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Surveyor Uncrewed Spaceflight

Surveyor 3 lands on the moon

SurveyorNASA’s robotic explorer Surveyor 3 touches down safely on the moon, snapping pictures and – with an extendable scoop arm – gathering and analyzing samples of lunar soil. Its landing site, a lunar plain called the Ocean of Storms, becomes the site of a unique long-term experiment: in two years, Surveyor 3 will become the first (and, to date, only) unmanned spacecraft to be personally inspected by humans after its landing.

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Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight Weather & Climate

ESSA-5

ESSAThe recently-rechristened Environmental Sciences Service Administration launches, with the help of NASA, ESSA-5, the latest in a constellation of weather satellites operated by the former U.S. Weather Bureau. Though suffering from a few technical glitches and system failures, ESSA-5 remains in service until late 1968.

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Crewed Spaceflight Soyuz

Soyuz T-8

Soyuz T-8Soyuz T-8 lifts off from the Soviet Union, intended to dock with space station Salyut 7. Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov, Gennady Strekalov and Aleksandr Serebrov are due to take up residence on the station, but discover that the ejection of the nose cone of the Soyuz rocket – which protects the non-aerodynamic Soyuz vehicle during launch – has caused critical damage to the vehicle’s communication equipment. The mission is called off for safety reasons, and the crew returns to Earth after only two days.

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Television

Superboy: Mine Games

SuperboyThe 74th episode of the syndicated series Superboy, starring Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sherman Howard guest stars in and directs this episode.

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Television

Quantum Leap: Memphis Melody

Quantum LeapNBC airs the 94th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Cowboy Bebop, Digimon, Star Wars: Rebels) guest stars.

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Star Trek Television

Star Trek: DS9: His Way

Star Trek: Deep Space NineThe week-long national syndication window opens for the 142nd episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This episode introduces the character of holodeck nightclub singer Vic Fontaine, played by actor/director/singer James Darren (who, ironically, co-starred with William Shatner in the cop show T.J. Hooker).

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Television

Total Recall 2070: Paranoid

Total Recall 2070Canadian broadcaster CHCH-TV airs the 15th 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. Anthony Zerbe (The Omega Man, Star Trek: Insurrection) guest stars.

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Cassini / Huygens Uncrewed Spaceflight

Cassini’s mission extended by two years

CassiniAfter four years orbiting the enormous ringed planet Saturn and flying past its dozens of moons, NASA’s unmanned Cassini probe still hasn’t seen it all. The four successful years thus far included releasing the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe to make the first ever landing on the large moon Titan, discovering (and flying through) water geysers over another moon, and exploring other moons that have puzzled scientists since they were first viewed up close in the early 1980s by the Voyager probes. The mission extension – called the Cassini Equinox Mission – gives Cassini an added two-year lease of life, with a $160 million price tag (the mission so far has cost both NASA and ESA a combined total of $3.3 billion).

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Crewed Spaceflight SpaceX Dragon

SpaceX Crew Dragon explodes in pad test

Crew DragonHaving already visited and returned from the International Space Station in a successful uncrewed test flight, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is set up for a critical ground test of its launch abort system, utilizing the capsule’s built-in SuperDraco engines – and explodes. While no injuries result from the explosion, the major setback results in delays to the Crew Dragon program, which would have flown the first astronauts from American soil since 2011 by the end of 2019 if all had gone as planned. SpaceX does not publicly discuss the specifics of the incident for well over a week until a company spokesman is repeatedly asked by the press about it at a publicity event for an uncrewed Falcon rocket launch.