Neha Jain: http://newzealandaviationnews.blogspot.com/26

Space shuttle Discovery lifts off from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011.

1. Don Johnson cast in NBC's hairstylist drama pilot

Image Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com Another veteran star could be returning to TV this fall: Don Johnson has landed the lead role in NBC’s drama pilot A Mann’s World.
The story follows a straight Beverly Hills hairdresser and salon owner (Johnson) who’s described as “much like Warren Beatty’s character in the feature Shampoo” and is now in his 50s, struggling to stay young and relevant in a place where looks are everything. The show will explore men’s struggle with aging, the salon owner refusing to pack in it in, instead choosing to expand his business while juggling three families.”
Produced by Warner Bros., the project is from Sex and the City creator Michael Patrick King. The Miami Vice star had a small role in HBO’s Eastbound and Down last year and was last in a regular TV series in 2005′s Just Legal.
2. FX Orders Pilot for Bendis and Oeming Comic ‘Powers
If you listened closely late Friday night, you could hear a boisterous roar from the message board of comic writer, Brian Michael Bendis after news Senior Vice President of Media Relations at the FX and Fox Cable Networks tweeted a pilot has been ordered for Powers, a drama following two homicide detectives in a world inhabited by super powered beings.

Powers is based off the comic series by Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers, Takio) and artist Mike Avon Oeming (Thor, Mice Templar, Takio) who launched the series in 2000 through Image Comics and moved the comic over to Marvel’s creator-owned Icon imprint in 2006.

An all-star crew is behind Powers television show, which bodes well for those already anticipating the pilot. Chic Eglee left The Walking Dead writing staff to become showrunner. He’s also worked on Dexter and The Shield. Michael Dinner, directed pilots for Sons of Anarchy and Justified will executive produce and direct the ordered pilot. Sony will co-produce with the FX Network.

We here at BuzzFocus are thrilled at the news and are happy for Bendis and Oeming. Both creators have grown with every issue and story arc. Oeming’s art in particular was green in the start but it didn’t take him long to shape into one of today’s most exciting storytellers. As for Bendis, while he has been a mainstay in Marvel’s mainstream books for several years, Powers is the one creator-owned book he has continued to write through it all, always pushing the edge and merging his love of super heroes and detective noir stories. Despite an irregular publishing schedule, Powers has remained one of the best comics on the racks for over 11 years.

3. FWC OKs pilot anchoring program for the Keys
With state approval to proceed on new anchoring regulations, Monroe County officials now start work on the next steps of a pilot project to better regulate Florida Keys waters.

On Wednesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission endorsed Monroe County's application, which includes Marathon and Key West, along with proposals from Gulf of Mexico sites Sarasota and St. Petersburg.

The Legislature approved the mooring and anchoring program in 2009. Two other pilot sites, on Florida's east coast, have yet to be named.

Rich Jones, senior administrator of Monroe County Marine Resources, will update Monroe County commissioners on the program at the board's March 16 meeting.

"That's the next big thing," Jones said Friday. "The next step in the program [after the commission meeting] is stakeholder workshops and development of draft local ordinances."

Those sessions with liveaboard residents and others have not been scheduled but "will be occurring in 2011," Jones said.

The anchoring pilot programs are intended to let communities in the designated areas to regulate overnight and long-term anchoring by vessels off their shores.

Current law allows counties and governmental agencies to regulate boats only within approved mooring fields, like those in Marathon's Boot Key Harbor and off Key West.

This new program will extend local authority to nearshore areas outside mooring fields, for a trial period ending in July 2014.

Monroe County and the other sites were approved by the state Boating Advisory Council before reaching the FWC.

"We hope the project promotes safe public access to Florida's waters, protects the marine environment and deters improperly stored, abandoned or derelict vessels," said Maj. Jack Daugherty, head of the FWC's Boating and Waterways section.

Monroe County officials, including Commissioner George Neugent and Administrator Roman Gastesi, have expressed concern about the proliferation of anchored boats and abandoned vessels in Keys waters.

Regulated mooring fields for liveboard boats "have been successful," Gastesi said in a November letter to FWC officials, but "the cities that manage them have not been able to address issues associated with anchored non-liveaboard vessels adjacent to their mooring fields."

High costs of docking a large vessel in a marina have prompted a steady increase in liveaboard and stored boats left on the hook -- at anchor -- off Florida shores in years, state officials said. Untended or poorly maintained boats can cause a navigational menace by sinking or breaking free.

"Such vessels [may go] adrift, creating the potential for property and resource damage," says a 2009 Monroe County resolution asking for more authority.

Any regulations forwarded for each local program must be approved by the FWC board and conform to federal maritime law.

4. Following Discovery Launch, Shuttle's First Pilot Describes Mission Number 1
As six astronauts engage in one last mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery, Mike Coats, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, knows what it feels like.
After all, Coats was the pilot for the shuttle Discovery's very first mission -- the STS-41D flight that marked the beginning of the shuttle's 27-year spaceflying career, which will end in retirement after this trip to and from the International Space Station.
Discovery lifted into space Aug. 30, 1984, on its inaugural mission from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. [Reflections on Building Shuttle Discovery]
From the pilot's seat on Discovery's first trip into orbit to the seat he currently occupies as director of the Johnson Space Center, Coats, 65, has a unique connection with the oldest of NASA's shuttles still in operation. On the eve of Discovery's scheduled liftoff from that same launch pad for Its STS-133 mission, SPACE.com sat down with Coats to discuss his STS-41D flight, the ending of the space shuttle program, and his hopes for the future of space exploration:
SPACE.com: You were a part of Discovery's maiden voyage. What has it been like for you, watching as Discovery gets ready to launch on its final spaceflight?

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Michael Coats: Well, it's obviously a bittersweet feeling. I've got mixed emotions. I'm always proud when we're launching any of the shuttles. I'm just so proud of the teams — the thousands of people around the country, and around the world — that make it possible to launch the shuttles, and go up and do the things we do on the space station.
From my perspective as director of the Johnson Space Center, I get to see parts of the team working together. I get to travel around the world and meet the people who are working hard to do the research that we're doing on the space station. And so it's a real privilege for me to see the team.
I wish the people around the world could have an understanding and appreciation of the amazing, highly motivated group of people that work in the space program. They make the impossible possible, and sometimes they even make it look easy. And it's not easy. Getting into space, operating in space — it's a real challenge. It's always going to be a challenge.
So it's bittersweet. I'll be really sad when Discovery rolls to a stop for the last time, because then they'll take it and put it in a museum. You know, at my age I see a lot of planes that I flew more than 40 years ago in museums, but seeing the spaceship that I flew in a museum is going to be really hard.
SPACE.com: In a sense, Discovery's STS-133 mission marks the beginning of the end. As we approach the retirement of the space shuttle program, how would you sum up the impact of the shuttles?
Coats: I think it's been an amazing vehicle. The capabilities and the complexities of the shuttle are astounding.
But that same complexity gives it the capability that we couldn't have dreamed of even 45 years ago. It's just incredible, and I think we're going to miss that. The shuttle can take incredible amounts of weight and mass into orbit. And we can bring it home. It's a truck — nothing else can lift as much as the shuttle. So, we're going to miss that capability. We can't go out and repair satellites like we've done for the last 30 years. So it's sad, in a sense, to see it come to an end.

NEHA JAIN

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