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Crewed Spaceflight New Shepard

Blue Origin NS-19

Blue Origin NS-19Blue 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.

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Franchises Marvel Cinematic Universe Television

Hawkeye: Ronin

LokiStreaming service Disney Plus releases the fifth episode of Hawkeye, created for TV by Jonathan Igla and starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. Vincent D’Onofrio reprises the role of Kingpin for the first time since Marvel’s Daredevil series completed its run on Netflix in 2018.

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Astronomy James Webb Space Telescope Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight

James Webb Space Telescope launched

James Webb Space Telescope launchAfter well over a decade of development (and setbacks as the project fell in and out of favor with successive administrations of the U.S. government), the international James Webb Space Telescope is launched aboard an Ariane V rocket from the European Space Agency’s Kourou Space Center in French Guiana. Constructed and operated by NASA, the Webb Space Telescope is the larger successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and its intricate, origami-like construction is expected to take a full month to deploy as the telescope travels to the L2 LaGrange point, well beyond the orbit of the moon. Its multi-segmented mirror is expected to see much more distant objects than Hubble was capable of resolving, possibly including the first galaxies to form in the history of the universe.

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Crewed Spaceflight Deaths Matters of Life & Death Space Shuttle

Richard Clifford, astronaut, dies

Richard CliffordSpace shuttle astronaut Richard “Rich” Clifford, who flew three shuttle missions in the 1990s, dies at the age of 69 from complications related to Parkinson’s Disease. A Lieutenant Colonel when he retired from the U.S. Army in 1995, Clifford had been working at NASA while still with the Army, beginning his involvement with the space program in 1987. He helped to certify crew escape systems in the wake of the Challenger disaster, before moving on to assist in the design of EVA equipment in the early 90s. He flew as a mission specialist on the STS-53, STS-59, and STS-76 missions, accumulating over 600 hours in space, including an EVA lasting six hours at the Mir space station on his final flight. It was before that third mission that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but he kept that diagnosis private until after the mission. He retired from NASA in 1997, but joined Boeing as its Flight Operations Manager from the construction of the International Space Station until the final shuttle mission to the ISS in 2011. He also worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which funds research into Parkinson’s.

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Franchises Star Wars Television

The Book Of Boba Fett: Chapter 1

The Book Of Boba FettStreaming service Disney+ premieres the first episode of Jon Favreau’s The Book Of Boba Fett, a live-action TV series set in the Star Wars universe, starring Temuera Morrison (Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones) and Ming-Na Wen. Matt Berry (Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, What We Do In The Shadows) and Jennifer Beals (Flashdance, Swamp Thing) guest star in the series premiere.

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