Actress Grace Lee Whitney, a familiar face of ’60s TV who had a recurring role in the first season of Star Trek as Yeoman Janice Rand, dies at the age of 85. Compared to most of her castmates, her brief tenure aboard the Enterprise was tumultuous, ending just eight episodes into her stint as an intended semi-regular character. Her dismissal from the show led to a career downturn and battles with alcohol addiction, from which she recovered, reprising the role of Rand in cameo scenes in several of the Star Trek films, an episode of Voyager, and the Hugo-nominated fan-made episode World Enough And Time in 2007.
A renowned film music composer whose early sci-fi works put him on the map, James Horner dies at the age of 61 in the crash of his private plane. After his 
Dr. Claudia Alexander dies at the age of 56, while still serving as the chief scientist of a suite of U.S.-provided instruments aboard ESA’s history-making Rosetta mission. Renowned as one of JPL’s finest research scientists, she was a member of the Galileo plasma instrument science team before becoming, by the mission’s end in 2003, the project manager of that mission to Jupiter.
Nintendo of Japan CEO Satoru Iwata dies as a result of complications from gall bladder surgery. As the head of game developer HAL Laboratories, Iwata oversaw games in the Kirby, Super Smash Bros. and Pokemon series, until he replaced outgoing Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002. His tenure saw the introduction of the Nintendo DS handheld, the Wii console, and the wildly popular Amiibo figurines, as well as unprecedented interaction with fans and customers on the internet.
Writer George Clayton Johnson, who co-wrote the 1967 novel Logan’s Run with William F. Nolan and wrote episodes of both The Twilight Zone and Star Trek, dies at the age of 86. As part of the legendary “Green Hand” collective of golden-age SF writers, Johnson penned his stories in the company of such fellow southern California writers as Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson, Jerry Sohl, Robert Bloch, and Rod Serling (who paid Johnson for his first produced television work). For 
On the eve of the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 14 moon landing, astronaut Edgar “Ed” Mitchell dies at the age of 85. The sixth human being to set foot on the moon, Mitchell accompanied Alan Shepard to the lunar surface aboard the Apollo 14 lander. Following his visit to the moon, Mitchell had become interested in researching human consciousness and extra-sensory perception, but later surrounded himself with controversy by claiming that he was certain that UFOs had visited Earth.
Former Star Trek and 
The designer and builder of the original R2-D2 props/costumes for 
Welsh-born actor Gareth Thomas, who starred as Roj Blake in the BBC’s influential space opera 
Japanese synthesizer pioneer Isao Tomita dies of heart failure at the age of 84. A classically trained composer, Tomita had composed music for such early anime series as Kimba The White Lion, and such live action series as Mighty Jack, prior to importing (at no small expense) a Moog III synthesizer. He experimented with all-synth interpretations of classical music with albums like Snowflakes Are Dancing and The Planets, which quickly became his primary career track as these albums became successful worldwide. He eventually resumed his film/TV scoring career in the 1990s, contributing music to The Twilight Samurai and Welcome Home, Hayabusa. He was working on a new stage musical at the time of his death.
Actress Janet Waldo, the voice of Judy Jetson in the 1960s cartoon The Jetsons (as well as its 1980s revival) and the voice of Princess in 
Actor Anton Yelchin, perhaps best known to genre fans for taking over the role of Ensign Pavel Chekov in the series of Star Trek reboot movies since 2009, dies in a freak car accident at the age of 27. Yelchin was already considered a rising talent because of his performances in Charlie Bartlett, Like Crazy, Hearts In Atlantis, Terminator: Salvation, and a remake of Fright Night (in which he starred opposite David Tennant of Doctor Who fame). His final movie as Chekov, Star Trek Beyond, is due to be released in July 2016.
Actor and radio talk show host Jerry Doyle, who played Security Chief Michael Garibaldi for the entire run of the 1990s science fiction series Babylon 5 (the only human character to survive the considerable number of cast changes from 1992 through 1999), is found dead in his Las Vegas home at the age of 60. After his final appearance as Garibaldi in the Babylon 5 TV movie A Call To Arms, Doyle joined B5 co-star Peter Jurasik in a recurring role in the final seasons of the Sci-Fi-Network-revived Sliders before a run for Congress on a Republican ticket, and becoming a conservative radio talk show host.
