theLogBook.com is a chronicle of how we used to imagine the future – an ever-expanding
logbook of what our entertainment, our culture, and even our brightest minds thought would happen.
It’s nostalgia – and some real history – that gives factual context to the fiction, cultural
context to the factual, and always looks to the future.

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Published On: April 16, 2016

BEAMFor the first time since the final Space Shuttle flights in 2011, a new habitation module is attached to the International Space Station. Brought to orbit via a recent Dragon unmanned cargo craft, the BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module), constructed by Bigelow Aerospace based on ideas studied by NASA in the 1990s, is a test of a reinforced, inflatible crew module for the station. (The inflation of the module will be accomplished via a supply of air built into the module itself.) Not to be inflated and occupied until May, BEAM will be studied for its resistance to solar radiation and micrometeroid impacts over a two-year period. Bigelow already has plans for an independent, commercial space station utilizing similar inflatible designs if BEAM’s tour of duty is a success, and has previously orbited testbed models of inflatible station modules.

Published On: April 16, 2012

EurekaSyfy airs the 65th episode of the science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Joe Morton. Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Tembi Locke (Sliders), and Felicia Day (Mystery Science Theater 3000) guest star in the fifth season premiere.

More about Eureka in the LogBook and theLogBook.com Store

Published On: April 16, 1999

FarscapeSci-Fi Channel premieres the fifth episode of Farscape. (Early episodes of this series are aired out of the producers’ preferred story order or, for that matter, production order.) Read more

Published On: April 16, 1972

Apollo 16NASA launches the Apollo 16 mission to the moon, lasting 11 days total. Astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke descend to the lunar surface in the lander Orion, while Ken Mattingly pilots the command/service module Casper in orbit. Again, a lunar rover is tucked into one side of the lunar module, allowing Young and Duke to reach distances of 16 miles from their landing site. They spend a total of 20 hours walking on the moon’s surface, collecting over 200 pounds of soil and rock samples from the Descartes highlands region.

Published On: April 16, 1961

Pathfinders To VenusBritish broadcaster ABC airs the seventh episode of Pathfinders To Venus, a follow-up series to Pathfinders In Mars, produced by future Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman. George Colouris and Gerald Flood (City Beneath The Sea) star; the script is written by Malcolm Hulke (Doctor Who) and Eric Paice (Star Maidens). Though the original master tape of this episode was later wiped for reuse, film recordings of all eight episodes will be recovered and released on DVD in the 21st century.

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Absolutely no generative AI was used in the creation of the content on this website.
It’s mostly just some guy named Earl.

EG