Free Republic

Born March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, William Shatner has been an indelible part of popular culture for a good portion of a century. Though he’s most recognizable as Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek film and television franchise, Shatner’s career has encompassed everything from the earliest days of television to spoken-word recordings to his own sci-fi book series (TekWar). The nonagenarian will have a birthday celebration the weekend of July 23, 2021, in Ticonderoga, New York, when he attends a gathering at a replica Enterprise set. In the meantime, we’ve compiled 90 of the more compelling...

Pitch hangup will result in delay and changes to designSpaceShip1 HiccupsScaled Composites is planning changes for its SpaceShipOne rocket glider, following a pitchup incident in flight test that showed the current configuration is not safe for the planned flight to 100 km. altitude.The glider was starting an aft center-of-gravity (CG) stall test on its third flight on Sept. 23 when it pitched up uncontrollably at about 85 KIAS--15 kt. above the 70-kt. forward CG stall speed demonstrated on the prior flight (AW&ST Sept. 1, p. 19). The results were reported by the company three days later at the Society of...