Day: January 5, 1957

Categories
Apollo Crewed Spaceflight

Apollo unveiled

  • January 5, 1962

ApolloWeeks before an American astronaut first makes it to orbit, NASA unveils the design of the two Apollo spacecraft: a command/service module (large compared to the Mercury capsules Americans have already seen) and a completely un-aerodynamic lunar module whose unique shape, designed solely for landing on the moon, will never need to operate inside an atmosphere. Though further refinements in both designs are still to come, NASA has already decided on the basic shape of its crash lunar exploration program whose goal is to land a man on the moon before 1970.

Categories
Crewed Spaceflight Space Shuttle

The Space Transportation System

  • January 5, 1972

Space ShuttlePresident Richard Nixon announces that, after three years of studies, design concepts, and deliberations, he has given NASA the go-ahead to develop a reusable space vehicle, the Space Shuttle, which can perform multiple mission profiles, land safely and launch again, with the eventual goal of launching a shuttle almost every week of the year. The contract to build the shuttle is awarded to Apollo command/service module contractor North American Aviation, which is later to complete a merger with Rockwell International, which assumes the task of building the shuttles. The first launch date is projected to take place at some point in the mid-to-late 1970s.

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Categories
Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: Arc Of Infinity, Part 2

  • January 5, 1983

Doctor WhoThe 581st episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Leonard Sachs and Michael Gough guest star; for the first and only time to date in the series, the next actor to play the Doctor appears in a small guest role (Colin Baker). This episode, in keeping with the season’s 20th anniversary theme, and brings back Omega, the villain of 1973’s The Three Doctors, in a story set on the Time Lord planet of Gallifrey.

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Categories
Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: Attack Of The Cybermen, Pt. 1

  • January 5, 1985

Doctor WhoThe 629th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1, premiering the 22nd season of the series. Maurice Colbourne, Brian Glover and Faith Brown guest star in a story tying into both the first Cybermen story (1966’s The Tenth Planet) and the public’s fascination with the close approach, in 1985, of Halley’s Comet. This is also the first episode in Doctor Who’s new format for the 22nd season, which aired one 50 minute episode on the show’s more “traditional” Saturday night time slot.

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Categories
Television

Total Recall 2070: Machine Dreams, Part 1

  • January 5, 1999

Total Recall 2070Canadian broadcaster CHCH-TV premieres the first episode of Art Monterastelli’s sci-fi series Total Recall 2070, starring Michael Easton and Cynthia Preston, very loosely based on the 1990 film Total Recall. The series will air on the American pay cable channel Showtime later in the year, with parts one and two aired as a single movie-length episode. Though the series’ inspiration was based on a Philip K. Dick story, Dick is not acknowledged in the credits.

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