theLogBook.com is a chronicle of how we used to imagine the future – an ever-expanding
logbook of what our entertainment, our culture, and even our brightest minds thought would happen.
It’s nostalgia – and some real history – that gives factual context to the fiction, cultural
context to the factual, and always looks to the future.

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Published On: November 13, 2019

RyuguJapan’s Hayabusa-2 uncrewed spacecraft, carrying samples of material from asteroid 162173 Ryugu, begins its long trip home after spending nearly a year and a half in Ryugu’s orbit, where it deposited autonomous robotic landers and fired a projectile into Ryugu’s surface to loosen material for capture and return to Earth. First launched in 2014, Hayabusa-2’s return trajectory to Earth is expected to bring the samples of asteroid material home to a safe landing in Australia in late 2020.

Published On: November 13, 2017

Star Wars: RebelsCable channel Disney XD airs the 65th episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels. Lars Mikkelsen, Clancy Brown, and Warwick Davis (Willow, Return Of The Jedi) guest star. Read more

Published On: November 13, 2015

Jodorowsky's DuneCinewax Records releases, both digitally and on physical media, Kurt Stenzel’s score from the documentary film Jodorowsky’s Dune. Concerning an abortive 1970s attempt to commit Frank Herbert’s seminal SF novel to film, the music is done in an analog, 1970s style. Read more

Published On: November 13, 2014

Philae on Comet 67PLaunched in 2004, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta space probe, orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the outer solar system, releases the Philae robotic lander to descend to 67P’s surface. The lander’s harpoon anchoring system doesn’t work entirely as expected, and Philae bounces off the surface and goes spaceborne again for two hours before coming to rest on the comet once more. Though Philae is able to gather scientific data and the first-ever pictures from a comet’s surface, the nearby geography prevents its solar panels from keeping its batteries at a full charge; ESA ground controllers are only able to intermittently contact Philae.

Published On: November 13, 2003

Doctor WhoA new animated Doctor Who adventure, Scream Of The Shalka, premieres on BBCi, the BBC’s web site, starring Richard E. Grant as the ninth Doctor, Sophie Okonedo, and Sir Derek Jacobi. Written by popular Doctor Who novelist Paul Cornell, this story is heavily promoted well in advance with the announcement that Richard E. Grant is the official ninth incarnation of the Doctor; BBCi is unaware of the behind-the-scenes negotiations elsewhere in the BBC with Russell T. Davies. (The BBC’s unexpected announcement of Doctor Who’s imminent return as a live action series invalidates Shalka before its premiere.) Read more

Published On: November 13, 1995

Babylon 5Cable channel TNT buys a package of reruns, presuming a three-season, 66-episode run, of the science fiction series Babylon 5, to begin airing in 1998. As TNT and PTEN are both owned by Warner Bros., the deal is seen as an “inside trade” among corporate siblings for a series unlikely to have a wide market for buyers in rerun form. Unknown to anyone at the time, this deal will have a major impact on the series’ future, particularly when the PTEN network begins to fall apart.

Published On: November 13, 1981

ColumbiaKey to NASA’s claim that the Space Shuttle will be able to deploy, retrieve and repair satellites is the Canadian-built remote manipulator arm system (or “Canadarm”), a project first contracted in 1975 and making its first appearance on Columbia‘s second flight. During tests, the arm performs exactly as expected, and proves to be absolutely vital to many future shuttle missions. The Canadian Space Agency and its subcontractors quickly receive further orders – a Canadarm for every shuttle in the fleet. Fuel cell problems shorten Columbia’s mission from five days to two days, but the crew still accomplishes most of the planned objectives and experiments.

Published On: November 13, 1978

HEAO-2NASA launches the second High Energy Astronomy Observatory satellite, which is given the nickname “Einstein” when it enters service. HEAO-2 is a dedicated X-ray telescope with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy, and will remain in service through March 1982, re-entering Earth’s atmosphere a week afterward.

Published On: November 13, 1976

Ark IICBS airs the tenth episode of Filmation’s live-action Saturday morning science fiction series Ark II. Jonathan Harris (Lost In Space) guest stars. Read more

Published On: November 13, 1976

Doctor WhoThe 438th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. For the first time in the series’ history, the Doctor is seen to be traveling without a companion, and this story marks his second visit to the Time Lords’ planet Gallifrey since the beginning of the series. Much of the Time Lord mythology is derived from this story. Peter Pratt guest stars as the Master.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Absolutely no generative AI was used in the creation of the content on this website.
It’s mostly just some guy named Earl.

EG