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Voyager – John Teska

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Ee-O Eleven

Help Me To Understand

Girders on the flight path… somebody fix…

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Our Friend Bob

Today is the one year anniversary of Bob Justman’s passing. Let’s all take a moment to remember this wonderful guy, and the impact that he has had on our lives. He’s really not gone you know, not as long as we remember.

This weekend I’ll be running an entry on Bob Justman, so in the immortal words of Jim Bronson… Hang in there!

(Thank you Mike!)

Where’s Doug-o?

Hi gang! Apologies, as I have been among the missing for a few days. Gary just got the word that a show we thought was dead is now on the fast track. It’s Ron Moore’s “Virtuality”. It just goes to show you how this business goes. It was dead, dead, dead… now it’s alive, alive, alive… and they want it now, now, now!  So on top of the “BSG” direct to DVD movie, and “Caprica”, we are racing to finish a few additional shots for Virtuality’s July airing. So forgive my absence. I’ll be posting again on Saturday, and picking up some steam after that, although probably not at the rate I was before “Virtuality” rose from the dead. If I missed answering your comments, my appy-polly-logies! I’ll be going over them on Saturday morning. Hope you are all well! – Doug

P.S. – There is no word on a series.

Axanar Freighter

The Axanar Freighter from “Fight or Flight”.

Continuing on our tour of Local Group merchant marine vessels, this John Eaves design.

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“Putting In“

From “Center Seat”

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Click for a better look

ECS Horizon – Updated!

The ECS Horizon from “Enterprise”.

Eye Candy 04 with it’s DY ships ignited a merchant marine theme this week at the drex files. John designed several for Enterprise including the ECS Horizon, seen above. This model was built by Brandon Macdougall for Eden Effects.

I wish that Enterprise had dealt more with this sort of action, meaning more Earth interest stuff out in the galaxy, as opposed to political intrigue between alien races. In my scenario, the Vulcans take off after First Contact saying, when you’re ready, you will find us… and then they go away.  So we strike out into the Universe on our own, exploring on our own, prospering on our own, evolving on our own, and hoping to find that enigmatic race that visited us on the eve of our becoming. In fact, I would have only had rumors of aliens, and traces of dangerous species out there amongst the stars for at least the first two seasons, including those of a violent, and barbaric race called Klingons. As we enter the third season, an Earth colony is found ritualistically and brutally massacred. Go from there.

Welcome Home Atlantis!

 

This morning at 8:39 am PDT, Space Shuttle Atlantis and her crew returned safely home to Planet Earth from the STS-125 mission to repair and upgrade the incredible Hubble Space Telescope.

STS-125 was the riskiest shuttle flight since the Columbia accident because Atlantis had to match Hubble’s orbit.  Had there been a serious problem with Atlantis, it would have been unable to take refuge at the International Space Station because the difference in the orbits is too great.  In NASA’s judgement, Hubble’s scientific value justified the risk of sending seven astronauts on this mission.  But spaceflight is always a difficult, dangerous business, and the risks were real.

Because of this, NASA kept Space Shuttle Endeavour on the launch pad, ready for launch during most of the STS-125 flight.  The rescue mission was code-named STS-400.  It was the shuttle mission that NASA hoped it would never have to fly.  STS-400 planning flight director Paul Dye asked me to design an unofficial Space Rescue patch for his team.  Like Paul and his team, I’m relieved that this one never had to be used.

Shuttle landing photo from nasa-tv and nasaspaceflight.com.

-Mike

(Below) The greatest gift ever, the Hubble Space Telescope.

And here is the image that went up moments ago on one of the big screens at Mission Control in Houston, courtesy of JSC Ground Control Officer Bill Foster.

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“Enterprise Casts Off”

From “Center Seat”