NASA orders the crew of the International Space Station to cut back on meals. Without the Space Shuttle delivering supplies to the station, resupply missions have been flown only by Russia’s much smaller unmanned Progress capsules, but the station was never designed to be restocked by Progress alone. Astronaut Leroy Chiao and cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov are ordered to cut back on calories – with a reduction in workload to match – until more food arrives on a Progress capsule scheduled for liftoff on Christmas Eve. A failure of that flight could lead to an order to abandon the station.

The 19th and 20th episodes of Joss Whedon’s futuristic “spy-fi” series Dollhouse air on Fox, starring Eliza Dushku. Jonathan Del Arco (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Patton Oswalt guest star. As the series has now been cancelled, Fox is “burning off” episodes at a rate of two per week.
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Loaded into an aerodynamic shroud atop an Atlas V rocket, the U.S. Air Force launches the X-37B unmanned spacecraft into Earth orbit. Originally scheduled for an October launch, the Boeing-built X-37B resembles a scaled-down Space Shuttle. Whereas this vehicle had previously stayed in space for several months in 2010 before returning, its second flight sees it remain in orbit for nearly two years, not coming in for an automated landing until October 2014. Details of the vehicle’s mission and payload remain classified; the flight is designated USA-240.
The 32nd 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 Grant Gustin (The Flash) guest star.
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its twelfth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule includes 38 experimental payloads, some of them designed by NASA, Columbia University, and two winners of an “art in space” contest sponsored by rock group OK Go. As with past missions, both the capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the sixth flight for the third New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the sixth flight for the third New Shepard reusable booster.
Streaming service Disney+ releases the
Blue Origin launches the NS-19 suborbital flight aboard a New Shepard capsule, the third crewed flight of the vehicle. Passengers on the flight include Dylan Taylor, Evan Dick, Lane Bess, Cameron Bess, NFL Hall-of-Famer Michael Strahan, and Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to reach space. Lane and Cameron Bess are the first parent and child to fly to space on the same vehicle.