The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches the unmanned SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) spacecraft to orbit Earth’s moon. SELENE is nicknamed Kaguya after a princess of the moon from Japanese folklore. Kaguya is scheduled to enter a polar lunar orbit in October, where it will conduct experiments in spectography, radio science, and charged particle and gamma ray detection. Though Kaguya has an on-board camera to map lunar terrain, the views for which it will become most famous will be shot by two HDTV cameras supplied by Japanese television network NHK, providing spectacular views of the lunar surface as they would be seen by an orbiting explorer.
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 23rd episode of the quirky modern-day science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson, Debrah Farentino, and Joe Morton. Lexa Doig (Andromeda) guest stars. 
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The second episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures airs on CBBC. The Slitheen, a recurring enemy in Doctor Who, return for the series relaunch, which also adds Daniel Anthony as new series regular Clyde Langer. (more…)
The third episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures premieres on iPlayer with its broadcast premiere to follow a week later, a pattern that will continue for the remainder of the first season. (more…)
IDW Publishing releases the 
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 24th episode of the quirky modern-day science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson, Debrah Farentino, and Joe Morton. Michael Shanks (Stargate SG-1) guest stars. (more…)
NASA launches the unmanned Dawn spacecraft, a vehicle designed to explore the two largest bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn will also test a new charged ion propulsion system designed to improve on the performance of traditional chemical propellants (though its fine-tuning reaction control system will still use small engines powered by “rocket fuel”). Dawn is intended to visit and orbit the asteroid Vesta in 2011, which it will then depart after mapping to explore Ceres in 2015.
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 61st episode of Stargate Atlantis. Amanda Tapping moves Stargate SG-1’s Colonel Carter to Atlantis in the fourth season premiere. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 100th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Colin Baker and Maggie Stables. (more…)
The fourth episode of the The Sarah Jane Adventures premieres on BBC iPlayer, the first half of a two-part storyline. (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 25th episode of the quirky modern-day science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson, Debrah Farentino, and Joe Morton. Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) guest stars in the second season finale. (more…)
Japan’s unmanned Kaguya spacecraft, also known as SELENE, enters a polar orbit around Earth’s moon with an average altitude of 62 miles. Billed by Japanese space agency JAXA as the most significant lunar mission since the Apollo era, Kaguya carries numerous science experiments, though the public is most captivated by video transmitted back to Earth from two on-board HDTV cameras supplied by television network NHK. Kaguya conducts accurate gravitational mapping of the far side of the moon for the first time, and its own terrain camera obtains high-resolution mapping data, which will later be shared with Google for an online 3-D map of the moon.
The first episode of BBC Radio’s adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently novels is first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, starring Harry Enfield as Dirk. (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 62nd episode of Stargate Atlantis. Jewel Staite guest stars in the third season finale. (more…)
The fifth episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures premieres on BBC iPlayer, the second half of a two-part storyline. (more…)
Warner Bros. Records releases Steve Jablonsky‘s soundtrack from the live-action Transformers movie. (more…)
La-La Land Records releases a long-awaited expanded edition of David Arnold‘s soundtrack from the American-made 1998 Godzilla movie. (more…)
The second episode of BBC Radio’s adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently novels is first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, starring Harry Enfield as Dirk. (more…)
The sixteenth full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-11. Yuri Malenchenko and Peggy Whitson take up residence on the ISS for 196 days. Arriving with them on the ISS for a ten-day stay is Malaysian space tourist Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-10 with the Expedition 15 crew. Like other “space tourists” before him, he has paid for his own Soyuz seat and mission training. When Malenchenko and Whitson return in April 2008 with South Korean astronaut Yi So-Yeon, the Soyuz suffers a dangerous malfunction, failing to jettison its service module; the result is an off-balance spacecraft that re-enters the atmosphere nose-first, exposing under-insulated portions of the vehicle to the heat of re-entry and forcing the crew to endure 10 Gs. The vehicle lands nearly 300 miles off-course and Yi So-Yeon suffers neck and spinal injuries in the landing; the head of the Russian space program doesn’t improve matters by blaming these events on an “old Russian superstition” that having more women than men in a vehicle is bad luck. NASA and Russian space engineers begin investigating the mishap, finally arriving at the more plausible explanation of a malfunctioning spacecraft.
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 63rd episode of Stargate Atlantis. Christopher Judge (Stargate SG-1) guest stars. (more…)
The sixth episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures premieres on BBC iPlayer, the first half of a two-part storyline. (more…)
Harper publishes the non-fiction book Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN by Susanne Daniels and Cynthia Littleton, who had first-hand knowledge of both short-lived television networks’ dealings. (more…)
The seventh episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures premieres on BBC iPlayer, the second half of a two-part storyline. (more…)
Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on the 120th shuttle flight, a 15-day mission to deliver a new module to the International Space Station. The module in question is the Harmony node, which adds space for further modules to be added by future shuttle missions. Aboard Discovery for her 34th mission are Commander Pamela Melroy, Pilot George Zamka, mission specialists Douglas Wheelock, Scott Parazynski, Stephanie Wilson and Paolo Nespoli, and ISS Expedition 16 crewmember Daniel Tani, who remains on the station. Among the items stowed away aboard the shuttle are the screen-used lightsaber prop wielded by Luke Skywalker in Return Of The Jedi.
La-La Land Records releases Bear McCreary’s soundtrack from the third season of Sci-Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica reboot. The third season soundtrack CD includes the fan-requested Galactica version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower”, which has become integral to the storyline. (more…)
The eighth episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures premieres on BBC iPlayer, the first half of a two-part storyline. Juliet Cowan and Jane Asher guest star. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 101st Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Paul McGann and India Fisher. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the fifth Doctor Who audio drama in its Companion Chronicles range (short stories performed audiobook style with one or two actors). Peter Purves and Tony Millan star. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 15th Dalek Empire audio drama, a Doctor Who audio spinoff starring Noel Clarke and Maureen O’Brien (though neither is reprising their existing Doctor Who characters). (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 65th episode of Stargate Atlantis. (more…)
The ninth episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures premieres on BBC iPlayer, the first half of a two-part storyline. Juliet Cowan and Jane Asher guest star. (more…)
Silva Screen Records releases a CD of Murray Gold’s soundtrack music from the third season of new Doctor Who. Most of the music comes from the mid-season two-parter Human Nature / The Family Of Blood and the three-part season finale, Utopia / The Sound Of Drums / Last Of The Time Lords. (more…)
Expansion Team Records releases the album Robo Sapiens by Malibu (a pseudonym for former Jellyfish member Roger Joseph Manning Jr.); the album was released several months earlier in Japan. (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 66th episode of Stargate Atlantis. Danny Trejo guest stars. (more…)