Earl Green is the creator, curator, and head writer of theLogBook.com.
The tenth full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-5. Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao take up residence on the ISS for 192 days. Arriving with them on the ISS for a nine-day stay is cosmonaut Yuri Shargin, who returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-4 with the Expedition 9 crew.
The 77th episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN, concluding the opening two-parter. 
A week after the Genesis sample return mission tumbled back to Earth, slamming into the Utah desert floor at nearly 200 miles per hour after its parachutes failed to open, investigators find a likely cause of the crash. It appears that four gravity-sensitive switches, designed to sense the sudden deceleration of the Genesis capsule through Earth’s atmosphere and set off a timed sequence that would’ve opened the parachutes, had all been installed backwards. The four switches were designed to be redundant, so that if some failed the others could still carry out their assigned task…but this doesn’t do a lot of good if all of them are all installed incorrrectly. The investigation indicates that an erroneous schematic diagram of Genesis may be to blame. In the meantime, researchers begin to examine the surviving chunks of the broken collector plates containing particles of solar material.
The first night of the miniseries Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars airs on the Sci-Fi Channel, starring Ben Browder and Claudia Black, and providing (by massive fan demand) an epilogue to the cancelled series.
The second night of the miniseries Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars airs on the Sci-Fi Channel, starring Ben Browder and Claudia Black, and providing (by massive fan demand) an epilogue to the cancelled series. This serves as the series finale.
The 17th episode of the radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is broadcast on BBC Radio, continuing Dirk Maggs’ adaptation of Douglas Adams’ novel Life, The Universe, And Everything with most of the original radio cast.
The Jason Falkner five-song CD EP Bliss Descending is released.
British satellite channel Sky One premieres the first episode of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, months ahead of the first season premiere in North America on the Sci-Fi Channel. The remainder of the season airs first in the UK due to Sky One’s financial contribution to the production of the series (without which it’s unlikely that Sci-Fi Channel alone would’ve continued production).
Bandai Entertainment releases Yoko Kanno‘s album Be Human, the soundtrack to the anime Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
The 78th episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN.
In its first close flyby of Saturn’s largest moon, the unmanned Cassini probe performs the first-ever radar reconaissance of Titan’s surface. Shrouded by a thick, organically-rich atmosphere, Titan’s surface has never been seen until now. Though scientists say that Cassini’s close pass only allows them to map 1% of the surface, the preliminary results prove to be fascinating. Titan seems, at first glance, to have a relatively smooth surface, perhaps indicating oceans, or ongoing glacial or volcanic resurfacing; a member of the radar imaging team says that readings have also indicated that the surface of Titan is “covered in organics.” Cassini will get further chances to aim its radar beams at Titan, and in December it will release the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe, which will approach Titan, ultimately entering the moon’s dense atmosphere in January to take direct readings from the surface, whether it’s solid or liquid.
The 18th episode of the radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is broadcast on BBC Radio, concluding Dirk Maggs’ adaptation of Douglas Adams’ novel Life, The Universe, And Everything with most of the original radio cast. A radio version of the fourth novel, So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish, will follow in 2005.
Gil Melle, the composer who created the sound of several seminal ’70s supernatural series, dies at the age of 72. He was responsible for the main title music of such shows as Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, as well as scores for individual episodes of shows like Kolchak, Columbo and The Six Million Dollar Man. On the big screen, he created the memorably abstract electronic soundtrack for The Andromeda Strain, and he was also consistently employed to write music for TV movies, including Gene Roddenberry’s pilot movie The Questor Tapes.
The 79th episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN. Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard) guest stars.
Big Finish Productions releases the 62nd Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Paul McGann and India Fisher.
Big Finish Productions releases the 14th Dalek Empire audio drama, a Doctor Who audio spinoff starring David Tennant and William Gaunt.
The 80th episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN. Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard) guest stars.
BBC1 airs the first half of the two-night event miniseries Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets, written and directed by Joe Ahearne. Chronicling a fictional multiplanetary mission through Earth’s solar system by an international astronaut crew, the series also slips factual information to the audience via a “reality show” format. This show will get a later U.S. airdate on the Discovery Channel.
A billion miles from the sun, you don’t need molten lava for volcanoes – you just need subsurface ice to warm up and erupt as water. That’s what NASA scientists think they’ve spotted in a radar image of the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan sent back in late October by the Cassini unmanned probe. A bright, flow-like feature may be indicative of something oozing out onto Titan’s surface from below – and at the frigid temperatures experienced in Saturn’s orbit, ice volcanoes are more likely than the molten rock variety seen on Earth and Mars. If confirmed, this wouldn’t be the first “ice volcano” found in our solar system; Voyager 2 had already spotted an eruption on the surface of Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, as it swung by in August 1989.
BBC1 airs the second half of the two-night event miniseries Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets, written and directed by Joe Ahearne. Chronicling a fictional multiplanetary mission through Earth’s solar system by an international astronaut crew, the series also slips factual information to the audience via a “reality show” format. This show will get a later U.S. airdate on the Discovery Channel.
The 81st episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN. Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard) guest stars.
The 82nd episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN. Robert Foxworth (The Questor Tapes) guest stars.
NASA successfully launches the Swift unmanned deep space observatory after a small delay. Carrying three different instrument packages, Swift’s mission is specifically to observe, categorize and study the aftereffects of gamma ray bursts. The satellite is designed to aim itself at any such bursts that it detects within mere seconds so it can catch the short-lived aftereffects and relay its findings to ground controllers. It is believed that some of the bursts are caused by the dying collapse of stars, and possibly the formation of black holes, and as such may be some of the most powerful energy releases known in nature. Swift is expected to observe as many as 100 gamma ray bursts per year.
The 83rd episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN. Joanna Cassidy (Blade Runner) and Robert Foxworth (The Questor Tapes) guest star.
Big Finish Productions releases the 63rd Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Paul McGann and India Fisher.
Toho releases the 28th Godzilla movie, Godzilla: Final Wars.
The 84th episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN. Jeffrey Combs and Robert Foxworth (The Questor Tapes) guest star.
Berkley Books publishes the non-fiction book Sojourner by Andrew Mishkin, a first-hand account of the design, construction, launch and operation of the first successful Mars rover.
The “MC Hawking” album A Brief History Of Rhyme is released.
