Launching Lucy
NASA launches the Lucy spacecraft on its twelve-year mission to study select specimens of the Trojan asteroid swarms that both precede and trail the planet Jupiter at the stable LaGrange points in its orbit. Lucy’s complex trajectory calls for it to conduct gravity assist flybys of Earth in 2022 and 2024, and to survey the main asteroid belt body 52246 Donaldjohanson in 2025, en route to reaching its first Trojan asteroid, 3548 Eurybates, in 2027. Future targets include 15094 Polymele later in 2027, 11351 Leucus and 21900 Orus in 2028, and – after a further gravity assist flyby of Earth in 2030 – the binary Trojan pair 617 Patroclus-Menoetius in 2033. Lucy’s name is not an abbreviation; it is named after a famous fossil skeleton discovered in 1971 by a team led by anthropologist David Johanson; it is hoped that studying the Trojan asteroids will lead to discoveries that make them similar “missing links” in the solar system’s own fossil record.
The CW airs the 40th episode of Batwoman starring Javicia Leslie, Rachel Skarsten, and Meagan Tandy.
The CW airs the 99th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Jes Macallan, Tala Ashe, and Olivia Swann.
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Ten Acre Films publishes the non-fiction book 
Writer Bob Baker, a former Doctor Who script writer who, with his frequent 1970s writing partner Dave Martin, created the character of K-9, dies at the age of 82. Born in Bristol, Baker forged a fruitful writing partnership with Martin, with their first Doctor Who story, The Claws Of Axos, transmitted by the BBC in 1971. They continued to be frequent contributors to that series throughout the 1970s, while simultaneously creating children’s fantasy series closer to home at HTV, including Sky and King Of The Castle. A 1977 Doctor Who script, The Invisible Enemy, introduced the enduring character of robot dog K-9, who would continue to appear regularly through 1981, even meriting a pilot for a spinoff series, K-9 & Company, that same year, and eventually making guest appearances in the 21st century revival of Doctor Who and its spinoff, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Baker and Martin stopped working together in the late ’70s, with Baker pursuing one solo Doctor Who writing assignment (1979’s Nightmare Of Eden) before co-creating another HTV fantasy series, Into The Labyrinth, which ran for three seasons starting in 1981. In 2009, after years of pitching the idea, a K-9 spinoff produced in Australia launched, produced by Baker (who also wrote or co-wrote two scripts). Baker was still trying to attract co-production interest in a second season of K-9, or possible a movie spinoff, toward the end of his life. Baker gained wider recognition as co-creator of the Wallace & Gromit animated shorts and movies (as well as their spinoff, Shaun the Sheep), which won both Oscar and BAFTA awards.
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Actor Dean Stockwell, known to many genre fans as Al from the time-travel series 
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The CW airs the 151st episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin. Brandon Routh (Legends Of Tomorrow) and Tony Curran (Defiance, Doctor Who) guest star in the eight season premiere.
Streaming service Paramount Plus releases 
Streaming service Paramount Plus releases 
Streaming service Disney Plus premieres the first episode of Hawkeye, created for TV by Jonathan Igla and starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. Set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the series follows the exploits of the non-super-powered title character after the events of Avengers: Endgame.
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Disney Music digitally releases