Nicholas Courtney, Doctor Who actor, dies
Forever known as the Brigadier (and thus the only ranking UNIT officer who counts), actor Nicholas Courtney dies at the age of 81, the only actor to have appeared alongside every Doctor in Doctor Who. After appearing as a one-off guest character in the Hartnell era, Courtney is drafted into the role of Colonel Lethbridge Stewart for a 1968 Doctor Who story, proving popular enough to return the following season with a promotion to Brigadier. In this role, Courtney guest starred with every television Doctor (including, thanks to a cameo in a 1993 charity skit, Colin Baker); he would also appear alonside Paul McGann in a Big Finish audio play, a medium that also saw him appearing with David Tennant, years before being cast as the tenth Doctor. Courtney would play the role for Big Finish several times, and even reprised the Brigadier in a 1995 fan-made video production, before bringing the character back in a two-part episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on the 133rd shuttle flight, a 13-day mission add a new (but familiar) module to the International Space Station. One of the logistics modules that has flown in the cargo bay of seven prior shuttle missions is attached to the ISS permanently, adding nearly 2,500 cubic feet of storage space to the facility. Also delivered to the station is Robonaut 2, an experimental robot designed to assist with routine tasks as well as spacewalks. Discovery’s 39th and final crew is Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe, and mission specialists Alvin Drew, Nicole Stott, Steve Bowen and Michael Barratt.
The U.S. Air Force launches a second unmanned X-37B spacecraft into Earth orbit atop an Atlas V rocket. Designated USA-226, this is the second Boeing-built X-37B to reach orbit, and is the first to remain in orbit for over a year, re-entering the atmosphere and successfully conducting an automated landing in June 2012. This X-37B also features a solar panel array that is deployed from its cargo compartment, allowing it to generate constant power during its classified 15-month mission.
Silva Screen Records releases Murray Gold’s soundtrack music from the 
Part of the 27th full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-21. Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Andrei Borisenko and Ron Garan take up residence on the ISS for 164 days, becoming part of the Expedition 27/28 crews. All three return to Earth in September 2011 aboard the same vehicle.
NASA announces the results of a bidding process for soon-to-be-retired Space Shuttle vehicles by institutions across the country. The original test vehicle, Enterprise, will be removed from the Smithsonian and replaced by the space-flown Discovery, while Atlantis will become the centerpiece of a new exhibit at NASA’s own Kennedy Space Center. Endeavour will be handed over to the California Science Museum in Los Angeles, while Enterprise’s new home will be in New York City’s Intrepid Museum. Institutions not selected to receive one of the shuttles, including NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, almost immediately claim that the selection process has been swayed by politics. None of the vehicles will be transported from Kennedy Space Center to their new locations until the following year.
The internet-based fan film Star Trek: Phase II releases its seventh full-length episode, 
Actress Elisabeth Sladen, possibly the performer who has maintained the longest on-screen association with a Doctor Who character in the history of the franchise, dies at the age of 65. In 1973, the producers of Doctor Who had hired another actress to play the part of new companion Sarah Jane Smith, only to meet with strenuous objections from series lead Jon Pertwee. Elisabeth Sladen was then cast in the part, continuing to play Sarah Jane through 1976, one of the longest-running companions in the original series. Numerous times she had been approached to reprise her role, only agreeing to do so in 1981 in her own spinoff, K-9 & Company, which never made it past the pilot stage. After reprising the role of Sarah Jane for Big Finish’s audio spinoff series centered around the character, she was asked to play the part again – on television – alongside David Tennant, sparking new interest in the character and ultimately leading to her own spinoff series, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Filming of the fifth season of that series had been put on hold while she was admitted to the hospital.
Actor William Campbell, who guest starred as Koloth the Klingon in the classic Star Trek fan favorite The Trouble With Tribbles (and reprised the role in the much later Deep Space Nine epsiode Blood Oath), and played the Q-like Trelaine in The Squire Of Gothos, dies at the age of 84.
Milan Records releases the 
Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on its final flight into orbit, carrying an alpha magnetic spectrometer instrument and supplies to the International Space Station during a 16-day mission. This is Endeavour’s 25th and final launch. The crew for this mission consists of Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Greg Johnson, and mission specialists Mike Fincke, Drew Feustel, Greg Chamitoff and Roberto Vittori.
Part of the 28th full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-02M. Sergey Volkov, Satoshi Furukawa and Michael Fossum take up residence on the ISS for 167 days, becoming part of the Expedition 28/29 crews. All three return to Earth in November 2011 aboard the same vehicle.
From a distance of 117,000 miles, NASA’s Dawn unmanned space probe captures the best picture yet of the asteroid Vesta, one of the two largest bodies in the solar system’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Launched in 2007, Dawn is scheduled to orbit and map Vesta before moving on to the asteroid belt’s largest resident, Ceres, in 2015. Mission scientists hope that the two asteroids – remnants of what may be an unformed or destroyed rocky planet beyond Mars’ orbit – will yield clues about the formation of the solar system.
Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on the 135th and final flight of an American Space Shuttle. During the 13-day mission to the International Space Station, the final shuttle-sized supply delivery takes place. The mission was originally budgeted as a rescue flight for the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing flight in 2009, but is approved as a final station flight since funding and supplies had already been set aside. Atlantis’ 33rd and final crew is Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus. Upon landing at Kennedy Space Center for the final time, Atlantis joins the other orbiters in a months-long process to strip them of working engines and other key components before the shuttles are delivered to their museum destinations.
American pay cable channel Starz premieres the 
Syfy airs the 54th episode of the science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Joe Morton. Ming-Na Wen (Agents Of SHIELD, The Book Of Boba Fett) and Tembi Locke (Sliders) guest star.
American pay cable channel Starz premieres the 
Launched in 2007, NASA’s unmanned space probe Dawn enters orbit of Vesta, one of the largest bodies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Over time, the mission plan calls for Dawn to spiral down to lower orbits to explore and map Vesta from orbit, trying to determine what secrets the large asteroid has about the earliest days of the solar system. If all goes well, Dawn will remain at Vesta until 2012, and will depart to explore another asteroid, Ceres, arriving there in 2015.
American pay cable channel Starz premieres the 
American pay cable channel Starz premieres the