Soyuz MS-21, launched March 18, 2022, carried three cosmonauts to the International Space Station. Its crew consisted of Commander Oleg Artemyev, Denis Mateev, and Sergey Korsakov. They participated in Expeditions 66 and 67 while aboard the ISS.
The cosmonauts returned to Earth in September 2022, after almost 195 days in space.
Katya Echazarreta, born June 15, 1995 in Guadalajara, Mexico, is the first female Mexican-American astronaut. She was selected as part of Space for Humanity's Citizen Astronaut Program. She went into space aboard Blue Origin NS-21 launched in June 2022 for a sub-orbital flight, lasting 10 minutes, 5 seconds.
Michael Langley, born in Shreveport, Louisiana, became the first black four-star general in the United States Marine Corps in history.
He graduated from University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in information systems analysis. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines. Since then he has served in Afghanistan, served as commander of the US Marine Forces-Europe and Africa, deputy commander of the Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic.
In June 2022, Langley was nominated for promotion to general and assignment as commander of the US Africa Command, and was confirmed by the Senate in August 2022, making him the first black 4-star general in the 246-year history of the USMC.
Raven Chacon, born 1977 in Fort Defiance, Arizona, is the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 2021, Chacon composed Voiceless Mass, written for the pipe organ at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. and it premiered there November 21, 2021. It was this composition that won him the award in 2022.
He has won numerous awards for his music, including the Berlin Prize by the American Academy in Berlin.
Shenzhou 15 crew (L-R): Fei Junlong, Deng Quingming, Zhang Lu
China successfully launched Shenzhou 15 earlier today, its tenth manned mission of the Shenzhou program, and the fifteenth flight overall, to the Tiangong Space Station. Its crew consists of Commander Fei Junlong, Deng Quingming, and Zhang Lu.
They will meet with the crew of Shenzhou 14, who launched in June 2022 and plan to return in December. The Shenzhou 15 crew is planned to conduct 3-4 EVAs, in addition to their scientific experiments and payload work. They are scheduled to return in May 2023.
Our heroes seem to be dropping all around us. First Angela Lansbury, then Apollo astronaut James McDivitt, and now, first Dutch-born astronaut Lodewijk van den Berg passed away October 16 at the age of 90. He was born March 24, 1932 in the Netherlands, but was a naturalized American citizen when he went into space and no longer a Dutch citizen.
He went into space aboard Challenger (STS-51-B) in April-May 1985 as a payload specialist. He was responsible for the Vapor Crystal Growth System experiment. After returning to Earth, he continued work on crystal growth, even when he was 72.
An asteroid was named after him and is known as 11430 Lodewijkberg. He passed away in Florida, but no cause of death has been cited.
Astronaut James McDivitt, born June 10, 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, passed away October 13, 2022 at age 93. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in September 1962 as a member of Astronaut Group 2. His first mission in space was commander of Gemini IV. It was the first time a rookie was in command of a NASA flight. He traveled with Ed White, who conducted the first EVA for the U.S.
McDivitt's second flight was on Apollo 9 as commander in March 3, 1969, with David Scott and Russell Schweickart for 10 days.
He left the Astronaut Corps after Apollo 9, and was assigned backup commander of Apollo 12, and made mission commander of Apollo 15. He retired in June 1972.
He was honored with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Air Medal, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.
The amazingly talented, beautiful, intelligent, and all-around perfect Angela Lansbury passed away today in Los Angeles, California at the young age of 96, just 5 days shy of her 97th birthday.
Her first on-screen appearance was in Gaslight in 1944 which garnered her first Academy Award nomination. The next year, she received her second nomination for her performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Her final nomination came in 1962 for her performance in the Manchurian Candidate, a powerful piece of filmmaking, and she delivered a knockout performance. One of the Academy's biggest snubs. But in 2013 she received the Academy Honorary Award. Good for her!
She kept busy during her career, appearing in some of my favorites, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Death on the Nile, The Mirror Crack'd, Pirates of Penzance, Beauty and the Beast, and Nanny McPhee. One of her most beloved roles was that of Jessica Fletcher in the immensely popular television series, Murder, She Wrote.
She was nominated for twelve Golden Globes for her performance as Jessica Fletcher and nominated for 6 more. She won 4 Golden Globes for Murder, She Wrote, plus an additional 3 wins and 8 more nominations.
She received 18 Primetime Emmy Nominations, 12 for Murder, She Wrote, pretty much a nomination for every season of the show.
She has won 5 Tony Awards, the first of which was for originating the role of Mame in the musical of the same name.
She also received a Grammy Award nomination for the soundtrack for Beauty and the Beast.
About noon today, NASA/SpaceX's Commercial Crew Program launched its fifth crew to the International Space Station. Its crew consists of Commander Nicole Mann (NASA), Pilot Josh Cassada (NASA), Anna Kikina (Roscosmos), and Koichi Wakata (JAXA), who is on his fifth spaceflight. They plan to dock with the ISS tomorrow.
They are scheduled to stay in space for approximately six months and return to Earth in March.
Yesterday evening, September 26, 2022, NASA successfully crashed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) with Dimorphos, a moon of the minor-planet asteroid Didymos. The test is designed to determine if a spacecraft can deflect an asteroid via a transfer of momentum, as part of a planetary defense against near-Earth objects. Dimorphos was chosen since it does not pose a threat to Earth.
The project began as a collaboration between NASA and ESA, named Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) involving two separate spacecraft. The ESA spacecraft AIM was to have launched in December 2020 but the project was cancelled. It has been replaced by Hera to study the results of DART's impact on Dimorphos. Hera is expected to arrive in the Didymos system in 2026.
Dimorphos has a diameter of about 560 feet and was discovered in 2003.
At the 74th Primetime Emmy awards celebration last night, the Korean drama Squid Game won six awards. Very impressive for a show, actors, and crew who are non-English speaking!
Lee Jung-Jae, who plays Seong Gi-hun won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Lee Yoo-mi, who plays Ji-yeong won the award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Hwang Dong-hyuk won the Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series award. The other three awards were for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour or More), Outstanding Stunt Performance, and Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode.
Squid Game had eight more nominations. Park He-soo and Oh Yeong-su were both nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Hoyeon was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. The other nominations were for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One-hour), Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music, and Outstanding Drama Series, the first non-English show to be nominated for this award.