Actor Barry Jenner, a fixture on American TV since the 1970s, dies at the age of 75. Among the many series in which he played recurring roles (among them Dallas, Knots Landing and Family Matters), genre fans remember him best for the role of 
British actor Kenny Baker, whose long career as a circus performer and comedian took a sharp right turn when he first stepped into the “costume” of R2-D2 in 1977’s 
Actor and writer Gene Wilder, whose uncanny comic timing made him the star of numerous Mel Brooks comedies as well as the unnerving lead in 1971’s movie adaptation Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, dies at the age of 83 from complications related to Alzheimer’s Disease. He was a regular part of Brooks’ all-star ensemble, starring in such movies as The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, and co-starred in numerous comedies with Saddles co-star Richard Pryor, including Stir Crazy, Bustin’ Loose, Silver Streak, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
Influential British-born visual effects artist Ron Thornton, one of the pioneer proponents of computer generated animation for television whose work stretches from classic BBC sci-fi through Babylon 5 and the Star Trek franchise, dies after a lengthy illness. 
Actor Ron Glass, known for being a cast member of the 1970s/80s sitcom Barney Miller and for his stint on the short-lived but much-loved science fiction series 
The last living member of the original Mercury astronaut group, former Senator John Glenn, dies at the age of 95. Born in 1921, Glenn was a decorated combat pilot who flew during World War II and the Korean War, before turning his piloting skills to testing experimental aircraft. This brought him to NASA’s attention, and he made 
British-born shuttle astronaut Piers Sellers dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61. A veteran of over 559 hours in space as a crew member of shuttle missions 
33-inch-tall actor Mihaly “Michu” Meszaros, who donned the furry suit of the title character in the late ’80s sci-fi spoof Alf, dies at the age of 76. In any instances where the character was shown from head to toe, Meszaros wore a full-body suit, though in many cases the character was a puppet shown only from the chest up, operated and voiced by show (and character) creator Paul Fusco. To maintain the illusion, Meszaros was credited as a “personal assitant” to Alf for his appearances. A circus performer since the early 1970s, Meszaros also appeared in Big Top Pee-Wee, Waxwork, Warlock: The Armageddon, and the TV series Dear John.
Pioneering astronomer Vera Rubin, whose research led to the discovery of dark matter, dies at the age of 88. In the 1960s and ’70s, Rubin found that the rate of galaxies’ rotation could not be accounted for unless galaxies contained, on average, ten times more mass than could be distributed among the visible stars in that galaxy. This research led her to propose the theory of dark matter in the 1970s, though she tried for many years to find – or at least rule out – any other possible explanations to the galaxy rotation problem.
Actress and author Carrie Fisher, universally known as Princess Leia from the original Star Wars trilogy, dies four days after suffering from a massive heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles. Alongside a storied career that included movies such as The Blues Brothers, When Harry Met Sally, and a revival of Leia in 2015’s The Force Awakens, Fisher embarked on a writing career that included the semi-autobiographical novel Postcards From The Edge (later adapted into a movie in its own right), which fictionalized elements of her Hollywood upbringing, and autobiographies that exposed her lifelong battles with mental illness. She died at the age of 60.
Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan, the last human to leave the surface of the moon in the 20th century, dies at the age of 82. One of the members of NASA’s second astronaut class, recruited in 1963 to take part in the Gemini program, Cernan first flew into space aboard Gemini 9 in 1966, a mission in which he became the second American spacewalker, though his assigned tasks outside the Gemini spacecraft proved to be dangerously exhausting. His second flight, as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 10, saw him flying a lunar lander to within miles of the moon’s surface in May 1969, a dress rehearsal for the upcoming Apollo 11 mission. He commanded the final Apollo moon landing mission, Apollo 17, in December 1972, where he earned the title of “last man on the moon” by being the last astronaut to leave the lunar surface to re-enter the Apollo 17 lander. He later wrote an autobiography about his spaceflight experiences, and was frequently outspoken about his disappointment that no one walked on the moon again in his lifetime.
Veteran character actor Miguel Ferrer, a steady presence on TV and the big screen for over 30 years, dies of cancer at the age of 61. Fondly remembered for his villain role in the original Robocop, a recurring role on Twin Peaks, and a brief cameo as the first officer of the hapless U.S.S. Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, Ferrer was co-starring in the popular series NCIS: Los Angeles at the time of his death.
Masaya Nakamura, the founder of pioneering Japanese video game maker 
British actor Sir John Hurt, renowned for memorable roles in everything from I, Claudius to Alien to The Elephant Man to 1984 to 
Actor Richard Hatch, who starred in the 1970s series 
Actor Bill Paxton, who played both starring and supporting roles in movies such as Aliens, The Terminator, Predator 2, Weird Science, Apollo 13, Twister, and Tombstone, dies at the age of 61. Paxton worked behind the scenes in the early years of his career, alternating between working for legendary B-movie director Roger Corman, and playing small roles on screen. He directed the film clip for the Barnes & Barnes song “Fish Heads” (which was co-written and performed by Bill Mumy). Paxton died from complications that arose during heart surgery.
Douglas Netter, the executive producer of the science fiction series