Year: 1960

Categories
Science & Technology

Fire the laser!

  • May 16, 1960

Ted MaimanAt the Hughes Research Laboratory in California, physicist Ted Maiman conducts the first completely successful laser demonstration, resulting in a brief pulse fired through a ruby. Though the concept of lasers had been published in the 1950s, Maiman is the first to develop a fully working test article. Within a few years, similar ruby lasers are used for numerous military applications, as well as early holography. Maiman’s test laser, when demonstrated again at a conference in 2010, is still operational.

Categories
Astronomy Science & Technology

Building Arecibo

  • July 1, 1960

AreciboProposed and designed by Cornell University, and funded by the Adavanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the Arecibo Ionospheric Research Center – a thousand-foot radar and radio telescope dish – begins construction in a natural limestone bowl south of Barrio Esparanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Construction will take over three years, at a cost of nearly $10,000,000, with a steel feed receiver structure supported in mid-air over the parabolic dish by some five miles of steel cables. Facilities are constructed for scientists visiting the eventual facility, and additional facilities are constructed to shape aluminum into the mesh structure of the telescope dish on-site, a more economical approach than having those parts of the telescope shipped in from outside. Though conceived and pitched as a means of studying the ionosphere, with possible defense applications such as missile detection, the Arecibo facility will makes its best known contributions to astronomy after it opens.

Categories
Surveyor Uncrewed Spaceflight

Surveyor

  • July 11, 1960

SurveyorNASA begins soliciting studies from contractors for an unmanned robotic spacecraft to land on the moon. Intended to carry scientific instruments and television cameras to examine the moon from ground-level, the Surveyor landers are intended to reap their own benefit in the form of scientific data, but they will also serve as advanced scouting support missions for possible later manned landings on the moon.

Categories
Communications Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight

Echo 1

  • August 12, 1960

ECHO!!!The experimental communications relay satellite Echo 1 is launched into orbit by NASA. A 100-foot metalized Mylar balloon, Echo 1 is a demonstration of passive signal relay, carrying no powered transmitters of its own; its reflective surface simply bounces signals back to Earth. Microwave signals, radio, telephone and TV signals are all successfully relayed via Echo 1; it remains in orbit for four months.

Categories
Television

Pathfinders In Space: Convoy To The Moon

  • September 11, 1960

Pathfinders In SpaceBritish broadcaster ABC premieres the first episode of Pathfinders In Space, a follow-up series to Target Luna, produced by future Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman. Peter Williams stars in a script written by Malcolm Hulke (Doctor Who) and Eric Paice (Star Maidens). Though the original master tape of this episode was later wiped for reuse, film recordings of all seven episodes would be recovered and released on DVD in the 21st century.

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Categories
Television

Pathfinders In Space: Spaceship From Nowhere

  • September 18, 1960

Pathfinders In SpaceBritish broadcaster ABC airs the second episode of Pathfinders In Space, a follow-up series to Target Luna, produced by future Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman. Peter Williams stars in a script written by Malcolm Hulke (Doctor Who) and Eric Paice (Star Maidens). Though the original master tape of this episode was later wiped for reuse, film recordings of all seven episodes would be recovered and released on DVD in the 21st century.

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Categories
Television

Pathfinders In Space: Luna Bridgehead

  • September 25, 1960

Pathfinders In SpaceBritish broadcaster ABC airs the third episode of Pathfinders In Space, a follow-up series to Target Luna, produced by future Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman. Peter Williams stars in a script written by Malcolm Hulke (Doctor Who) and Eric Paice (Star Maidens). Though the original master tape of this episode was later wiped for reuse, film recordings of all seven episodes would be recovered and released on DVD in the 21st century.

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Categories
Franchises Television Twilight Zone

Twilight Zone: King Nine Will Not Return

  • September 30, 1960

The Twilight ZoneThe 37th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Bob Cummings and Gene Lyons star in the second season premiere, written by Serling, who appears on-camera as the show’s narrator for the first time.

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Categories
Television

Pathfinders In Space: The Man In The Moon

  • October 2, 1960

Pathfinders In SpaceBritish broadcaster ABC airs the fourth episode of Pathfinders In Space, a follow-up series to Target Luna, produced by future Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman. Peter Williams stars in a script written by Malcolm Hulke (Doctor Who) and Eric Paice (Star Maidens). Though the original master tape of this episode was later wiped for reuse, film recordings of all seven episodes would be recovered and released on DVD in the 21st century.

This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.