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Earth from a hundred miles up
Continuing experimental photography from captured German V2 rockets, scientists and engineers at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range capture a view of Earth from space at an altitude of 100 miles. Though the V2 is capable only of ballistic suborbital flight, an automated camera on the rocket captures the curve of the Earth before falling back to the surface. As with earlier experimental unmanned flights in 1946, also using captured V2 rockets, the rocket and camera are destroyed upon impact with the ground.
The 23rd episode of ABC’s science fiction anthology series, Tales Of Tomorrow, airs on ABC, with each episode’s opening titles proclaiming that the series is produced “in cooperation with the Science-Fiction League of America”, a collective of sci-fi writers including Isaac Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon among its members. This episode, starring Nina Foch and Russell Hardie, is no longer in the archives and may be lost.
ABC airs the 84th episode of the supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland.
The 112th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Dana Andrews and Patricia Breslin star in an episode written by Serling.
The 16th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part three of the story now collectively known as 
British broadcaster ABC airs the 76th episode of the spy-fi series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman. 
The ninth episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, premieres on ABC. James Whitmore (The Law And Mr. Jones) guest stars.
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The 57th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Lindsay Wagner guest stars in the third season finale.
NASA Administrator James Fletcher announces that the ambitious twin Mariner Jupiter/Saturn ’77 space probes, due to be launched later in the year, have been christened with new names: Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The name change has been initiated by recently-promoted Voyager program manager John Casani, who thinks the spacecraft need a name that’s less of a mouthful (the name “Discoverer” was also considered). For the first time, NASA openly admits that one of the vehicles – Voyager 2 – may continue on to Uranus and Neptune should its Saturn flyby go well in 1981, depending on the spacecraft’s health.
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Upstart video game manufacturer Mythicon releases 
CBS airs the 20th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Lane Smith (V) and Mare Winningham star in an episode comprised of two short stories, Profile In Silver and Button, Button, the latter of which is Richard Matheson’s adaptation of his own short story.
With nearly all of its members voting in favor of a work stoppage, unionized Hollywood writers go on strike for five months, crippling the TV and movie industry. Several shows’ fall premieres are delayed significantly, and many television series and movies have to commence production on partially-finished scripts with no opportunities for rewrites (including Tim Burton’s Batman and the James Bond movie Licence To Kill). In the unusually long “off season,” attempts are made at reviving prime-time variety shows, and fledgeling network Fox rushes several “unscripted” series, including Cops and America’s Most Wanted, into production to fill the gap; these prove to be surprise hits, giving “reality” TV a permanent foothold on many network schedules. Many returning shows do not air new episodes until November or December, if they even generate new material before the end of 1988.
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NBC airs the 25th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Marcia Cross (Melrose Place, Desperate Housewives) and Robert Duncan McNeill (Star Trek: Voyager) guest star.
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After decades of the tiny object being seen only as a point of light in even the best telescopic images, the Hubble Space Telescope makes the first survey of the surface of Pluto. Even without the distortion introduced by Earth’s atmosphere, Hubble’s best shots of Pluto are vague due to the distance from Earth to Pluto, but they mark the first time that even blurry surface detail has been seen. The new images help NASA gain support for a Pluto flyby mission in the 21st century, which will eventually be named New Horizons.
Showtime airs the 52nd episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of the 1960s science fiction anthology series. Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) guest stars.
Fox airs the 40th episode of Tracy Torme’s alternate-universe science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, Sabrina Lloyd, Cleavant Derricks, and Kari Wuhrer. Jay Acovone (Stargate SG-1) guest stars.
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The 132nd episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Peter White guest stars.
The fourth episode of the science fiction comedy series The Strangerers is broadcast on Sky One, created and written by Rob Grant (Red Dwarf), starring Mark Williams and Jack Docherty.
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Actor Paul Winfield, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1978 TV miniseries King, dies of a heart attack at the age of 62. In genre circles, Mr. Winfield won praise for his portrayal of Captain Terrell of the Reliant in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan and as General Richard Franklin in the GROPOs episode of Babylon 5, but perhaps his best genre outing was in a 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Darmok. He received Emmy nominations for his work in King and Roots: The Next Generation, as well as an Oscar nomination for Sounder; he finally took home an Emmy for a guest role on Picket Fences in 1995.