| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | ||||||||
| 1 | 2Jurassic World: Rebirth – Scarlett Johansson stars Jurassic World: Rebirth – Scarlett Johansson starsJurassic World: Rebirth sees an intrepid team racing to secure DNA samples from the three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air.
Jurassic World: Rebirth is set to be released in cinemas in July 2025
Credit:https://www.scifinow.co.uk/cinema/jurassic-world-rebirth-scarlett-johansson-stars-in-new-dino-adventure/
OHB secures final regulatory approvals for KKR deal OHB secures final regulatory approvals for KKR dealOHB and investment firm KKR have received all the government approvals needed for a deal that will take the space company off the public markets in the coming days.
Space Tech Expo Europe conference at Congress Centrum Bremen and MESSE BREMEN, Germany
Photo Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust
| 3Evolution Space tests rocket on Spaceport Company platform Evolution Space tests rocket on Spaceport Company platformEvolution Space, a Mojave, California-based startup, announced Sept. 3 it successfully flew a sub-scale test rocket from a sea-based platform operated by The Spaceport Company. The launch took place Aug. 31 over the Gulf of Mexico.
Launched over the Gulf of Mexico from the sea-based platform operated by The Spaceport Company
Photo credit: https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-02-at-5.43.07 PM-1024x854.png
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Harry Potter: Quidditch ChampionsHarry Potter: Quidditch Champions is an upcoming sports game developed by Unbroken Studios and published by Warner Bros. Games under its Portkey Games label. The game focuses on the Harry Potter-related sport Quidditch. The player controls a character that holds a specific position in Quidditch and engages in broomstick adventures and competitive multiplayer modes. Illustration credit: https://dotesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/harry-potter-quidditch-champions-steam.jpg?resize=1024
Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with it being available from Day One on PlayStation Plus.
| 4SpaceX satellites with Tesat terminals SpaceX satellites with Tesat terminalsThis marks the first time that satellites built for the Space Development Agency demonstrate laser communications in space using optical terminals compliant with military standards.
In orbit around planet Earth
Photo Credit: Tesat-Spacecom
Slow Burn: How Starliner’s crewed test flight went awry Slow Burn: How Starliner’s crewed test flight went awryWhen NASA and Boeing officials walked into the briefing room at the Kennedy Space Center on June 5, they were all smiles.owever, that would be the last time there were many smiles at a briefing about Starliner. The next day, Starliner docked with the station, but not before experiencing more helium leaks and problems with several of its thrusters. What initially appeared to be a minor issue evolved, over the next two and a half months, into NASA’s biggest human spaceflight safety crisis since the shuttle Columbia accident more than two decades ago. Kennedy Space Center to the ISS Credit: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a1/3c/0e/a13c0e2fda57145459b22c856382f0d7.jpg | 5China to launch Mars sample return mission in 2028 China to launch Mars sample return mission in 2028China is on course to launch its Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission in 2028, according to the mission’s lead.
Liu Jizhong, chief designer of Tianwen-3, provided an update on the mission at the second international conference on deep space exploration (Tiandu) in Tunxi, Anhui province, Sept. 5.
Tunxi, Anhui province, China
Credit: NASA/JPL/UArizona
Houston, You Have Another Problem? Houston, You Have Another Problem?It looks more and more like China might beat NASA back to the moon.Here's the bullet point version of the debate: 1) Artemis I returned safely. Had there been astronauts on board, they would have been in zero danger. 2) Still, Orion's heat shield did not burn away as expected — a possible concern. 3) Should manned Artemis II follow the same reentry profile, make a steeper reentry that will take less time, or be delayed while a new heat shield is designed, built, and tested? NASA Photo credit: https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5c2fb56323000059003ca5e7.jpg?ops=1910_1000 | 6China’s secretive reusable spaceplane lands after 267 days China’s secretive reusable spaceplane lands after 267 daysChina’s experimental reusable spaceplane returned to Earth late Thursday, completing its third orbital mission.
State media Xinhua issued a brief report on Sept. 5 (Eastern), confirming the spacecraft’s return to Earth. The report provided no images, nor information regarding the mission and its landing site.
ChinaThe details are very secret Photo Credit: European Union/modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024 Boeing Starliner capsule lands back on Earth  Boeing Starliner capsule lands back on EarthThe Boeing capsule, named Calypso, returned to Earth early this morning (Sept. 7), touching down in the New Mexico desert at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT; 10:01 p.m. local time on Sept. 6).
