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Surveyor Uncrewed Spaceflight

Surveyor 1 lands on the moon

SurveyorNASA’s first attempt to soft-land an unmanned space probe on another body in the solar system ends with a perfect landing: Surveyor 1 snaps photos from the moon’s surface, takes measurements of the local environment, and provides valuable engineering data about the surface that will prove helpful in constructing the much heavier Apollo lunar modules that will – it is hoped – take astronauts to the moon by the end of the decade.

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Television

The Evil Touch: They

The Evil TouchThe 25th episode of the horror anthology series The Evil Touch airs on Australia’s Nine Network, hosted by Anthony Quayle (Strange Report). (The series will later appear in the U.S. and elsewhere in first-run syndication.) Harry Guardino (Dirty Harry) guest stars.

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Television

The Outer Limits: Dark Matters

The Outer LimitsPremium cable channel Showtime airs the 11th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Annette O’Toole guest stars in an episode written by Alan Brennert.

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Television

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Prophecy Girl

Buffy The Vampire SlayerThe 12th episode of Joss Whedon’s trend-setting supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on the WB network. Anthony Stewart Head and Alyson Hannigan also star. David Boreanaz guest stars in the first season finale.

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Crewed Spaceflight Discovery Space Shuttle

STS-91: last stop at Mir

Space ShuttleSpace Shuttle Discovery becomes the last American shuttle to visit space station Mir during a ten-day mission launched on this date. The historic mission is marred slightly by a communications malfunction which makes live TV transmissions from orbit impossible. In addition to retrieving American science experiment packages from Mir, a cargo-bay-mounted experiment to detect dark matter is also conducted. Supplies are also off-loaded onto Mir. Aboard Discovery for her 24th flight are Commander Charles Precourt, Pilot Dominic Gorie, and mission specialists Wendy Lawrence, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Janet Kavandi and Valery Ryumin. Mir astronaut Andrew Thomas, the last American to visit the Russian station, returns to Earth aboard Discovery.

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Deaths Matters of Life & Death

Robert Justman, Star Trek producer, dies

Robert JustmanRobert Justman, who along with Gene Roddenberry shepherded the original Star Trek from an untried pilot to its three years on the air (and came along for the ride with the inception and first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation), dies at the age of 81 from complications associated with Parkinson’s Disease. Originally an assisant director on the rejected pilot episode The Cage, he stuck around to become a producer and one of Roddenberry’s right-hand men. While at Desilu Studios (the makers of the original Star Trek, later bought by Paramount) he also produced the pilot episode of Mission: Impossible; his pre-Trek credits included several episodes of The Outer Limits, numerous Disney Sunday Movies, and The Adventures Of Superman.