Badger

by Chris Tobias

Firefly: The Ghost Machine is the third original Firefly novel from Titan Books, and the third by New York Times bestselling author James Lovegrove (The Age of Odin). Much like Lovegrove’s previous two novels set in the Firefly ‘verse, 2018’s Big Damn Hero and 2019’s The Magnificent Nine, this latest effort reads for the most part like a lost episode of the series. Unlike the previous two books, however, this novel takes a unique and somewhat bold approach in that the vast majority of the story takes place only in the unconscious minds of Serenity’s crew, in alternate realities of their own design.

image courtesy amazon.com

This story, which takes place after the events in Firefly but before the events of Serenity, begins as most tales of the ‘verse do. Malcolm Reynolds and his crew (minus Shepherd Book and Inara Serra, who at this point have both already left the ship) are hired by Badger to retrieve illegal cargo from Canterbury and transport it to Persephone, where a buyer is waiting. When the crew arrives at the rendezvous, Mal sees that the cargo is a flightcase stamped with the Blue Sun logo that likely contains Alliance-funded tech that was stolen from a nearby R&D facility, and decides to scrub the mission. He and his crew are desperate, but not desperate enough to risk smuggling an item this hot out of an area that’s swarming with Alliance ships that are almost as keen to regain the stolen property as they are to find the two fugitives that have been hiding aboard Serenity for several months.

Unbeknownst to Mal, Jayne Cobb isn’t willing to pass on the potential payday, and sneaks the cargo aboard Serenity in the hopes of bringing it to Badger and securing the payment for himself. When Jayne stows the case in a secret compartment in his cabin, however, its contents begin to have a strange effect on the crew.

by Chris Tobias

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic dominating the news these days, excitement and buzz continue to mount for the crewed demonstration flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon (DM-2), which is scheduled to launch on May 27 at 4:33pm EDT (2033 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station.

Since 2012, we here at Take Back the Sky have been lobbying for SpaceX to name this Crew Dragon after Serenity, the fictional Firefly-class transport ship in Joss Whedon’s science-fiction television series Firefly and subsequent motion picture Serenity. We’ve traveled to sci-fi and comics conventions across the East Coast, and we launched two online petitions and conducted numerous pen-and-paper petitions at cons, science fairs, Can’t Stop the Serenity screenings and Browncoat Balls. We also encouraged Browncoats and space enthusiasts to send letters, postcards and even leaves to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk and president and COO Gwynne Shotwell asking them to christen the ship with that name.

Just this past weekend, the crew informed the media that they have in fact decided on a name for the spaceship, which they won’t reveal until the day on which she launches. That means right up until launch day, we still have a chance of success in our labor of love of nearly eight-years, but ultimately, when Crew Dragon takes Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley out to the black, she’ll either be called Serenity or she won’t.

Jeff and I started this campaign eight years ago when we discovered we shared a common goal while posting about the topic on the Yahoo message boards of the Pennsylvania Browncoats. From the very beginning, we talked about how positively epic the launch party for a spaceship named Serenity would be. If there’s one thing Browncoats know how to do, it’s throw a mighty fine shindig. Anyone who’s been to a Can’t Stop the Serenity charity event or a Browncoat Ball, or remembers the turnout at San Diego Comic-Con for the celebration of Firefly’s 10th anniversary, knows exactly what I’m talking about. As someone who has been passionately involved with the Browncoat community for nearly a decade, I promised myself that I would personally see to it that a crewed spaceship named Serenity had a launch party that Browncoats everywhere in the ‘verse could not only be proud of, but would want to be a part of.

last-shuttle-launch-spectators-in-Titusville-

Crowds gather for the final Space Shuttle launch in 2011. (Photo: Tim Shortt/Florida Today)

by Chris Tobias

2020 is shaping up to be a big year for SpaceX, and a pivotal one for Take Back the Sky as well. Elon Musk and company are ringing in the New Year with two launches in quick succession on Florida’s Space Coast, and if all goes well, the second will clear one of the final hurdles on the way to sending US astronauts into space aboard Crew Dragon, the spaceship that, if our campaign of nearly 8 years succeeds, will soon be known to the world as Serenity.

January 6 marks the end of the Christmas season for many around the world with the feast of the Epiphany, and if the Magi were around in 2020 they might see a whole new constellation of artificial stars in the night sky. That’s because SpaceX is scheduled to launch its next flight of 60 Starlink satellites into the black this Monday. Starlink 2 will mark the latest addition to SpaceX’s fleet of satellites designed to create a network that will provide internet services to those who are not yet connected as well as reliable and affordable internet access across the globe.

Starlink 2 mission patch (Courtesy: spacexpatchlist.space)

This upcoming mission will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station NET January 6 at 9:19 PM EST, with a launch window that will remain open until 9:29 PM EST. At present weather conditions are 90% GO for launch, but in the event of a scrub the launch would be postponed to Tuesday, January 7 with a liftoff time that would be approximately 20 minutes earlier.

