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Arrowverse (DC) Television

Arrow: Nanda Parbat

ArrowThe 61st episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Katrina Law (Spartacus), and Marc Singer (V) guest star.

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death Star Trek Television

Leonard Nimoy, actor and director, dies

Leonard NimoyActor Leonard Nimoy, known for nearly half a century as the face and voice of Star Trek‘s Mr. Spock, dies at the age of 83, several days after news reports that he has been rushed to a hospital with severe chest pains. A busy actor and director on stage and screen for most of his career, Nimoy became forever associated with Star Trek, and in turn became the “face” of the unlikely hit show (despite the fact that he wasn’t the show’s nominal star). Nimoy was the only cast member to carry over from the 1964 pilot, The Cage, into the rest of Star Trek in the same role. He directed several movies, including the hit comedy Three Men And A Baby, Star Trek III and Star Trek IV, but turned down an invitation to direct Star Trek: Generations in 1994. At one point, he was attached as director to a 1990s TV movie revival of Doctor Who, though he had to pass on that project as well. Mr. Nimoy had revealed, months before his death, that he was suffering from COPD.

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Dawn Uncrewed Spaceflight

Dawn arrives at Ceres

CeresThe unmanned NASA/JPL space probe Dawn arrives at its second and final destination, the dwarf planet Ceres, a body which dominates the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Beginning to bring itself into a closer mapping orbit around Ceres, Dawn has already spotted unusually bright surface features, drawing early speculation from scientists that the highly reflective points on Ceres may be indicative of ice formations or cryovolcanism. Though its main engine is powered by charged ions, Dawn is scheduled to remain at Ceres for as long as its chemical propellant supply holds, powering smaller traditional rockets needed for attitude control.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

Arrow: The Offer

ArrowThe 62nd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Katrina Law (Spartacus) guest star.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

Arrow: Broken Arrow

ArrowThe 65th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Doug Jones (Star Trek: Discovery, The Shape Of Water) guest star.

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Crewed Spaceflight International Space Station

Progress M-27M’s lack of spin control

Progress M-27MAn unmanned Progress cargo vehicle, designated Progress M-27M, is launched by Russia to ferry 6,000 pounds of supplies, equipment and experiments to the International Space Station. But Progress ends up in the wrong orbit, tumbling out of control, with Russian ground controllers unable to send remote commands to the vehicle. Plans to dock the Progress capsule to the ISS are called off as further attempts are made to regain control; since the Progress is in the wrong orbit, it poses no present danger to the station.

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Crewed Spaceflight New Shepard

Blue Origin NS-1

Blue Origin NS-1Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its first New Shepard flight, a booster and capsule which the company hopes will eventually carry paying passengers on short suborbital flights into space. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule comes in for a soft landing near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility, though the booster – also intended to land and be refurbished for future reuse – does not land intact. This is the first in a series of uncrewed tests of the New Shepard launch system and suborbital vehicle; further tests will be flown over the next few years.

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death Star Trek Television

Grace Lee Whitney, Star Trek actress, dies

Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice RandActress Grace Lee Whitney, a familiar face of ’60s TV who had a recurring role in the first season of Star Trek as Yeoman Janice Rand, dies at the age of 85. Compared to most of her castmates, her brief tenure aboard the Enterprise was tumultuous, ending just eight episodes into her stint as an intended semi-regular character. Her dismissal from the show led to a career downturn and battles with alcohol addiction, from which she recovered, reprising the role of Rand in cameo scenes in several of the Star Trek films, an episode of Voyager, and the Hugo-nominated fan-made episode World Enough And Time in 2007.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

The Flash: Rogue Air

The FlashThe 22nd episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin, airs on the CW. Stephen Amell (The Flash), Wentworth Miller (Prison Break), and Doug Jones (Star Trek: Discovery, The Shape Of Water) guest star.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

Arrow: My Name Is Oliver Queen

ArrowThe 69th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Grant Gustin (The Flash), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Katrina Law (Spartacus), and Marc Singer (V) guest star in the third season finale.

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Arrowverse (DC) Television

The Flash: Fast Enough

The FlashThe 23rd 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) and Wentworth Miller guest star in the first season finale.

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Uncrewed Spaceflight X-37B

X-37B OTV-4

X-37BThe second Boeing X-37B unmanned spacecraft, last flown in 2011-2012, returns to orbit atop an Atlas V rocket. Operated by the U.S. Air Force, the X-37B stays in orbit for just a few days shy of two years, performing classified military tasks as well as research for NASA, and it is capable of re-entering the atmosphere and gliding to a runway landing, very much like the Space Shuttle, of which it resembles a smaller version. Also deployed along with the X-37B is LightSail, an experimental solar sail test vehicle designed, built, paid for and operated by the Planetary Society, building on solar sail concepts originated by Society co-founder Carl Sagan. In a first, the mission will end on the former space shuttle landing strip at Kennedy Space Center in 2017.

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Movies

Kung Fury

Kung FuryTwo years after its successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, the ’80s action movie parody Kung Fury debuts on YouTube. Starring, written, and directed by David Sandberg, the Swedish-made movie spoofs numerous ’80s cop and action movie cliches, and features a theme song sung by David Hasselhoff (Knight Rider). The movie began filming in 2013 with a very small crew, shooting mostly against greenscreen and creating elaborate CGI backgrounds later.

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Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast