Director Ang Lee released his superhero film Hulk in US theaters June 20, 2003, to mixed reviews. Based on the Marvel Comics character the Incredible Hulk, the movie starred Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, and Nick Nolte.
Although reviews were mixed, it topped the box office in its first weekend beating Finding Nemo, earning $62.1M, making it the 16th highest-ever opening at the time. Roger Ebert gave it a positive review, and he doesn't seem to like anything.
Hulk was nominated for five Saturn Awards, but was up against X2, Return of the King, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Walt Disney Studios and Pixar Animation released their classic feature Finding Nemo May 30, 2003. Albert Brooks (Marlin) and Ellen DeGeneres (Dory) provided the voices of the main characters as they go in search of Marlin's son Nemo.
It is one of the top rated movies ranked on imdb.com. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Animated Feature, the first for Pixar. It was nominated for five Saturn Awards, winning Best Animated Film and Best Supporting Actress for Ellen DeGeneres.
Finding Nemo was the second highest-grossing film of 2003, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. But it beat The Matrix Reloaded to become the highest-grossing film of the 2003 summer season. It received overwhelming positive reviews.
Marvel Comics released the first movie to bring its superhero Daredevil to the big screen, February 14, 2003. Daredevil starred Ben Affleck in the title role, with Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Colin Farrell (swoon!) as the supervillain Bullseye, and Michael Clark Duncan as Kingpin.
The movie opened to mixed reviews and didn't fare as well at the box office as some of the other MCU movies did. It did hold the #1 spot for two weeks before falling to #3 in the third week. Afterwards, Ben Affleck vowed that he would never appear in a superhero movie again, but went on to play Batman in several DC movies.
I enjoyed the movie, but felt it could be stronger. A sequel was planned but never materialized. Pity. The second movie is usually better than the first. For example, X2 and Spiderman 2 (the Toby Maguire versions).
Galileo spacecraft, launched October 18, 1989, ended its mission when NASA sent it plunging into Jupiter's atmosphere, September 21, 2003. It flew by Venus in February 1990 and flew by Earth in December 1990 and approached asteroid 951 Gaspra in October 1991. It made a second flyby of Earth in December 1992 before making close observations of another asteroid Ida. It discovered Ida's moon Dactyl, the first time a moon orbiting an asteroid had ever been seen.
Galileo observed fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crash into Jupiter. Besides examining Jupiter, it made several flybys of moons Europa and Io.
NASA turned off Galileo's cameras in January 2002, since they had been permanently damaged by radiation. They were able to recover scientific data from a damaged tape recorder and received measurements of the moon Amalthea, before taking its final plunge.
One of my guilty favorites, Jeepers Creepers 2 was released August 29, 2003. It's a typical monster movie with a hideous creature attacking and killing stranded teenagers. A friend of ours was the casting director so that's why we watched it in the first place.
It opened to mostly negative reviews,but some rated it higher than the original. It was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Horror film.
Hayabusa, launched May 9, 2003, was a spacecraft developed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency to the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa. It arrived at Itokawa in September 2005. It studied the asteroid for two months, landing in November. It collected a few grains from the asteroid's surface and returned to Earth in June 2010.
Soyuz TMA-2, launched April 26, 2003 carried two members of Expedition 7 to the International Space Station. Its crew consisted of Commander Yuri Malenchenko (Roscosmos) and Edward Lu (NASA). They remained on board the ISS until October 2003 with ESA astronaut Pedro Duque.
Soyuz TMA-3 crew (L-R): Pedro Duque, Aleksandr Kaleri, Michael Foale
Mission patch
Soyuz TMA-3, launched October 18, 2003, was the seventh trip to the International Space Station. Its crew consisted of Commander Aleksandr Kaleri (Roscosmos), Michael Foale (British astronaut, NASA) and Pedro Duque (Spanish astronaut, ESA). Kaleri and Foale were part of Expedition 8, but Pedro Duque returned on Soyuz TMA-2 about a week later.
Kaleri and Foale returned to Earth in April 2004 with Andre Kuipers (Dutch astronaut, ESA) after more than 194 days.
European Space Agency launched their first Mars probe, the Mars Express, June 2, 2003. Taking advantage of a once-in-a-60,000-year occurence when Earth and Mars are closest, the Mars Express arrived at the Red Planet Christmas Day.
It consisted of the Mars Express Orbiter and the lander Beagle 2, named after Charles Darwin's ship, the HMS Beagle. The lander detached 6 days before arrival but contact was lost. It was discovered intact on the Martian surface by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Apparently, some of the solar panels did not open and prevented the antenna from deploying properly.
The Mars Express Orbiter has been in successful operation since arriving and its mission has been extended until 2020.
Rear (L-R): David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, Ilan Ramon;
Front (L-R): Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool
Mission patch
As with the Challenger disaster in 1986, I'm sure we all remember where we were when we heard the news about the Columbia disaster in February 2003. It was Columbia's 28th mission (STS-107), launched January 16, 2003, when a piece of foam broke off during the launch and damaged part of the thermal protective system on the leading edge of the left wing.
During re-entry, overheated gases were allowed into the wing, which ultimately led to the shuttle breaking apart and the loss of everyone on board. The people lost were Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, Mission Specialist David Brown, Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist Michael Anderson, Mission Specialist Laurel Clark and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (first Israeli astronaut). This was the first flight for McCool, Brown, Clark and Ramon.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board uncovered some interesting facts during their investigation. Apparently, NASA knew the crew was at risk but decided nothing could be done about it. They realized that they could have expedited the Atlantis lift-off scheduled March 1, to February 10. Columbia's crew had enough supplies and resources to last until February 15. Atlantis would have had a five day overlap to rescue the crew and return them to Earth. Columbia would be brought down into the ocean.
My boy Toby Keith released his eighth studio album Shock'n Y'all November 4, 2003. It reached #1 on both the Billboard Top Country Albums and Billboard 200 charts. It has been certified quadruple platinum in the U.S.!
The Mars Rover that keeps on going, Opportunity (MER-B) was launched July 7, 2003 and arrived on the Red Planet January 25, 2004. It has not stopped since. Still going over 13 years later, Opportunity has exceeded its planned operating time by 50 times. It has traveled almost 30 miles and even has an asteroid named for it.
My man Billy Joel won a Tony Award for Best Orchestration June 8, 2003 for Movin' Out, a musical based on his music. Movin' Out was also up for Best Musical but lost to Hairspray starring Harvey Fierstein.
Fourteen years ago, January 23, 2003, Pioneer 10 sent its last signal received by Earth. Launched March 3, 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and the first to encounter Jupiter, up close and personal, reaching the gas giant December 3, 1973.
It continued broadcasting at a whopping rate of 256 bits/second, which degraded to 127 millibits/second. When it was approximately 12 billion light-years (80 astronomical units) from Earth, its power fell below the level where it could send signals strong enough to be received. Now it is estimated to be 116 AU from Earth.
Ilan Ramon, NASA's first Israeli astronaut, blasted off in the Space Shuttle Columbia January 16, 2003. Unfortunately, it would be his only mission, since just 16 days later, Ramon perished along with six fellow astronauts when the Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry.
His mother and grandmother were holocaust survivors, having survived Auschwitz.
In 2002, Toho released Godzilla against Mechagodzilla in which the mechanical Godzilla was fashioned from the bones of the monster that attacked in 1954. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, that version went beserk and wasted Tokyo worse that the G-Man ever did.
December 13, 2003, Toho released Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S, in which the Japanese government has "repaired" Mechagodzilla. The Cosmos warn the people they must return the bones to the sea or face a terrible wrath.
Silly humans. They never learn.
Godzilla returns and Mothra and Mechagodzilla must combine forces to defeat him before he destroys Tokyo (again).
China became the third nation to send a man into space on October 15, 2003. Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei took off in Long March CZ-2F rocket in the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. Liwei completed 14 orbits in about 21 hours.
European Space Agency launched the Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART-1) September 27, 2003. The spacecraft was small, only 1 meter in diameter and weighed 809lb, only 633lb was non-propellant. The first ESA probe to the moon, it used an ion propulsion system, using xenon ions to give it a specific thrust three times what conventional, chemical rockets can achieve.
On September 3, 2006, the probe was deliberately crashed onto the surface of the moon, adding more space junk to what the Soviets had been accumulating since 1959 and the US since 1962. Japan is a distant third with China and India following.
Mannheim Steamroller released their first album of Halloween music, Halloween September 23, 2003. True to the Mannheim sound, this album does for Halloween what it did for Christmas!
Listen to "Toccata in De Mole", a pumped up version of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Bb minor.
The best X-Men movie (my humble opinion only, of course) "X-Men 2" was released May 2, 2003. I appreciated it more than the first one because Jean Grey and Storm were so wimpy in the first one. Their powers were pumped up in X2.
