ARPA
Under the direction of President Eisenhower, the U.S. Department of Defense establishes a high-tech think tank, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), to conduct scientific and technological research with both national security implications and purely for technological advancement. The formation of ARPA is a direct response to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite, and in the years ahead ARPA will lay the cornerstone of what will later become known as the Internet, as well as making significant strides in space science, though the space-related part of ARPA’s initial charter will later be transferred to a new agency called NASA. As the Cold War heats up, ARPA will be renamed DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and its slate of R&D projects will become almost entirely military-oriented.
ABC airs the 81st episode of the supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland.
The 108th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Jack Klugman and Ross Martin star.
The fifth episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, premieres on ABC. John Larch guest stars.
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NBC airs the 16th episode of Leslie Steven’s “spy-fi” series Search, starring Hugh O’Brian and Burgess Meredith. Ed Nelson and Anne Francis guest star.
An agreement is struck between Paramount Pictures’ television division and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum (currently the Smithsonian Air Museum, which is planning the grand opening of its space-related exhibits for the bicentennial year of 1976) concerning the 18-foot, 275-pound filming model of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek. Since Paramount foresees no use for the gigantic “miniature”, the studio agrees to donate the model to the Smithsonian as an exhibit – provided the Smithsonian foots the $500 bill for shipping. The model was originally built by Howard Anderson Co. in 
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The Soviet Union launches the Soyuz 24 mission to the Salyut 5 military space station. Cosmonauts Viktor Gorbatko and Yuri Glazkov carry special breathing gear to protect them from toxic fumes reported to have been the cause of the hasty exit of the crew of Soyuz 21 in 1976. They vent the entire atmosphere of Salyut 5 into space and replenish it, taking up residence for 18 days, during which they perform their own science and Earth surveillance experiments. They leave the station habitable for a visit by another crew, but Salyut 5’s fuel will be exhausted before that mission can take place.
UK regional broadcaster HTV premieres the 
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Astronaut Bruce McCandless becomes the first untethered human spacewalker when he leaves the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Challenger aboard a Manned Maneuvering Unit, a jetpack-like device allowing him to maneuver freely with no hoses or cables connecting him to the shuttle. In development since the Gemini era, and tested briefly aboard Skylab in prototype form, the MMU will see use on only three missions before NASA puts it in mothballs.
CBS airs the 17th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Gerrit Graham and Scott Wilson star in an episode comprised of two short stories.
The 14th episode of James D. Parriott’s lighthearted sci-fi series, Misfits Of Science, airs on NBC, starring Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, and Courteney Cox. Diane Civita (V) guest stars.
NBC airs the 23rd episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Teri Austin (Knots Landing) guest stars.
The last of the Salyut space stations from the heyday of the Soviet space program, Salyut 7 tumbles into the Earth’s atmosphere, its supply of fuel exhausted. (No cosmonauts have occupied Salyut 7 since 1986.) With the large Kosmos 1686 expansion still docked, most of Salyut 7 disintegrates in the atmosphere, though some debris is scattered over Argentina. Salyut 7 lasted nearly nine years in orbit.
The 12th episode of the superhero series The Flash, based on the DC Comics character, airs on CBS, starring John Wesley Shipp and Amanda Pays. Mark Hamill (Star Wars, Batman: The Animated Series) guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
Showtime airs the 48th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of the 1960s science fiction anthology series. George Newbern (Scandal) guest stars.
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The 128th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Veronica Cartwright (Alien) and Nick Tate (Space: 1999) guest star.
The 58th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, airs in syndication, starring Robert Leeshock, Jayne Heitmeyer, Von Flores, and Richard Chevolleau. Simon MacCorkindale (Quatermass, Manimal) guest stars.
Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on the 102nd shuttle flight, a mission to install the American-made Destiny laboratory module on the International Space Station. Once attached to its connection point on the Unity module, Destiny is powered up and pressurized, adding more space for scientific experiments to the station. Aboard Atlantis for her 22nd flight are Commander Kenneth Cockrell, Pilot Mark Polansky, and mission specialists Robert Curbeam, Thomas Jones and Marsha Ivins.
Citing declining ratings, UPN and Paramount announce that Star Trek: Enterprise‘s current season – its fourth – will be its last. The last episode will be shot in March. At 97 episodes (the network’s press release says 98, as Paramount typically counts the two-hour series premiere in 2001 as two shows), Enterprise is the shortest Star Trek spinoff since the original Star Trek was cancelled after three seasons in the 1960s. David Stapf, President of Paramount Network Television, says in a statement, “All of us at Paramount warmly bid goodbye to Enterprise, and we all look forward to a new chapter of this enduring franchise in the future,” though the cancellation marks the first time since 1987 that there is been no new Star Trek in production for TV; at least one spinoff has been in production continuously for 18 years, resulting in 619 episodes (seven of them two-hour TV movies) and four spinoff-based feature films. Another movie, the eleventh in the franchise’s history, is reportedly moved to the back burner by Paramount.
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