The 32nd episode of the science fiction drama series Men Into Space airs on CBS, starring William Lundigan.
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At a special joint session of Congress called to discuss “urgent national needs,” President John F. Kennedy sets a new goal for NASA (which has only just put a single American astronaut into space): “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space, and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.” Kennedy requests that Congress pass space-related budgets totaling half a billion dollars for 1962 alone (encompassing not only the Apollo program, but nuclear rocket development, weather satellite development, and communication satellites).
The 101st episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Jesse White and Carol Burnett star in an episode written by Serling.
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The Twilight Zone now streaming on Paramount Plus
The 208th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This story sees the return of the Cybermen and the introduction of Wendy Padbury as the Doctor’s new companion, Zoe. This episode is now missing from the BBC’s archives.
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The first three-man Skylab crew lifts off to undertake a mission far different from the one for which they had trained. Their primary objective is now to save the crippled station from the damage it suffered during launch; as it is, Skylab is uninhabitable, with temperatures in its workshop and crew quarters soaring above 100 degrees, threatening to heat up items inside enough to fill the space with toxic gases. The first repair spacewalk takes place less than 24 hours after the crew arrives in an Apollo capsule, and succeeds in starting to drop the temperature inside.
The 379th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This is the final story of the third Doctor’s era.
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Boasting a story and characters with universal appeal, a magnificent soundtrack, and special effects unlike anything that had been seen before, George Lucas’ Star Wars arrives, changing the movie industry and geekdom forever. Word-of-mouth – to say nothing of lines of moviegoers winding around the block, eager to immediately see the movie again – spreads like wildfire, and suddenly it’s okay to be a science fiction fan.
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RSO Records releases a double LP of John Williams’ soundtrack from Star Wars, coinciding with the movie’s release. A fold-out poster of publicity artwork of the climactic Death Star dogfight is included. The album becomes a chart-topper by the end of the year, and cover versions by other artists are released even before the year is out. Many listeners become lifelong film score fanatics on the spot.
RSO Records releases an LP of selections from John Williams’ soundtrack from Return Of The Jedi, a surprisingly downscaled released compared to the first two movies’ double-album soundtracks.
The 24th episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC. Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty In Pink, Mannequin) and Ian Wolfe guest star in the first season finale.
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Amazing Stories now streaming on Amazon Prime
The 78th episode of the syndicated series Superboy, starring Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sherman Howard and Justina Vail (Seven Days) guest star in the third season finale.
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The Donald Fagen solo album Kamakiriad is released, featuring the single “Tomorrow’s Girls”.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 14th episode of Babylon 5.
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Babylon 5 now streaming on Amazon Prime
Canadian broadcaster CHCH-TV airs the 20th 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. Titus Welliver (Lost) guest stars.
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Radio signals from the Martian surface indicating the successful landing of NASA’s unmanned Phoenix probe near the north pole of Mars. (To put this feat in perspective: the past several unmanned probes to land safely on Mars used a “bouncing airbag” approach; the last time a lander actually made it to the surface intact with braking thrusters and landing pads – and no airbags – was in 1976, when NASA’s Viking 1 and 2 landers successfully touched down on the planet.) The first stationary (i.e. non-rover) Mars lander since the Viking probes of the 1970s, Phoenix will stay in one spot to conduct three months of studies. Also like the Vikings, Phoenix has a soil-sampling arm and an on-board laboratory to help it determine the presence of water or water ice in its polar vicinity.
The 122nd Soyuz vehicle launched, Soyuz TMA-13M, lifts off from Russia to the International Space Station, carrying the station’s 40th crew to its stay in orbit. Aboard are flight engineers Maksim Surayev, Greg Wiseman and Alexander Gerst; of the three, only Surayev has previous spaceflight experience, and he will become the ISS Commander upon the departure of Expedition 39. Expedition 40’s stay aboard the ISS is slated to last six months, and Soyuz TMA-13M will be used as a return vehicle by the crew of Expedition 41 later in 2014. Though Soyuz TMA-13M was intended to use the recently developed six-hour fast-track launch trajectory to reach the station the same day it launched, technical glitches delayed its arrival at the ISS until May 28th.
The 92nd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Neal McDonough (Boomtown) guest stars in the fourth season finale.
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The CW airs the 143rd episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin.
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The CW airs the seventh episode of Superman & Lois, starring Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Jordan Elsass, and Alex Garfin.
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Superman & Lois now streaming on HBO Max
The CW airs the 166th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin.
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Virgin Galactic launches the Unity-25 suborbital spaceflight aboard the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity. Both crew and passengers are employees of Virgin Galactic, as this is effectively a proving flight following the Federal Aviation Administration’s grounding of the Virgin Galactic fleet in 2021 after its first passenger flight. Pilots Michael Masucci and C.J. Sturckow are at the controls; Beth Moses, Luke Mays, Jamila Gilbert, and Christopher Huie are the passengers. Flights following this one will be designated “Galactic” followed by the flight number.
