Atari releases Superman as a cartridge for the Atari 2600. This is the first major synergy between Atari and fellow Warner Communications unit DC Comics, riding on the renewed interest in the character generated by the 1978 movie. 
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Atari releases Superman as a cartridge for the Atari 2600. This is the first major synergy between Atari and fellow Warner Communications unit DC Comics, riding on the renewed interest in the character generated by the 1978 movie.
The Soviet Union launches a redesigned vehicle, Soyuz 34, with no crew aboard. Under automated control, Soyuz 34 docks with space station Salyut 6, where it provides cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin with a more reliable return capsule. Their original vehicle Soyuz 32 capsule is loaded with material to be returned to Earth, and it lands – unoccupied and without incident – on June 13th, and the station crew returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 in August.
Electric Light Orchestra‘s eighth album, Discovery, is released, featuring the singles “Don’t Bring Me Down”, “Last Train To London” and “Shine A Little Love”. The album is later criticized for being the point at which ELO became part of the disco fad, and is significant in that it’s the first ELO album without the band’s usual resident trio of string players.
CBS airs Starstruck, a pilot for a series that the network ultimately turned down. Beeson Carroll and Lynne Lipton (Thundercats) star in a story that straddles the line between sci-fi and family-hour western. Roy Brocksmith guest stars, and sci-fi publishing icon Forrest J. Ackerman is a background extra.
BBC1 broadcasts the first episode of Jack Gerson’s paranormal sci-fi series The Omega Factor, starring James Hazeldine (Chocky) and Louise Jameson (Doctor Who). Cyril Luckham guest stars in the series premiere.
Task Force Games publishes the tabletop wargame Star Fleet Battles, based on the 1960s TV series Star Trek (though not initially released as a licensed product). The game is created by Allen D. Eldridge & Stephen V. Cole, working under the collective name of the “Amarillo Design Bureau”, and will be reissued and updated in many guises in the years to come, taking in future additions to Star Trek lore from movies and television series yet to be released. Star Fleet Battles will also inspire later computer games such as Interplay’s Star Trek: Starfleet Command.
Arista Records releases Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs & Krauts, the first album by The Rumour, best known for being Graham Parker’s backing band.
The 24th episode of Harold Jack Bloom’s sci-fi series Project UFO airs on NBC, portraying fictionalized investigations into what the show claims are actual cases from the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigations. Edward Winter and Caskey Swaim star. Morey Amsterdam guest stars.
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Tiny Adrastea, a small, asteroid-like moon of Jupiter, is discovered in photos returned by Voyager 2 during its flyby of the planet. Adrastea orbits along the outer edge of Jupiter’s ring system, and is likely to be the body from which material for that ring is ejected. Its close orbit carries it around the planet at a speed faster than Jupiter’s rotation, one of the few bodies in the solar system locked into such a fast orbit.
ITV premieres the first episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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After intense solar activity results in a brief swelling of Earth’s atmosphere, Skylab‘s days are numbered: it has already been slowed enough by contact with the outermost layers of the atmosphere to come tumbling back to Earth. Unoccupied since 1974, the now-derelict space station is expected to disintegrate harmlessly over the Indian Ocean, but NASA is caught off-guard when unexpectedly large chunks of Skylab survive long enough to crash into the Australian outback. No one on the ground is hurt, and NASA is jokingly fined for littering.
ITV airs the second episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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The 25th episode of Harold Jack Bloom’s sci-fi series Project UFO airs on NBC, portraying fictionalized investigations into what the show claims are actual cases from the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigations. Edward Winter and Caskey Swaim star. Linda Foster (Hank) guest stars.
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ITV airs the third episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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ITV airs the fourth episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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The 26th episode of Harold Jack Bloom’s sci-fi series Project UFO airs on NBC, portraying fictionalized investigations into what the show claims are actual cases from the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigations. Edward Winter and Caskey Swaim star. This is the final episode of the series to air, with ratings falling over the course of the second season. Project UFO is the last television series to be produced by Jack Webb’s Mark VII Productions prior to Webb’s death in 1982.
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ITV airs the fifth episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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ITV airs the sixth episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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ITV airs the seventh episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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ITV airs the eighth episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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ITV airs the ninth episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
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ITV airs the tenth episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. ITV is hit by a strike of its technicians’ union after this episode airs, shutting down the entire network well into the fall. The first four episodes of the series’ second storyline are repeated beginning in October, leading up to the series resuming new episodes.
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A&M Records releases the self-titled solo album by Lenny Zakatek, a frequent Alan Parsons Project vocalist.
Cinematronics gives arcade players the chance to fall on their swords – or their opponent’s sword – in the first-ever head-to-head fighting video game, Warrior. Combining the company’s “Vectorbeam” vector graphics with a brilliantly colorful backdrop illuminated by blacklight, Warrior is a feast for the eyes and becomes an arcade cult classic.
The Alan Parsons Project releases its fourth album, Eve, including the single “Damned If I Do”.
Some ten years after the real thing put men on the moon, Atari invites arcade space pilots to try their own luck at the controls of the Lunar Lander. A tricky, brainy game based on real physics, requiring players to cancel out unwanted motion in two axes without running out of fuel, the results are perhaps a little too real: quite a few vector-graphic Eagles fail to land in one piece, and quite a few disgruntled pilots don’t come back to try again.
With NASA anticipating ramping up its launch schedule to more than one shuttle flight per month to meet demand for the vehicle’s unique satellite deployment and retrieval capabilities, construction begins on the third orbiter intended for spaceflight, Space Shuttle Discovery. Construction and checking of the third shuttle takes almost exactly four years, with Discovery’s first liftoff about a year later.
The 57th episode of Wonder Woman airs on CBS starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner. This episode is directed by John Newland (One Step Beyond).
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The unmanned space probe Pioneer 11 makes its closest approach to the planet Saturn, the first man-made object to visit the ringed planet. Scientists pay careful attention to Pioneer’s transmissions as it passes between Saturn’s clouds and its rings, watching for signs of damage (or worse) resulting from collision with the tiny particles that are predicted to exist there; Pioneer 11 slides past Saturn at a distance of only 12,800 miles from the planet’s cloudtops. This is Pioneer 11’s last planetary stop.
The 506th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The Daleks return for the first time in four years, along with Davros; Lalla Ward takes over the role of Romana, while David Brierly takes over as the voice of K-9. The 17th season of Doctor Who begins with this episode.