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Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight Weather & Climate

TIROS-10

TIROSNASA and the United States Weather Bureau launch the tenth and final experimental TIROS weather satellite, TIROS-10. Continuing to test technological upgrades for a fully-functional weather satellite fleet, TIROS-10 also provides additional coverage during hurricane seasons, and remains operational for exactly two years, at which point NASA begins a planned shutdown and phase-out of the experimental TIROS satellites in favor of the Nimbus and ESSA weather satellites.

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Video Games

Jungle King

Jungle KingJapanese arcade game manufacturer Taito introduces its latest game, Jungle King, though the game will be known by that name for all of three months. A sampled “Tarzan yell” draws the legal wrath of the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, and Taito rushes to replace the loincloth-clad player character with a more covered-up, pith-helmeted explorer, retitling the game Jungle Hunt in the process.

More about Jungle King / Jungle Hunt in Phosphor Dot Fossils

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Uncrewed Spaceflight

Giotto comet chaser launched

GiottoThe European Space Agency launches the unmanned Giotto space probe, designed to rendezvous with and observe Halley’s Comet during the comet’s pass through the inner solar system in 1986. The first-ever ESA mission aiming for a target beyond Earth orbit, Giotto is based loosely on the design of ESA’s GEOS satellites, with thick aluminum and Kevlar shielding to help the probe survive potential impacts with cometary matter as it closes in on Halley’s nucleus. Giotto is the first spacecraft ever to use Earth itself for a gravity assist maneuver (which later becomes standard practice with such space vehicles as Galileo, Messenger and Juno). It will go on to become the first vehicle to visit a comet.

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Television

Perversions Of Science: Panic

Perversions Of ScienceThe seventh episode of the adult-themed science fiction anthology series Perversions Of Science, based largely on stories published in Weird Science magazine, premieres on cable network HBO. Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl), Jamie Kennedy (Scream), and Harvey Korman guest star.

This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Matters of Life & Death

James Doohan diagnosed with Alzheimer’s

James DoohanBest known to Star Trek fans around the world as the original Enterprise’s tireless chief engineer, actor James Doohan and his family reveal that the actor is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. In an interview given to British satellite channel Sky News, Doohan’s wife says that thus far, the problem has only manifested itself as a frustrating loss for words. Doohan, now 84 years old, is due to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and plans to make one final convention appearance in late August alongside a rare reunion of the entire original surviving cast of Star Trek at an event titled “Beam Me Up, Scotty…One Last Time”.

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Music

Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack

Star Trek: The Motion PictureSoundtrack specialty label La-La Land Records releases a long-awaited 3-CD set featuring – for the first time – the entirety of Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Including spin-off singles (such as Shaun Cassidy’s infamous vocal version of the Ilia theme), unused music from an early draft of the score, and extensive liner notes, half of the set’s limited print run of 10,000 copies sells out within days, forcing the label to ask customers to wait for the rest of the copies to arrive at their warehouse.

More about Star Trek soundtracks in Music Reviews

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Astronomy Science & Technology

Pluto’s fourth and fifth moons named

P4 and P5Two tiny, recently-discovered satellites of dwarf planet Pluto have new named ratified by the International Astronomical Union; P4 is renamed Kerberos and P5 is renamed Styx. The names – related to the “underworld” theme that has governed the naming of Pluto and its moons to date – overlooks a popular online vote that suggested one of the moons should be named Vulcan, after Mr. Spock’s home planet in Star Trek. Kerberos, discoverd in 2011, is believed to be approximately 20 miles in diameter and orbits Pluto at a distance of roughly 37,000 miles. Styx, first sighted in 2012, is even smaller, with an estimated diameter of 15 miles, orbiting only 1,200 miles from Pluto, making it the innermost satellite (a distinction previously held by Pluto’s near-twin, Charon). NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will have the opportunity to see the new moons up close when it does a flyby of Pluto in 2015.