptly loses contact with Earth-based ground controllers and then signals that it has gone into safe mode, ten days before its closest flyby of Pluto. In this mode, the spacecraft gathers no scientific data, and awaits intervention from Earth, but its distance from Earth – four billion miles away – means that signals transmitted to or from New Horizons take four and a half hours to reach their destination (and any reply takes just as long). A timing error is located in New Horizons’ automatic event sequencer, a vital part of its mission since it will need to operate independently to conduct hundreds of observations of Pluto and its satellites with no contact from Earth until later, and the probe is rebooted within 48 hours. Though the probe’s automatic switch to failsafe mode has cost the mission some scientific observations, most of the high-value data will not be collected until within 24 hours of closest approach on July 14th.

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Deaths Galileo Matters of Life & Death Rosetta / Philae Uncrewed Spaceflight

Dr. Claudia Alexander, Galileo project manager, dies

Dr. Claudia AlexanderDr. Claudia Alexander dies at the age of 56, while still serving as the chief scientist of a suite of U.S.-provided instruments aboard ESA’s history-making Rosetta mission. Renowned as one of JPL’s finest research scientists, she was a member of the Galileo plasma instrument science team before becoming, by the mission’s end in 2003, the project manager of that mission to Jupiter.

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death Video Games

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo CEO, dies

Satoru IwataNintendo of Japan CEO Satoru Iwata dies as a result of complications from gall bladder surgery. As the head of game developer HAL Laboratories, Iwata oversaw games in the Kirby, Super Smash Bros. and Pokemon series, until he replaced outgoing Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002. His tenure saw the introduction of the Nintendo DS handheld, the Wii console, and the wildly popular Amiibo figurines, as well as unprecedented interaction with fans and customers on the internet.

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New Horizons Uncrewed Spaceflight

New Horizons arrives at Pluto

Pluto and CharonNine years after its launch from Earth, NASA’s New Horizons space probe passes within 8,000 miles of the surface of Pluto, and within 18,000 miles of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. Detailed images and observations are obtained of both of these bodies, with less detailed data gathered on Pluto’s four smaller, outermost moons. Cruising through the Pluto system at 30,000 miles per hour, New Horizons must break contact with Earth for nearly a full day to aim its cameras and other instruments at their targets. It’s not until some 12 hours after the point of closest flyby that New Horizons re-establishes contact with Earth, reporting that it has successfully completed the encounter with no problems.

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Crewed Spaceflight International Space Station Soyuz

Soyuz TMA-17M

Soyuz TMA-17MRussia launches three international crew members to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-17M. Upon reaching orbit, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui discover their spacecraft has a familiar problem: one of the Soyuz solar panel “wings” has failed to extend. As the vehicle is on a five-and-a-half-hour fast-track trajectory to the station, the mission continues and the Soyuz docks at the ISS without incident. After docking, the stuck solar panels extend fully, as happened in 2014’s Soyuz TMA-14M mission. The new visitors to the station will spend four months as part of the Expedition 44 crew.

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Doctor Who Radio & Audio

Doctor Who: The Last Adventure

The Last AdventureBilled as the final adventure of the sixth Doctor (who never got an exit story on TV), the lavish audio drama box set Doctor Who: The Last Adventure, starring Colin Baker, is released by Big Finish. Michael Jayston reprises his role of the Valeyard from the 1986 Trial Of A Time Lord TV story, with Bonnie Langford, Miranda Raison, India Fisher, Lisa Greenwood, Trevox Baxter and Christopher Benjamin reprising their roles as the Doctor’s companions and allies. The Last Adventure is comprised of four single-CD stories: End Of The Line, The Red House, Stage Fright, and The Brink Of Death.

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Movies

The Martian

The MartianBased on the bestselling Andy Weir novel of the same name, The Martian premieres in North America, starring Matt Damon as an astronaut left stranded on Mars when his crewmates believe he has died. The movie is produced with input and cooperation from NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and real-life astronauts and engineers, and features a cameo appearance from a replica of the Mars Pathfinder lander and rover.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

Arrow: Green Arrow

ArrowThe 70th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Grant Gustin (The Flash) and Neal McDonough (Boomtown) guest star in the fourth season premiere.

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Crewed Spaceflight International Space Station Music

Chris Hadfield: Space Sessions

Space SessionsWarner Music Canada releases the album Space Sessions: Songs From A Tin Can by former Canadian astronaut and International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield. Hadfield’s guitar parts and vocals were recorded aboard the station itself, in the relatively quiet confines of his sleeping quarters, using his iPad, and were then overdubbed and finished after his return to Earth. All of the songs on the album are written by Hadfield with the exception of his cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, which set YouTube viewing records in 2013 when it was released just before Hadfield’s departure from the space station.

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Television

Other Space

Other SpaceOnline streaming service Yahoo! Screen premieres Paul Feig’s eight-episode science fiction comedy web series Other Space, starring Karan Soni (Deadpool) and Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast members Joel Hodgson and Trace Beaulieu. Though Other Space is popular with viewers, the Yahoo! Screen service closes within a year. That, combined with Feig shifting his focus to a big-screen remake of Ghostbusters, leaves the series’ future in doubt.

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Star Wars Television

Star Wars Rebels: The Lost Commanders

Star Wars: RebelsCable channel Disney XD premieres the 16th episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga. This episode picks up the second season and continues to build links between the Rebels animated series and its predecessor, The Clone Wars, by reintroducing the now-aged Clone Trooper nicknamed Rex (Dee Bradley Baker).

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Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

The Flash: Family Of Rogues

The FlashThe 26th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin, airs on the CW. Victor Garber (Alias, Legends Of Tomorrow), Teddy Sears (Masters Of Sex), and Michael Ironside (V, seaQuest: 2032) guest star.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

Arrow: Restoration

ArrowThe 72nd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Caity Lotz (Mad Men, Legends Of Tomorrow) and Neal McDonough (Boomtown) guest star.

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Star Trek Television

Star Trek re-re-generated

Star TrekTen years after the last Star Trek TV project left broadcast television, CBS (corporate heirs to the television rights to Star Trek) announces that a new series is in preparation for a January 2017 premiere on CBS. But current plans call for only the pilot to air on CBS; future episodes will be streamed exclusively on CBS’ paid streaming service. (Territories outside the United States will get to see the new show on television and not just the web.) The new series is being overseen by Alex Kurtzman, co-producer of the two “reboot” movies to date, though CBS is quick to distance the new TV/streaming project from those movies.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

Arrow: Haunted

ArrowThe 74th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Caity Lotz (Mad Men, Legends Of Tomorrow) and Matt Ryan (Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior) guest star.

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