White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico desert
(Image credit: Boeing)
| 7NASA’s experimental solar sail sends the first selfies NASA’s experimental solar sail sends the first selfiesNASA has published the first selfies taken by the experimental satellite ACS3 (Advanced Composite Solar Sail System). It shows its deployed solar sail.
In orbit around the Earth
Source: NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart
| ||||||||
8Celebrating the 58th Anniversary of Star Trek Celebrating the 58th Anniversary of Star TrekSeptember 8, 1966, marked a monumental day in television history. On that date, the first episode of Star Trek, titled “The Man Trap,” aired on NBC, introducing audiences to the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise. Though the show initially struggled to find a broad audience, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon that would go on to influence not just science fiction, but popular culture, science, and even real-world technological innovations. Today, on the 58th anniversary of that inaugural broadcast, we look back at the legacy of Star Trek and how it has endured and evolved over more than five decades.
Starfleet, Earth
Photo credit: https://scifispace.com/celebrating-the-58th-anniversary-of-star-trek-a-journey-through-the-stars/
| 9James Earl Jones Dies at 93 James Earl Jones Dies at 93James Earl Jones, a commanding presence onscreen who nonetheless gained greater fame off-camera as the sonorous voice of Star Wars villain Darth Vader and Mufasa, the benevolent leader in The Lion King, died Monday. He was 93.
USA
Photo Credit: Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Elon Musk Set a Timeline for Landing on Mars Elon Musk Set a Timeline for Landing on Mars"The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk posted on Saturday. "These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years."
Mars
Promotional image courtesy of SpaceX via X.
| 10NASA Postpones Upcoming Mars Mission, Citing Bezos’s Rocket NASA Postpones Upcoming Mars Mission, Citing Bezos’s RocketNew Glenn has been in development for over a decade, but it likely won't be ready for launch next month, posing a problem for NASA. Blue Origin’s New Glenn will no longer launch a pair of probes to Mars next month, as NASA believes the rocket won’t be ready in time for the mission’s launch window.
Blue Origin, NASA, Planet Earth
Photo credit: The New Glenn rocket underwent a series of tests in February 2024. Blue Origin
Polaris Dawn Goes Where No Man Has Gone — for a Long Time Polaris Dawn Goes Where No Man Has Gone — for a Long TimeFour civilians are now on their way to "a bold and risky trek" through the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts on a mission that will take them higher than any humans have flown since the Apollo moonshot program ended more than 50 years ago.
Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A
Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
| 11Report highlights severe infrastructure challenges at NASA Report highlights severe infrastructure challenges at NASAA new report concludes that infrastructure and workforce challenges will soon require NASA to make tough choices about what missions to continue to conduct unless it receives a significant budget increase.
a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a congressionally chartered organization that serves as the collective scientific national academy of the United States, Washington, D.C.Photo Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky | 12Somewhere Beyond The Sea: Win TJ Klune’s highly anticipated Somewhere Beyond The Sea: Win TJ Klune’s highly anticipatedWin a copy of magical fantasy The House in the Cerulean Sea and its newly released sequel Somewhere Beyond The Sea.We’re big fans of author TJ Klune here at SciFiNow, so you can imagine our excitement at the release of Somewhere Beyond The Sea, the highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling fantasy, The House in the Cerulean Sea. In fact, we’re so excited that we’re giving both books away in our latest competition! scifinow.co.uk Image credit: https://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TJ-71bgrXZvbuS._SL1500_.jpg SpaceX Polaris Dawn astronauts perform private spacewalk  SpaceX Polaris Dawn astronauts perform private spacewalkPolaris Dawn just made history again.
SpaceX's private crew of four astronauts performed the world's first commercial spacewalk while soaring high above Earth on Thursday (Sept. 12) during the third day of a five-day trip to Earth orbit.
Orbit around Earth from Polaris Dawn
Image credit: SpaceX
| 13Starliner astronauts adjust to long-term ISS stay Starliner astronauts adjust to long-term ISS stayThe NASA astronauts left on the International Space Station after Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth uncrewed said they supported NASA’s decision but believed that, given more time, the agency may have acted differently.
