FanFare

The chefs get an early start as they head to the Houston farmers market to meet Padma and Quickfire guest judge Claudette Zepeda. For this Quickfire Challenge, the chefs have to put their own fresh take on fajitas, a Houston classic. The best fajita dish will win $10,000 courtesy of a sponsor. Next, the competition reaches new heights in the Elimination Challenge as the chefs voyage to the Houston Space Center to meet up with Melissa King and a few experts in space cuisine. If they want to blast off to victory, they’ll have to create a stellar new menu item that they would crave if they were on a multi-year mission to Mars that meets both NASA and guest judge Marcus Samuelson’s culinary standards. [more inside]
posted by Superilla on May 11, 2022 - 9 comments

Riker, Data, and Worf get trapped on a mysterious away mission. Apparently, what happens on Theta VIII stays on Theta VIII. [more inside]
posted by CheesesOfBrazil on Aug 10, 2020 - 21 comments

QI elves Dan, James, Anna and Andy discuss Plato, pizza and pliable planes.  [more inside]
posted by taskmaster on Apr 5, 2020 - 0 comments

After the USSR lands the the first woman on the Moon, NASA scrambles to assemble a crop of women astronaut candidates, known as ASCANs. The candidates endure months of extremely difficult training, steadily winnowing their number. Women around the world are inspired by the Soviet cosmonaut and the NASA ASCANs.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich on Nov 3, 2019 - 17 comments

Director von Braun opposes President Nixon's directive, with dire consequences. [more inside]
posted by adrianhon on Nov 3, 2019 - 8 comments

NASA is in crisis as the Soviets land the first man on the moon in 1969, the beginning of an alternate history. [more inside]
posted by Major Clanger on Nov 3, 2019 - 14 comments

My god… It's full of space garbage… [more inside]
posted by CheesesOfBrazil on Mar 15, 2018 - 5 comments

In 2003 the space shuttle Columbia was returning from two weeks in orbit. It was a routine mission. So routine that most of America barely paid attention. Until something went terribly wrong. Many of us watched shuttle break apart over Texas on television. All seven of the crew members were lost. Jon Clark's wife, Laurel, was one of them, and her death that day inspired his life's work: helping get more people to space. [more inside]
posted by eotvos on Jan 29, 2017 - 6 comments

A team of African-American women provide NASA with important mathematical data needed to launch the program's first successful space missions.
posted by noneuclidean on Jan 7, 2017 - 38 comments

The finale of the 2015 Summer Season. "The nation deserves an accounting -- a full accounting -- of what really happened in Ed Dwight's case. And so does every Negro boy and girl who ever aspired to the stars." -- Ebony, 1965 [more inside]
posted by gladly on Sep 2, 2015 - 2 comments