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- May 2, 1941: Paul Darrow, Blake's 7's laconic anti-hero Avon, was born.
- May 3, 1936: Keir Dullea, star of
2001: A Space Odyssey, was born.
- May 5, 1942: Marc Alaimo, the actor who played the villainous
Gul Dukat on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, was
born.
- May 5, 1961: Alan B. Shepard became the first American astronaut in his
suborbital Mercury 3 flight.
- May 5, 1989: The Magellan space probe was launched via space shuttle on a
mission to map the surface of Venus. Initial technical problems on arrival in
1990 were overcome and its study of the planet was unparalleled. Its mission
ended in 1994.
- May 8, 1935: Actress Salome Jens, who played the still unnamed
Female Shapeshifter in charge of the Dominion on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, was born.
- May 8: Stephen Furst, Vir of
Babylon 5 fame, was born.
- May 12: Bruce Boxleitner,
Babylon 5's own Captain Sheridan, was
born.
- May 14, 1944: George Lucas, creator of Howard the Duck, and some other movies
about wars in space and some archaeologist, was born.
- May 14, 1973: Skylab was launched, but arrived in orbit in bad shape when air
pressure during its launch ripped half of its solar energy collection arrays
off. Its first three-man crew was sent along eleven days later, performing
daredevil spacewalks to repair America's $2,500,000,000 space station.
- May 15, 1963: Gordon Cooper set the endurance record for the Mercury program,
spending over 24 hours in orbit aboard Mercury 9. It was the last one-man
spaceflight in American history.
- May 18: Andreas Katsulas, Narn Ambassador G'Kar from
Babylon 5, was born.
- May 18, 1969: Apollo 10 was launched, a "dress
rehearsal" for the moon landing two months later; the landing module was
tested in lunar orbit for the first time by Thomas Stafford, John Young and
Gene Cernan.
- May 24, 1962: Mercury 7, manned by Scott Carpenter, was launched.
- May 24, 1986: Robert
Holmes, the definitive script editor of
Doctor Who who
wrote many of that show's finest stories, as well as some winners for
Blake's 7, died after a long illness.
He was responsible for the Sontarans,
the Autons,
The Master,
The Ark in Space,
Pyramids of Mars, and
Caves of Androzani. He
also bestowed the name Gallifrey upon the planet of the Time Lords and virtually
created the entire Time Lord mythology in the acclaimed and controversial 1976
installment The Deadly Assassin.
- May 26, 1913: Peter Cushing, famous horror film star, was born.
- May 26, 1951: Sally Ride, America's first female astronaut, was born.
- May 27, 1934: Legendary SF writer (but don't call him that!)
Harlan Ellison was born.
- May 27, 1958: Neil Finn,
lead singer/guitarist for Split Enz and
Crowded House, was born.
- May 27, 1978: The highly successful Pioneer Venus 1 probe was launched to
Venus; after conducting groundbreaking observations of Venus for several
years, it continued to relay data far beyond its expected operational
lifetime, including long-distance observations of Halley's Comet in 1986 in
lieu of a U.S. Halley probe.
- May 28, 1971: The Soviet Mars 3 probe became the first man-made object to land
on Mars, but contact was lost during the descent phase. Two days later, the
U.S. Mariner 9 probe achieved a stable orbit around Mars and conducted a
survey of the planet and took the first pictures of its two moons.
- May 30, 1948: Michael Piller, the writer-producer who ushered
in a new era on Star Trek: The Next Generation
(and possibly saved the show in the process) was born.
- May 30, 1953: Colm Meaney,
Star Trek's Chief O'Brien, was born.
- May 30, 1966: The first Surveyor robot probe touched down on the moon to take
photos and soil samples.
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Information
originally compiled for use in LogBook: The
'Zine
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