Seated (L-R): Frank Culbertson, Jr., Richard Covey
Standing (L-R): Charles Gemar, Robert Springer, Carl Meade
Mission STS-38 patch
Atlantis blasted off on its 7th flight (STS-38) and 7th mission dedicated to the Department of Defense, November 15, 1990 for a four-day trip into space. The crew consisted of Commander Richard Covey, Pilot Frank Culbertson, Mission Specialist Carl Meade, Mission Specialist Robert Springer, and Mission Specialist Charles Gemar.
Since this was a DoD mission, Atlantis' payload was classified. She landed November 20, her returned a day later than planned because of unacceptable wind conditions at Edwards AFB so she landed at Kennedy Space Center.
L-R: Daniel C. Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin
Mission patch
In the midst of a snow storm, Soyuz TMA-22 blasted off November 14, 2011 with two Russians and one American on their way to the International Space Station. It was the first manned mission to the ISS since NASA had ended the space shuttle program in July with STS-135.
Soyuz TMA-22's crew consisted of Commander Anton Shkaplerov, Flight Engineer Anatoli Ivanishin and Flight Engineer Daniel Burbank (from Connecticut).
It is the first known flight in which an Angry Bird was a passenger.
Fred Haise, born November 14, 1933 in Biloxi, Mississippi, was an astronaut on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. After high school, he served in the US Marines as a fighter pilot. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degreee in aeronautical engineering in 1959 before becoming an astronaut.
Haise was scheduled to be the sixth human to walk on the moon during the Apollo 13 mission behind Jim Lovell, who was to be the fifth. Jack Swigert was the Command Module Pilot. Of course, we all know they didn't get to land on the moon but they returned to Earth safely. Bill Paxton played Haise in the movie Apollo 13.
He was backup for the Apollo 16 mission and was slated for the Apollo 19 mission, but the latter was cancelled due to budget cuts. Haise left NASA in 1979.
L-R: Magnus, Bowen, Pettit, Ferguson, Boe, Kimbrough and Stefanyshyn-Piper
STS-126 Mission Patch
Endeavour took off on its 22nd flight and the 124th mission (STS-126) of the space shuttle program November 14, 2008. Her crew consisted of Commander Christopher Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe, Mission Specialist Donald Pettit, Mission Specialist Stephen Bowen, Mission Specialist Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Mission Specialist Robert Kimbrough and Mission Specialist Sandra Magnus.
It was the 27th shuttle mission to the International Space Station to conduct repairs. It was the first time cow and pig embryos were carried into space by NASA to see how weightlessness affected embryonic growth.
Stefanyshyn-Piper and Bowen each conducted three EVAs, and Kimbrough performed two during the 16-day mission.
Stefanyshyn-Piper requested Hold On Tight by Electric Light Orchestra as her wake-up song. Awesome!
Warning: There is a spoiler in this review, but not the final solution!
The seventh book in P. C. Doherty’s Hugh Corbett series is
based on the legend of Robin Hood. I
thought Robin Hood took place during the reign of King Richard I and King John,
at least 100 years before Edward I, but after a quick check on the internet, I
realize his myth spans more than one century.
That is probably one reason his legend survives to this day. When I began reading The Assassin in the Greenwood, I was disappointed at first to find
that Doherty had based a story on a fictional character. Although the story is fiction, Robin Hood is
iconic. It would be like Merlin the
magician showing up in a Corbett novel.
Spoiler:
But Doherty doesn’t disappoint his readers. The legendary figure, reportedly in his
mid-fifties at this time, never actually appears in the story and Doherty even
manages to work in a possible ending for Robin Hood.
Edward I sends Corbett to Greenwood to try to bring the
outlaw Robin Hood to justice. Alive, if
possible, but if not, that’s okay.
Reluctantly leaving his wife Maeve and their baby daughter, Corbett, his
manservant Ranulf and his messenger Maltote they go off to the castle in
Nottingham to help the locals in their search for the outlaw. The woods are very thick and any force going
into the forest are quickly ambushed with deadly results.
Corbett and others have realized that there has been a
change in Robin Hood. For a while he was
keeping to his mantra of robbing the rich, and giving to the poor. But recently, he has become far more deadly
and even peasants are beginning to fear him.
Doherty hasn’t ever shied away from gore, but this novel
seems to have more than previous stories and lots of deaths, emphasizing the
brutal nature of the outlaw and his band of rogues.
As always, though, Doherty gives us a surprise twist at the
end, and does not disappoint his readers.
One of the funniest episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was Little Green Men, which aired November 13, 1995. It answers the decade-long question of what happened in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. For seventy years now, people have been speculating that an alien spacecraft crashed in the desert and has been the subject of the largest government cover-up in history.
It appears they were right. Quark, Rom and Nog are on their way to Earth when they realize their shuttle craft has been sabotaged. Nom figures out a way to keep the ship from tearing apart and they crash on Earth but in the year 1947.
It has some of the best lines ever:
Rom: Maybe we are dead.
Quark: What're you talking about?
Rom: Maybe this is the Divine Treasury.
Quark: Oh, don't be ridiculous, the Divine Treasury is made of pure latinum. Besides, where is the Blessed Exchequer? Where are the Celestial Auctioneers? And why aren't we bidding for our new lives, hmm?
Rom: You don't think we're in the other place?
Nog: The Vault of Eternal Destitution?
Nurse Garland: For all we know, it could be the mother.
[Quark is shouting at Rom in Ferengi]
Jeff Carlson: If she is the mother, she's quite a shrew.
Major Kira: Quark, Rom and Nog together on that ship all the way to Earth? Glad I'm not going with them.
Captain Ben Sisko: Only thing that worries me... no one warned Earth that they're coming.
Columbia blasted off November 12, 1981 (STS-2) and returned two days later, becoming the first time a spacecraft has tone into space and returned twice. Her crew consisted of Commander Joe Engle and Pilot Richard Truly (who celebrates his 80th birthday today!). The mission was scheduled to last 5 days but one of the three fuel cells that produced electricity and drinking water failed so it was shortened to 2 days. NASA also cancelled the Canadarm tests but the crew stayed awake during the Loss-of-Signal (LOS) periods and tested the arm.
Richard Truly, born November 12, 1937 in Fayette, Mississippi, was the first person to be launched into space on his (43rd) birthday. He became the 8th administrator of NASA in May 1989.
