The newly-formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration launches its first space probe, Pioneer 1, atop a Thor-Able booster. Intended to image the moon at the infrared end of the spectrum from close range, Pioneer 1 is the victim of a technical error which instead sends it into an 80,000 mile arc which eventually brings it back into Earth’s atmosphere. Its flight lasts just 43 hours, but it does yield some information about the radiation belts surrounding Earth, as well as the first experiment to measure the density of micrometeor impacts registered by an onboard sensor.
ABC airs the 65th episode of the supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland. Richard Davalos guest stars.
The 123rd episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. William Shatner stars in one of the series’ most famous episodes.
The 65th episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris.
After a year of redesign and reorganization, NASA resumes manned flights with Apollo 7, the first of the successful Apollo flights. An 11-day Earth-orbit shakedown cruise for the Apollo command/service module, the mission becomes contentious when the three-man crew – Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham and Donn Eisele – is loaded down with a jam-packed mission plan. Worse, Schirra comes down with a cold which quickly spreads to his crewmates in the enclosed biosphere of the Apollo command module. The flight’s technical goals are met with flying colors, though the crew’s snippy responses to ground controllers keep them off the crew rotation for future Apollo flights.
The 
The Soviet Union launches the first Soyuz mission since the American moon landing, Soyuz 6. With Georgi Shonin and future Apollo-Soyuz crewmember Valery Kubasov aboard, Soyuz 6 is intended to “chase’ two other manned Soyuz capsules launched in the days ahead, filming them as they perform an orbital docking maneuver. When the rendezvous radar gear aboard all three Soyuz vehicles fail to function properly, the docking is aborted. Shonin and Kubasov return to Earth after nearly five days in space.
A working group of scientists and engineers at NASA submit an official proposal for a spacecraft using synthetic aperture radar to map the surface of the planet Venus. Conceived as a mission that could be launched from a Titan IIIe or from the space shuttle, both of which still exist only on the drawing board, Venus Orbiter Imaging Radar (or VOIR) is designed to offer extensive mapping of Venus at a resolution much better than the coarse resolution of radar signals originating from Earth-based radio astronomy facilities such as Arecibo, along with such cutting-edge technologies as stereoscopic imaging and solar electric propulsion. Work on this mission will continue through the early 1980s, at which point it is cancelled by NASA and replaced by a cheaper mission intended to achieve the same goals, Magellan.
Atari releases its fourth arcade game: the very first video maze game, 
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The 21st episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring John Davey, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family) guest stars.
ABC airs the sixth episode of Sid & Marty Krofft’s The Lost Saucer, starring Jim Nabors (The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle USMC) and Ruth Buzzi (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In).
The 
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Under the watchful eye of Marvel UK editor Dez Skinn, Doctor Who Magazine‘s first issue hits British newsstands under the title Doctor Who Weekly (it goes monthly after 61 weekly issues, coinciding with the beginning of Peter Davison’s tenure). Included are pictorial retrospectives of past Doctors and Dalek stories, a fourth Doctor comic titled “The Iron Legion”, a Doctor-less Dalek comic, and – oddly and yet appropriately – the first part of a comic adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” scripted by Chris Claremont, all in 28 pages. Rub-off transfer artwork of the fourth Doctor, various explosions and dinosaurs (unrelated to the current TV episodes) are also included on the front cover.
NBC airs the 
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The fifth episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Horror airs on ITV. Nicholas Ball (Lifeforce), Rachel Davies (Boon, Linda Green), and Brian Croucher (Blake’s 7) guest star.
Warner Bros. Records releases the 
The Learning Company tries on 
CBS airs the third episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Eric Bogosian, Lorna Luft, and Jeffrey DeMunn star in three short stories.
The 
UK regional broadcaster TVS airs the 
The 
NBC airs the 11th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.
The 
EMI Records releases the novelty single