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Pioneer Uncrewed Spaceflight

Pioneer Venus captures Halley’s Comet

Halley's CometHaving already conducted measuresment of Comets Encke and Giacobini-Zinner, the still-functioning Pioneer Venus Orbiter, launched in 1978, becomes the centerpiece of the American effort to gather close-up data on Halley’s Comet. Imaging the comet in ultraviolet light, Pioneer Venus captures Halley from a unique vantage point: both the comet and the planet being orbited by Pioneer are on the opposite side of the sun from Earth, when Halley is at its closest approach to the sun – an event that no other spacecraft is in a position to witness. The Pioneer Venus data will become the most critical data gathered on Halley by an American spacecraft after a planned March 1986 Space Shuttle mission to image the comet from Earth orbit is scrapped in the wake of the Challenger disaster in January.

Categories
Television

Misfits Of Science: Grand Theft Bunny

Misfits Of ScienceThe tenth episode of James D. Parriott’s lighthearted sci-fi series, Misfits Of Science, airs on NBC, starring Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, and Courteney Cox. Robin Riker (Brothers, Get A Life) guest stars.

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

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death Movies Star Wars

Carrie Fisher, actress, dies

Carrie FisherActress and author Carrie Fisher, universally known as Princess Leia from the original Star Wars trilogy, dies four days after suffering from a massive heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles. Alongside a storied career that included movies such as The Blues Brothers, When Harry Met Sally, and a revival of Leia in 2015’s The Force Awakens, Fisher embarked on a writing career that included the semi-autobiographical novel Postcards From The Edge (later adapted into a movie in its own right), which fictionalized elements of her Hollywood upbringing, and autobiographies that exposed her lifelong battles with mental illness. She died at the age of 60.