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Project Mercury
The newly-formed NASA reveals a bold plan: Project Mercury will be an extensive program to create a vehicle capable of safely sending men into Earth orbit and returning them in one piece. The rigorous selection process to find the country’s first space pilots – astronauts – begins, focusing on combat pilots and especially test pilots with experience in flying unproven experimental aircraft (the Mercury spacecraft will definitely qualify for this description).
The second episode of the science fiction drama series Men Into Space airs on CBS, starring William Lundigan. This episode is written by future novelist James Clavell (Shogun).
The 38th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Joseph Ruskin and Olan Soule star in an episode written by Serling.
ABC airs the 
UK broadcaster ATV Midlands airs the second episode of Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation science fiction series Thunderbirds, featuring the voices of Shane Rimmer, David Graham, Sylvia Anderson, Ray Barrett, and Peter Dyneley.
The fifth episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series The Time Tunnel airs on ABC, starring James Darren and Robert Colbert. Carroll O’Connor, Whit Bissell, and Lee Meriwether geust star.
The 
ABC broadcasts the fifth episode of the Filmation animated series Journey To The Center Of The Earth, very loosely based on the 
British broadcaster ABC airs the 122nd episode of the spy-fi series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.
The fourth episode of Gerry Anderson’s live-action UFO series airs on ITV, starring Edward Bishop and Michael Billington. Drewe Henley (Star Wars) guest stars.
ITV airs the 11th episode of Ace Of Wands, starring Michael McKenzie, Tony Selby and Judy Loe. This episode, like the rest of the series’ first two seasons, is now missing from the archives.
The 16th episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins. June Allyson guest stars.
The fourth 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.) Leslie Nielsen (Airplane!) guest stars as an airline pilot, but that’s not important right now.
The fifth episode of the BBC’s short-lived science fiction series 
The 17th episode of Wonder Woman airs on CBS, starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner. 
The 
CBS airs the 
Pinball maker D. Gottlieb & Co., via its Mylstar video game division, graces arcades with the qute qreatures of 
The 28th episode of the syndicated series Superboy, starring Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sherman Howard guest stars as Lex Luthor in the second season premiere, which also features a new actor in the lead role.
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The 
The 28th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and Mitch Pileggi. Tony Todd (Candyman, Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest stars.
The 52nd episode of the supernatural crime series Forever Knight airs in syndication, starring Geraint Wyn-Davies, Catherine Disher, Nigel Bennett, and Lisa Ryder.
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 
The fifth episode of the science fiction series The Cape premieres in syndication in North America, starring Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law) and Adam Baldwin, and focusing on a fictionalized version of NASA’s shuttle program. 
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spots an object beyond the orbit of Pluto, and approximately half the size of Pluto – the largest object discovered in the solar system in over 70 years. With a circular orbit that’s a billion miles further from the sun than Pluto, the body is determined to be approximately 800 miles in diameter. Quaoar is believed to be the largest Kuiper Belt object discovered to date, though its thunder will be stolen a few years later with the discovery of Eris and the demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet.
Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on the 111th shuttle flight, an 11-day construction mission to the International Space Station. Another major structural truss is assembled and attached, serving the primary function of radiating built-up waste heat away from the station and into space. Aboard Atlantis for her 26th flight are Commander Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pamela Melroy, and mission specialists David Wolf, Piers Sellers, Sandra Magnus and Fyodor Yurchikhin.
Detected only 20 hours before, the meteoroid designated 2008 TC3 burns up and explodes in Earth’s atmosphere, exploding 23 miles above the Sudanese desert. Estimated to be over ten feet in diameter prior to losing most of its mass to heating in the Earth’s atmosphere, 2008 TC3 is thought to have weighed in at approximately 80 tons; hundred of fragments with a total weight of a little over 20 pounds are recovered from the desert. This is the first Near-Earth Object detected prior to impact or destruction by the NASA-funded Spaceguard survey, though the time between detection, confirmation and arrival is less than a day.