Pic of the Week: Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Actor Patrick Stewart. (Eric Carter/Los Angeles Times)

This week’s image is in memory of Patrick Stewart, who died yesterday at the age of 86 at his home in Los Angeles.

Mr. Stewart will be remember for many of his roles, but his most iconic was his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the starship USS Enterprise. His talents brought the Star Trek series to a whole new level that has yet to be matched.

Born in Yorkshire, England, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, the same year that the first Star Trek series premiered on television. Little did he know then, but 21 years later he would find himself on the bridge of a starship exploring the galaxy. Even Shakespeare would be impressed with this career path, yet it was just as he wrote in Twelfth Night:

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Mr. Stewart came to see his role on Star Trek as something akin to a religious ministry:

It was about truth and fairness and honesty and respect for others, no matter who they were or what strange alien creature they looked like…And if they needed help, Jean-Luc Picard and his crew, his team, were there to give it. So, yes, in a sense, we were ministers. And I have heard now so many times from individuals who have been honest enough and brave enough to tell me aspects of their life, of their health, of their mental health, and how it was all saved and improved by watching every week.”

George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series, had this to say about Mr. Stewart:

Fans across the world mourn the passing of a true and irreplaceable legend…As Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart took the starship Enterprise to places it had never gone before, and he inspired a whole next generation of star-gazers who looked longingly ahead to a brighter future for all humanity.

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

National Public Radio
ABC News
BBC News

Rest in peace.

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.

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.

RIP: NASA Software Engineer Margaret Hamilton

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Margaret Hamilton at MIT. (NASA)

Late last month, Margaret Hamilton passed away at the age of 90. She will always be remembered as the software engineer who was instrumental in the development of the flight software for NASA’s Apollo program. As a NASA contractor from the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, she led a team of 100 engineers. Her work in this area helped to establish software engineering as a dedicated discipline

Olivier de Weck, the Apollo Program Professor and interim head of the MIT Department Aeronautics and Astronautics, later stated:

The Apollo program still stands as one of our greatest testaments to the power of collaboration, ingenuity, and engineering, and Margaret Hamilton was a fundamental contributor to that program’s success. And for her that was just the beginning! She went on to become an entrepreneur and remained on the cutting edge of systems software throughout an extraordinary career, while acting as an advocate, mentor, and inspiration to millions.

You can read more on Ms. Hamilton’s life and career at these sites:

MIT
CNN
The New York Times

Rest in peace.

A Day in Astronomy: The First U.S. Spacewalk

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA astronaut Ed White during the Gemini 4 mission on June 3, 1965. (NASA)

On this day in 1965, U.S astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to conduct a spacewalk during the Gemini 4 mission. His 23 minute mission lasted from his exit from the capsule over the Pacific to his return while over the Gulf of Mexico. He used a maneuvering gun to push himself away from the capsule as well as to push himself back.

At the end of his spacewalk, Ed White stated:

I’m coming back in… and it’s the saddest moment of my life.

Ed White later died in the launchpad explosion of Apollo 1 in 1967, along with astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and Roger B. Chaffee.

An Apollo 1 crew memorial is located at Arlington National Cemetery (shown below) with the inscription, “Ad Astra per Aspera,” which in Latin means, “A rough road leads to the stars.”

Image (Credit): The Apollo 1 crew memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. (Arlington National Cemetery)