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Crewed Spaceflight Endeavour Space Shuttle

STS-54

STS-54Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 53rd shuttle flight, a six-day mission to launch the fifth TDRS (Tracking & Data Relay Satellite) and perform assorted experiments. A five-hour spacewalk is conducted in the cargo bay to practice spacewalking techniques for future missions. Aboard Endeavour for her third flight are Commander John Casper, Pilot Donald McMonagle, and mission specialists Mario Runco, Gregory Harbaugh and Susan Helms.

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Television

Quantum Leap: Dr. Ruth

Quantum LeapNBC airs the 87th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Dr. Ruth Westheimer appears as herself.

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Television

Time Trax

Time TraxThe national syndication window opens for the two-hour premiere of Time Trax, co-created by Star Trek movie producer Harve Bennett, and starring Dale Midkiff. Mia Sara, Henry Darrow, and Peter Donat also star. The series, filmed entirely in Australia, is one of the premiere offerings of the Warner Bros./Chris-Craft Television joint venture PTEN (Prime Time Entertainment Network), an attempt to create an ad-hoc “fifth network” out of independent and Fox stations.

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Star Trek Television

NASA posthumously honors Star Trek creator

Gene RoddenberryAt a ceremony at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, NASA presents Majel Barrett Roddenberry with the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal honoring her late husband, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991. Roddenberry is lauded by NASA administrator Dan Goldin for “presenting the exploration of space as an exciting frontier” in both Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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Crewed Spaceflight Mir Soyuz

Soyuz TM-16: getting Mir ready for company

Soyuz TM-16Cosmonauts Gennadi Manakov and Alexander Poleshchuk lift off aboard Soyuz TM-16, on a course for Russian space station Mir. In preparation for the upcoming joint international missions that will see American space shuttles docking with Mir, Soyuz TM-16 carries a new type of docking mechanism designed to test the docking port that will be used by visiting shuttles. Manakov and Poleshchuk remain aboard Mir for 179 days, returning to Earth in July 1993 with French spationaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré.

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Music

Crowded House: Together Alone

Crowded HouseCrowded House releases Together Alone, the final studio album featuring its original lineup (though no one is aware of this at the time), in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Europe. Produced by Neil Finn and Youth (a departure from the group’s “producer in residence” Mitchell Froom, who oversaw the first three albums), the album has a unique sound in the band’s catalogue. Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Mark Hart formally joins the group’s studio lineup, having toured with them since 1989. In America, the album is ensnared by a change of label management and remains unissued for almost a full year as a result.

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Television

Babylon 5: The Gathering

Babylon 5The week-long national syndication window opens for the pilot movie of Babylon 5, The Gathering. The movie’s completely computer-generated effects – a first for television science fiction – win an Emmy Award. Despite favorable ratings from the movie’s initial broadcast, months pass before Warner Bros. orders the first full season, to premiere in 1994.

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