RIP: Star Trek Actor Walter Koenig

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Walter Koenig playing Ensign Chekov about the USS Enterprise. (CBS)

Last Sunday Walter Koenig, well known for his character Ensign Pavel Chekov on the Star Trek television series, passed away at the age of 90.

Born in Chicago to a family of Russian heritage, Mr. Koenig carried of a Russian accent for years as the ensign on the USS Enterprise, representing a hopeful future at a time that the US and Soviet Union were stuck in a Cold War. He learned his accent from his father, who was an immigrant from the Soviet-bloc.

In addition to the original Star Trek series, Mr. Koenig played Chekov in seven Star Trek films that followed that series. With his passing, the only two of the original cast are still with us – William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk) and George Takei (Hikaru Sulu).

William Shatner had this to say about his fellow Star Trek actor:

What I observed, and what so many fans have expressed over the years, was a man who genuinely loved the Star Trek community. At conventions, Walter was rarely content to remain behind a signing table. He preferred to be among the people who had kept Star Trek alive for so many decades. That kind of genuine connection is rare, and it will be remembered by everyone who came into contact with him.

You can read more on Mr. Koenig’s life and career at these sites:

Associated Press
Variety
USA Today

Rest in peace.

Space Stories: A Swift End, ESA Considers New Approach, and a Real 3-Body System

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Swift space telescope in orbit. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—LiveScience: “NASA’s Swift Observatory Ends 22-year Mission to Study the Most Powerful Explosions Since the Big Bang“

A pioneering NASA space telescope is no more. In sad news for Swifties everywhere, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has officially ended its mission after more than 20 years of tracking the most powerful explosions in the universe since the Big Bang. According to a NASA announcement, the Swift team shut down the telescope’s science operations Tuesday (Oct. 20) after the observatory fell too low in its orbit to continue taking reliable measurements of the cosmos. In the coming weeks, Swift will drop even further, eventually passing a point of no return and taking a fiery plunge through Earth’s atmosphere.

—EuroNews: “Europe Weighs €10bn Plan to Launch Its Own Astronauts Ahead of Rome Space Summit“

Europe wants to stop depending on others to send its own astronauts into space. The next key date for deciding how to do that is 15 December in Rome, when the member countries of the European Space Agency (ESA) will meet to discuss the future of space exploration. On the table are multi-billion-euro investments, new technologies and one strategic issue: ensuring that Europe can reach Earth orbit with its own means, without relying exclusively on services provided by foreign companies. The summit, officially the Intermediate Ministerial Meeting 2026, comes at a time of transformation in the sector. Member states will have to assess proposals to strengthen Europe’s role in low Earth orbit, prepare for the post-International Space Station era and build the continent’s presence on the Moon, while also looking towards Mars. The aim is not to abandon international cooperation, but to take part in it with greater autonomy

—South China Morning Post: “Chinese Astronomers Find Real 3-body System. It Is Not What Liu Cixin Thinks“

In author and computer engineer Liu Cixin’s science fiction hit The Three-Body Problem, three suns throw a doomed world into chaos. Chinese astronomers say they have found a real three-star system that is far better behaved. Using FAST, the world’s biggest single-dish radio telescope in southwestern China, the researchers found two dead stars and a “living” one locked in a steady cosmic dance about 7,000 light years from Earth. One of the dead stars is a pulsar that spins more than 300 times a second, about as fast as the blades of a kitchen blender. It whirls around its partner, a white dwarf – the dim, burnt-out core of a smaller star – every eight days.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

RIP: Actor Tom Skerritt

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Tom Skerritt and Jodie Foster in the movie Contact. (Warner Bros.)

Actor Tom Skerritt passed away last week at the age of 93 from natural causes. While he will be remembered for his many roles in movies and television, his role as Arthur Koblenz Dallas, the captain of the Nostromo in the 1979 film Alien, as well as role as David Drumlin in the 1997 movie Contact, based on the 1985 Carl Sagan novel, is how many sci-fi fans will remember him.

