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Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight Weather & Climate

TIROS-10

TIROSNASA and the United States Weather Bureau launch the tenth and final experimental TIROS weather satellite, TIROS-10. Continuing to test technological upgrades for a fully-functional weather satellite fleet, TIROS-10 also provides additional coverage during hurricane seasons, and remains operational for exactly two years, at which point NASA begins a planned shutdown and phase-out of the experimental TIROS satellites in favor of the Nimbus and ESSA weather satellites.

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Television

The Stranger: Episode 9

The StrangerThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the ninth episode of the science fiction series The Stranger, starring Ron Haddrick. This episode features scenes filmed on location at the Parkes Radio Telescope.

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Science & Technology Weather & Climate

ESSA

ESSAAs part of a reorganization of agencies within the U.S. government in 1965, the country’s Weather Bureau becomes part of ESSA, the Environmental Science Services Administration, and is placed under the Department of Commerce. All weather prediction and analysis is now under the jurisdiction of ESSA, including a growing fleet of weather satellites operated jointly by ESSA and NASA. The agency will be renamed the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration in 1970.

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Mariner Uncrewed Spaceflight

Mariner 4: first pictures from Mars

MarsMariner 4 successfully passes by Mars at a distance of just over 6,000 miles, and transmits the first direct measurements of the Martian environment to Earth, along with the first pictures ever taken of another planet from a nearby spacecraft. Mariner 4’s onboard instruments detect a thin atmosphere – thin enough that any future landing attempts will need to descend on retro rockets, but thick enough that a heat shield is still necessary. These findings have a ripple effect on NASA’s plans for a robotic Mars lander. After its flyby of Mars, Mariner 4 continues on into deep space.

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Television

The Stranger: Episode 11

The StrangerThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the 11th episode of the science fiction series The Stranger, starring Ron Haddrick. Scenes are filmed on the actual dish of the Parkes Radio Telescope.

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Uncrewed Spaceflight Zond

Zond 3

Zond 3The Soviet Union launches Zond 3, an unmanned spacecraft nearly identical to the failed Mars-bound space probe Zond 2, on a trajectory that will swing past the moon on its way to interplanetary space. It would make its closest flyby to the moon on July 20th, 1965, four years to the day prior to the first manned lunar landing, taking photos of the far side of the moon as it heads into deep space. Zond 3 proceeds on a trajectory toward the orbit of Mars, even though it will be too far away from the planet to study it.

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Star Trek Television

Star Trek: the second pilot

Star TrekFilming begins on a nearly-unprecedented second pilot episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek at the request of NBC, which saw promise (but not enough action) in The Cage. When Jeffrey Hunter declines to return to the role of Captain Christopher Pike, the character is renamed (Captain James R. Kirk) and recast (in the person of well-regarded Canadian actor William Shatner). The first edit of the new episode, Where No Man Has Gone Before, features a completely different musical theme (again by Alexander Courage) and other oddities, such as Quinn-Martin-Productions-style “Act” and “Tonight’s Episode” banners at the top of each act of the show, as well as evidence that the names of the characters played by George Takei and James Doohan had yet to be decided.

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Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: Checkmate

Doctor WhoThe 81st episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part four of the story now collectively known as The Time Meddler. This is the first time we meet another one of the Doctor’s people, with his own TARDIS, and the last Doctor Who story to be produced by the series’ original producer, Verity Lambert. This episode concludes Doctor Who’s second season.

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