SpaceX confirmed on Twitter following the static fire that the booster supporting this mission previously launched the Iridium-8 and Telstar 18 VANTAGE missions, and the Falcon 9’s first stage is scheduled to be recovered once again aboard the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. SpaceX’s fairing-catching vessels, Ms. Chief and Ms. Tree, will attempt to catch the Falcon 9’s fairing halves during this mission as well.

Once deployed, these newest satellites will bring the strength of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation to 180 satellites in total, making it the largest fleet of commercial spacecraft in existence. In response to concerns from astronomers that an ever increasing fleet of Starlink satellites could interfere with astronomical observations, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell stated that one of the 60 satellites set for launch this Monday will test a new, less-reflective coating designed to reduce the brightness of the spacecraft.

But if you’re a supporter of our campaign here at Take Back the Sky, then the launch that’s of real interest is scheduled NET Saturday, January 11. That’s when SpaceX intends to execute an (uncrewed) in-flight abort test of the Crew Dragon from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This test is a one of the final tests required before astronauts can fly aboard the capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Its exact liftoff time has yet to be announced.

Crew Dragon’s abort thrusters fire during a recent pad abort test. (Courtesy: spacenews.com)

The mission will be configured to take the uncrewed capsule to a predetermined altitude before initiating a mock emergency that will trigger a launch escape shortly after liftoff. The spacecraft will be forced to use its abort engines to push away from the rocket, demonstrating Crew Dragon’s capability to safely separate from the Falcon 9 in the unlikely event of an in-flight emergency.

There is no plan to recover the Falcon 9 that will be used for this mission. The booster is expected to break apart over the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted an animation on December 30 of a simulation of the first crewed flight of a Falcon 9/Dragon and tagged NASA in the tweet. In the ensuing Twitter conversation, Musk said, “Crew Dragon should be physically ready & at the Cape in Feb, but completing all safety reviews will probably take a few more months,” adding, “New technology development schedules tend to exhibit a version of Zeno’s Paradox— at any given point, you’re halfway there.”

Phrases like “a few more months” and “halfway there” would lead us to speculate that a crewed test flight could take place as early as this June, if not earlier. This means our efforts to convince Musk, Shotwell and anyone else at SpaceX who is in need of convincing that the first Crew Dragon should be christened Serenity have truly reached an endgame.

Of course we’re all well aware that when it comes to the space industry, delays are the rule rather than the exception, and just like Badger said about crime and politics in the pilot episode of Firefly, “… the situation is always fluid.” One of the biggest challenges to our campaign over the years has been convincing folk of the importance of consistently lobbying SpaceX in the face of multiple delays. Heck, our first online petition to SpaceX asking them to name their Crew Dragon Serenity stated that her first crewed flight could take place “… as early as 2015.”

But with statements like those Musk made at the end of December, it’s now extremely likely that the next time we see the ball drop in Times Square, American astronauts will have already broken atmo in the Crew Dragon.

So, if you’re a Browncoat, a fan of Joss Whedon’s work in general, or just someone who thinks Serenity would be an appropriate moniker for America’s next crewed spaceship, now is the time to send Elon Musk and Gwynne Shotwell a postcard or letter at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California and tell them you want the first Crew Dragon to bear the name Serenity!

And then, once you’ve dropped that card or letter in the mailbox, you can log on to the live webcast of the Starlink 2 mission at spacex.com or on the company’s YouTube channel this Monday approximately 20 minutes before liftoff and watch SpaceX launch into the New Year.

From all of us here at Take Back the Sky, may your New Year be filled with good health, prosperity, and of course Serenity.

Peace, love and rockets…

image: Amazon.com

by Chris Tobias

In February of last year, Titan Books announced it would be publishing three new Firefly novels that would be set in the canon of Joss Whedon’s original television series, with Whedon himself serving as the consulting editor. The first of those books, Firefly: Big Damn Hero, was released in November of 2018, just in time for the holiday shopping season. The book was written by James Lovegrove, best known for his Age of Odin series and several Sherlock Holmes books, using an original story concept by Nancy Holder, who is well known to fans of Joss Whedon for her many original Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel tie-in novels. (When the books were first announced, Holder had originally been announced as the book’s author, but apparently somewhere along the line Lovegrove was assigned the task of writing the novel using Holder’s original concept.)

With two more Firefly novels scheduled to be released by Titan in 2019, you may be wondering if this first volume will pass muster with Browncoats throughout the ‘verse. Well, if you conjure you might like a fairly straightforward review of the first novel that avoids any spoilers that might damage your calm, this Browncoat is more than happy to oblige, so read on.

Take Back the Sky

"If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it." — Elon Musk

All posts tagged Badger

Third Firefly Novel from Titan Books Offers a Very Different Take on the ‘Verse Browncoats Know and Love

The Browncoats Launch Party That Could Have Been

SpaceX Rockets into the New Year with Starlink Launch, Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test

New Firefly Novel from Titan Books Reads Like a Lost Episode of the Series

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