ISS (International Space Station)
Photo credit: NASA+
Rocket Report: China leaps into rocket reuse; 19 people are Rocket Report: China leaps into rocket reuse; 19 people areLaunch startups in China and Europe are borrowing ideas and rhetoric from SpaceX.Landspace hops closer to a reusable rocket. Chinese private space startup Landspace has completed a 10-kilometer (33,000-foot) vertical takeoff and vertical landing test on its Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3) reusable rocket testbed, including a mid-flight engine reignition at near supersonic conditions, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Photo credit: Landscape | 14 | ||||||||
| 15 | 16The Boy and The Heron: Win Studio Ghibli prize bundle The Boy and The Heron: Win Studio Ghibli prize bundleWe said The Boy and The Heron, was “a masterpiece” in our FIVE STAR review of the movie and now the Studio Ghibli adventure will be available to rent and buy on digital from today! To celebrate we’re giving away a special The Boy and The Heron prize bundle which includes:
Stackable Warawa figurinesA roly poly Heron and Warawara A theatrical quad poster A copy of The Boy and The Heron on UHD/Blu-ray SciFiNow Image credit: https://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/The-Boy-And-The-Heron-BR.jpg | 17 | 18Robert Pattinson is an unlikely hero in new sci-fi Robert Pattinson is an unlikely hero in new sci-fiWe said that Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel Mickey7 “packs in the peril but still leaves you with the warm and fuzzies, offering space for questioning and hope for humanity” in our FOUR STAR review of the novel and now the book has its own adaptation, renamed Mickey 17 and directed by all-round legend Bong Joon Ho.In Mickey 17, the unlikely hero Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living. Mickey 17 will be released in cinemas on 31 January 2025. Photo credit: https://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Mickey-17.jpg | 19Saudi Arabia plans space industry transformation Saudi Arabia plans space industry transformationSaudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund-backed Neo Space Group (NSG) is looking to lease multi-orbit capacity to bolster its foothold in the satellite market, ahead of likely owning and operating its own constellation.Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, created NSG in May as part of plans to become a major force in space and further diversify its economy from oil. Saudi Arabia Martijn Blanken, Neo Space Group CEO, speaking at World Satellite Business Week in Paris Sept 17 Photo Credit: NSG / Novaspace / World Satellite Business Week | 20THE WILD ROBOT THE WILD ROBOTAdapted from Peter Brown’s beloved, award-winning bestseller, The Wild Robot, DreamWorks Animation’s latest adventure features an impressive voice cast, including Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara and Mark Hamill. Picture from earlier review https://www.scifinow.co.uk/cinema/the-wild-robot-charming-first-trailer-for-dreamworks-latest/
In theaters September 20, 2024
| 21 | ||||||||
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26Air France plans to connect entire fleet to Starlink Wi-Fi Air France plans to connect entire fleet to Starlink Wi-FiAir France announced plans Sept. 26 to begin rolling out free Starlink broadband services across its entire fleet in the summer, becoming the latest major airline to partner with SpaceX’s low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation.
Air France45 Rue de Paris 95747 Roissy CDG Photo Credit: Air France Megalopolis review  Megalopolis reviewThere’s a moment in Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded, $ 120 million sci-fi passion project where the pillars of society (oversized statues where the life and colour have been drained out of them) literally teeter and crumble to the ground. There’s also a sex scene where Aubrey Plaza’s hilariously named, power-hungry economist Wow Platinum utters the words “I’m oral as hell!”. The whiplash from the wildly differing tones and unsubtle metaphors throughout this futuristic fable about the fall of an imagined New Rome (a green screen New York) are bewildering and yet absolutely intoxicating. There are things that happen in Megalopolis that need to be seen to be believed.
Released:27 September (in cinemas) | 27Time After Time: Nicholas Meyer on His First Film Time After Time: Nicholas Meyer on His First FilmNicholas Meyer is perhaps one of the most influential living American writers. To prove it all you have to do is say two things: He saved Star Trek and he made Sherlock Holmes popular again. With his incisive work as the director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in 1982, and his break-out Holmes novel hit The Seven-Per-Cent in 1974, Meyer made a name for himself as the kind of writer who geeks out with characters and historical situations that interest him, and weaves his deep knowledge of adjacent interests to make something entirely new. “These things sort of occur to me,” Meyer tells Den of Geek. “I bump into them. I’m a rather intuitive and non-analytic thinker. I’ll stumble across something that either relates to the books I’ve already written, or something I read that sort of fits or could fit into the chronology, and I go from there.”
Den of Geek
Photo: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
| 28 | ||||||||
| 29 | 30 | |||||||||||||