Day: April 28, 1956

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Apollo Crewed Spaceflight Gemini Space Shuttle

NASA solicits shuttle, station proposals

  • April 28, 1969

Space ShuttleNASA formally asks various major players in the aerospace industry for proposals for what the agency sees as its two major projects for the 1970s: an orbiting space station and a reusable Space Shuttle to make routine flights from Earth to the station – which NASA hopes will be a “50 man space base” – and back again, with supplies, experiments, and new crew members. (Within mere weeks, the hypothetical station’s equally hypothetical crew will be downsized to a dozen.) In the event that the development curve on the Space Shuttle proves to be a long one, NASA says it will keep Apollo and even Gemini spacecraft in service to make flights to the station.

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Television

The Incredible Hulk: Never Give A Trucker An Even Break

  • April 28, 1978

The Incredible HulkThe ninth episode of the live-action series based on Marvel’s comic The Incredible Hulk premieres on CBS, starring Bill Bixby, Jack Colvin, and Lou Ferrigno. Jennifer Darling (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) guest stars.

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Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight Weather & Climate

GOES-6 goes up

  • April 28, 1983

GOES-6NOAA’s GOES-6 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral into a geosynchronous orbit over 135 degrees west longitude on Earth, a position which will change several times over GOES-5’s career until 1988, allowing it to monitor weather over the continental United States and Europe. GOES-5’s primary set of “eyes” will fail in 1989, leaving GOES-7 as the sole working GOES weather satellite until the mid-1990s. Even while “blind”, GOES-5 will serve as a communications relay satellite until its boost to “graveyard” orbit and shutdown in 1992.

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Television

Robin Of Sherwood: Robin Hood And The Sorcerer

  • April 28, 1984

Robin Of SherwoodThe feature-length combination of the first two episodes of Richard Carpenter’s fanciful retelling of the Robin Hood legend, Robin Of Sherwood, airs on ITV, starring Michael Praed and Nickolas Grace, and featuring a very modern musical treatment by Irish band Clannad. Infusing the familiar tale with elements of Pagan mythology, this proves to be one of the most enduring and influential takes on Robin Hood, and finds international popularity. (Repeats both in the UK and internationally will air the two parts of the story separately.)

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Magellan Mariner Uncrewed Spaceflight Voyager

Mocking up Magellan

  • April 28, 1987

Making MagellanNASA has to borrow some of its own spare parts back from the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to begin engineering mock-up work on the unmanned Venus radar mapping probe Magellan. As JPL works on modifications to a backup central bus component left over from the Voyager program, a physical copy of that bus from an engineering backup of the Voyager spacecraft is loaned back to JPL, shipped to Pasadena from Washington, D.C. (This loan saves JPL the trouble of building another replica of the bus, the central hub of the spacecraft containing its computer and electrical systems, which could add significant cost to the preparations.) The real Magellan, due to be launched soon after the currently grounded space shuttle program resumes, will cut costs by incorporating unused backup equipment from its predecessors, including a Voyager central bus and high-gain antenna, a medium-gain antenna spare from the Mariner missions to Mars, and a Galileo data handling system.

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Television

Max Headroom: Neurostim

  • April 28, 1988

Max HeadroomThe 12th episode of the American-made Max Headroom series premieres on ABC, starring Matt Frewer and Amanda Pays. (This is the the American-made drama series, not the music video/talk show series featuring the same character.) This is the final episode to air on ABC; two further episodes, Lost Tapes and Baby Grobags, aren’t seen until the series goes into reruns on cable years later.

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Crewed Spaceflight Discovery Space Shuttle

STS-39

  • April 28, 1991

Space ShuttleSpace Shuttle Discovery lifts off on an eight-day mission to delivery both classified and unclassified Defense Department payloads into Earth orbit. Aboard the shuttle for this flight are Commander Michael Coats, Pilot Blaine Hammond, and mission specialists Guion Bluford, Gregory Harbaugh, Richard Hieb, Donald McMonagle and Charles Veach.

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Television

VR.5: Control Freak

  • April 28, 1995

VR.5The eighth episode of the science fiction series VR.5 airs on Fox, starring Lori Singer (Fame), Michael Easton (Total Recall 2070), and Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy The Vampire Slayer).

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Franchises Television X-Files

The X-Files: F. Emasculata

  • April 28, 1995

The X-FilesThe 46th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and Mitch Pileggi. Charles Martin Smith (Starman, The Untouchables) and William B. Davis guest star.

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Television

The Outer Limits: From Within

  • April 28, 1996

The Outer LimitsPremium cable channel Showtime airs the 34th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Neil Patrick Harris (A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Starship Troopers) guest stars.

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