In both films his character did not make it to the end of the show, but he was memorable nonetheless. In Contact, he represented an overbearing and skeptical government that is dragged into the reality of SETI. Even today, the federal government refuses to directly fund SETI.

I still remember this line from his character when he is talking to Jodie Foster’s character Dr. Ellie Arroway in Contact:

I know you must think this is all very unfair. Maybe that’s an understatement. What you don’t know is I agree. I wish the world was a place where fair was the bottom line, where the kind of idealism you showed at the hearing was rewarded, not taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world.

But it is Arroway’s reply that stays with me:

Funny, I’ve always believed that the world is what we make of it.

Mr. Skerritt did a lot with his talents to make the world a more interesting place. He will be missed.

You can read more on Mr. Skerritt’s life and career at these sites:

The Hollywood Reporter
Rolling Stone
The New York Times

Rest in peace.

Sci-Fi Stories: Red Rising Coming to the Silver Screen, a New Alien Movie, and Andy Weir’s Quantum Anomaly

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Credit: Penguin Random House.

Here are a few sci-fi stories of interest.

—Comic Book Resources: “Game of Thrones Meets Star Wars In Paramount’s New Space Opera Based on a Book“

Paramount Pictures will soon be bringing the space opera adventures of a celebrated 2014 novel to life, combining the best elements of Game of Thrones and Star Wars in a much-anticipated Red Rising adaptation. Over the years, we’ve seen some incredible adaptations of some of the most thrilling and surprising sci-fi novels in history, including the likes of Dune, Blade Runner, Project Hail Mary, Annihilation, and many more. Red Rising will soon be joining them as a brand-new sci-fi adaptation…Red Rising is set in a dystopian future in which humans have colonized Mars, and follows 16-year-old Darrow, who belongs to a caste of citizens known as Reds, while society is ruled by the mentally and physically superior Golds. The Reds are enslaved, mining helium-3 for the Golds, who stress that their efforts will help terraform the planet for future generations. After his wife Eo is hanged and his own death is faked, however, Darrow infiltrates the Golds to bring them down from within.

—Deadline: “Aaron Guzikowski Tapped To Pen New ‘Alien’ Movie For 20th, Scott Free“

Aaron Guzikowski, creator of the Scott Free-produced HBO Max sci-fi series Raised by Wolves, is scripting a new Alien movie for 20th Century Studios, Deadline can confirm. Not much else is known about the project at this stage, including whether it would follow up the most recent installment, 2024’s Alien: Romulus. It’s described as being in very early development. Scott and Michael Pruss will produce for Scott Free, with, J.R. Young overseeing for the studio.

—Fandom Wire: “Andy Weir’s 2026 Sci-Fi Series Has a Premise So Wild, It Puts Project Hail Mary to Shame“

The Martian and Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir is back with a bang (rather an implosion) with a premise so wild that it puts Project Hail Mary to shame. Not literally, but an upcoming audiobook, on which Weir serves as an executive producer, has a highly intriguing premise where the rules of survival are spread across time. The audiobook recently appeared on Audible, with the first teaser trailer launched recently. Written by Benjamin Percy and executive produced by Andy Weir, Exoplanet follows three members of a spaceship who encounter a quantum anomaly. Crash-landing on the same hostile planet but separated between three different time periods, the trio attempts to communicate across centuries in order to escape the hostile planet.

Space Quote: Complex Artemis III Plans for 2027

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Credit: NASA.

“Every piece of this mission in Earth orbit is designed to reduce risk before we put astronauts back on the Moon…We’re launching three spacecraft on three different rockets and testing how they operate together — something NASA has never attempted. Every lesson we learn here gets us closer to landing on the Moon in 2028.”

–Statement by Jeremy Parsons, NASA’s Artemis program manager, regarding a planned 14-day test in 2027 of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon, SpaceX’s Starship, and NASA’s Orion capsule using three different rockets (Blue Origin’s New Glenn, SpaceX’s Starship, and NASA’s Space Launch System). See the NASA image above to understand the complexity of what is planned. You can also find more information about the mission here.