Tron Uprising: Beck’s Beginning

Tron UprisingThe prelude to the animated spinoff series Tron Uprising airs on Disney XD. Originally devised as ten mini-episode teasers, Beck’s Beginning is recognized as a strong enough story in its own right to serve as a full episode-length pilot. Elijah Wood and Bruce Boxleitner star as the voices of Beck and Tron. Read more Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

SpaceX Dragon visits the ISS

Dragon at ISSSpaceX launches its second Dragon unmanned cargo vehicle, this time as the first privately-owned spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Carrying only supplies, equipment and experiments, the Dragon capsule carries out a program of closing to within a certain distance of the station and then slowly approaches until it is close enough to be grabbed by the station’s remote manipulator arm and attached to a docking port under the station crew’s control. The Expedition 31 astronauts aboard the station report that the interior of the capsule has a “new car smell” that is quite noticeable when compared to the atmosphere aboard the station. Over the course of a week, fresh cargo is unloaded into the station from the Dragon capsule, and cargo intended for return to Earth is loaded into the capsule. NASA is satisfied with the results and contracts SpaceX to begin routine cargo flights via Dragon later in the year.

Caroline John, Doctor Who actress, dies

Caroline JohnCaroline John, who joined the cast of Doctor Who for only a single season (also the show’s first season in color), accompanying incoming third Doctor Jon Pertwee as the Doctor’s scientific assistant Liz Shaw, dies at the age of 72 due to complications from cancer. Despite her brief connection to the series, Caroline John has remained associated with Doctor Who, from reprising the role of Liz Shaw repeatedly for Big Finish Productions, to making a cameo appearance in 1983’s The Five Doctors, to reviving Liz as the head of a secret scientific think tank in the fan-made PROBE video series of the 1990s.

VWORP!1

VWORP!1theLogBook.com releases its first book, VWORP!1 by Earl Green. Spanning nearly 400 pages, the book covers Doctor Who on TV from 1963 through 2011, with an emphasis on story threads that hold “classic” Who (1963-1989) and “new” Who (2005-present) together. The book makes its “live” debut at the 2012 Oklahoma Video Gaming Exhibition (OVGE) in Tulsa a few days later; an ebook version is released at a later date.

Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Shenzhou 9

Shenzhou 9China launches its fourth manned space mission, Shenzhou 9, on the first manned flight to the small space station Tiangong-1. The crew consists of Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang, and the first female space traveler from China, Liu Yang. Automated docking at Tiangong-1 has been rehearsed by ground controllers during the unmanned Shenzhou 8 mission, but this mission requires both automatic and manual dockings to be carried out. The crew will spend a total of 13 days in space.

Shenzhou 9 docks at Tiangong-1

Tiangong-1The three-person crew of Chinese space vehicle Shenzhou 9 successfully achieves an automated docking at Tiangong-1, China’s first space station. The crew spends a total of six days aboard the station, described by the Chinese government as an orbital laboratory, before undocking and then successfully attempt a manual docking maneuver. The nature of the crew’s work during its stay aboard Tiangong-1 is not revealed.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (expanded soundtrack)

Star Trek: The Motion PictureSoundtrack specialty label La-La Land Records releases a long-awaited 3-CD set featuring – for the first time – the entirety of Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Including spin-off singles (such as Shaun Cassidy’s infamous vocal version of the Ilia theme), unused music from an early draft of the score, and extensive liner notes, half of the set’s limited print run of 10,000 copies sells out within days, forcing the label to ask customers to wait for the rest of the copies to arrive at their warehouse. Read more

Soyuz TMA-05M

Soyuz TMA-05MPart of the 32nd full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-05M. Yuri Malenchenko, Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide take up residence on the ISS for 127 days, becoming part of the Expedition 32/33 crews. All three return to Earth in November 2012 aboard the same vehicle.

Eureka: Just Another Day…

EurekaSyfy airs the 77th and final episode of the science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Joe Morton. Matt Frewer (Max Headroom), Debrah Farentino (Earth 2), James Callis (Battlestar Galactica), Felicia Day (Mystery Science Theater 3000), Tembi Locke (Sliders), Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and Grant Imahara (Mythbusters) guest star in the series finale.

More about Eureka in the LogBook and theLogBook.com Store

Enterprise re-retired

Space ShuttleHaving already been donated to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in 1985, Space Shuttle Enterprise, a test vehicle not built to spaceflight specs, is removed from the custom-made hangar at the Smithsonian and prepared for re-gifting. With NASA donating the space-flown shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian, Enterprise will now become a major display at New York City’s Intrepid Museum, based on the retired aircraft carrier U.S.S. Intrepid. For the first time in nearly 20 years, Enterprise is loaded onto one of the modified Boeing 747s from which it made its in-atmosphere test flights in 1977 and is transported to New York.

Mary Tamm, Doctor Who actress, dies

Mary TammActress Mary Tamm, who appeared in a single (but very high-profile) season of Doctor Who as the first incarnation of the Time Lady Romana, dies at the age of 62 after a battle with cancer. Having revived her version of the Romana character in recent years for Big Finish Productions’ Doctor Who audio stories (and the spinoff series Gallifrey), Tamm has remained popular with fans and has also recently completed her autobiography. Several days later, mere hours after delivering a eulogy at her memorial service, her husband of 34 years, Marcus Ringrose, also dies of a heart attack.

Curiosity rover lands on Mars

CuriositySurviving a previously untested landing method involving a rocket-firing sky crane, NASA’s Curiosity rover (or, more formally, the Mars Science Laboratory) lands safely on Mars, at the base of a mountain near Gale Crater. The first images from the surface arrive within seconds of landing, confirming the safe delivery of NASA’s latest mobile Mars explorer. The landing is especially suspenseful due to the “seven minutes of terror” – the one-way time for a signal to reach Earth from Mars – and the fact that the entire reentry and landing procedure takes 14 minutes.