Electric Light Orchestra‘s eleventh album, Balance Of Power, is released, featuring the single “Calling America”. This is the final release by ELO before Jeff Lynne officially disbands the group, as well as the final album containing anything remotely resembling the lineup of ELO’s ’70s heyday. Drummer Bev Bevan later recuits new musicians and other former ELO members to form ELO Part II. 
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Varese Sarabande releases the second volume of re-recorded orchestral suites recreating the music from the 1960s TV series Star Trek, arranged and conducted by original series composer Fred Steiner and performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. (more…)
The ninth episode of Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson. Tom Baker (Doctor Who) and Simon Jones (Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) guest star. (more…)
CBS airs the 15th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Ralph Bellamy and Adam Arkin star in an episode comprised of three short stories, including one inspired by a Theodore Sturgeon short story.
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Voyager 2 visits the third planet on its grand tour of the outer solar system, becoming the first and only man-made spacecraft to visit Uranus. Since the blue-green planet and its moon are tipped over, Voyager has fewer opportunities to gather images of the moons of Uranus, but a close pass by its innermost large satellite, Miranda, yields pictures of one of the stranger surfaces in the solar system: a moon that was ripped apart and melted back together in the distant past. The atmosphere of Uranus reveals almost no details to Voyager 2’s cameras in the scant visible light available this far from the sun, but ten new moons are discovered, and the planet’s elusive dark rings are captured in several images. With no other missions to Uranus in the pipeline, Voyager 2’s brief flyby remains the primary source of most of our knowledge of the seventh planet from the sun. It will now take Voyager 2 three years to reach Neptune, its final target.
73 seconds after liftoff, Space Shuttle Challenger explodes when a rubber O-ring designed to be a tight seal between solid rocket booster segments allows flames from the booster to breach the shuttle’s external fuel tank, causing the tank’s highly flammable contents to ignite. The shuttle is destroyed with all hands aboard. Later analysis reveals that frigid cold temperatures in the nights leading up to the launch allowed the booster’s O-rings to become brittle enough to break – a possibility that NASA had been warned of by engineers at Morton-Thiokol, the contractor responsible for the solid rocket boosters.
Lost in the explosion are Commander Francis R. Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, mission specialists Judy Resnik, Ellison Onizuka and Ronald McNair, and payload specialists Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe, the highly-publicized first “teacher in space.”
The Space Shuttle program is grounded for over two years during an investigation and an extensive review of safety and launch procedures.
CBS airs the 16th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Robert Prescott and David Birney star in an episode comprised of three short stories, including one written by Ray Bradbury.
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The 13th episode of James D. Parriott’s lighthearted sci-fi series, Misfits Of Science, airs on NBC, starring Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, and Courteney Cox. Liam Sullivan (The Monroes) guest stars.
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The 16th episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC. Mark Hamill (Star Wars), David Rappaport (Time Bandits) and Forest Whitaker (Rogue One) guest star.
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The tenth episode of Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson. (more…)
CBS airs the 17th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Gerrit Graham and Scott Wilson star in an episode comprised of two short stories.
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The 14th episode of James D. Parriott’s lighthearted sci-fi series, Misfits Of Science, airs on NBC, starring Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, and Courteney Cox. Diane Civita (V) guest stars.
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NASA informs the project managers of the Galileo and Magellan interplanetary probes – both of which were due to be launched via space shuttle – that their planned launches are obviously off the schedule due to the destruction of space shuttle Challenger and her crew. Further changes in the shuttle program in the wake of the tragedy will have far-reaching effects, including the cancellation of propulsion modules that would have allowed, for example, Galileo to be put on a direct trajectory toward Jupiter. The Galileo mission plan will undergo significant changes, including the loss of a planned visit to asteroid 29 Amphitrite, and both missions will eventually begin from the cargo bay of space shuttle missions in 1989.
The 11th episode of Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson. Hugh Laurie (House M.D.) guest stars. (more…)
CBS airs the 18th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Martin Balsam and Larry Poindexter star in an episode comprised of three short stories, including a Harlan Ellison adaptation of an early Stephen King short story.
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The 17th episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC. Bruce Davison (Harry And The Hendersons) and Robert Picardo (Star Trek: Voyager) guest star.
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The Soviet Union launches the first module of its new Mir space station, a new modular station design building on the Soviets’ years of experience with the Salyut stations. One end of this “core” module is a six-sided structure, with docking ports on five sides; this design will allow new modules to be added onto Mir in all directions, and will potentially allow for several Soyuz or unmanned Progress cargo vehicles to be docked simultaneously, a design element which will later be carried forward to the International Space Station.
The 12th episode of Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson. Hugh Laurie (House M.D.) guest stars in the final episode of the show’s second season. (more…)
CBS airs the 19th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Steve Railsback (Lifeforce) stars in an episode comprised of two short stories, including an adaptation of the Greg Bear short story Dead Run.
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The 15th episode of James D. Parriott’s lighthearted sci-fi series, Misfits Of Science, airs on NBC, starring Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, and Courteney Cox. Vic Polizos (Harlem Nights, Jericho) guest stars. NBC cancels the series due to falling ratings (after scheduling the series opposite the hit prime time soap Dallas); a final episode will be “burned off” later in the year.
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The 18th episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC. Joe Seneca (The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh) and Lane Smith (V, Lois & Clark) guest star.
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The Soviet Union’s unmanned space probe Vega 1 makes its closest approach to the nucleus of Halley’s Comet, a little over 5,000 miles away (a closer flight path is taken by its twin, Vega 2). Information gathered in the earliest stages of the encounter is shared with the European Space Agency, whose Giotto unmanned probe will make a much closer examination of Halley. Vega 1 registers an immense number of impacts from dust particles, but sustains no serious damage in close proximity to the comet; after several days of observations, Vega 1 is allowed to fall into an orbit around the sun.
CBS airs the 20th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Lane Smith (V) and Mare Winningham star in an episode comprised of two short stories, Profile In Silver and Button, Button, the latter of which is Richard Matheson’s adaptation of his own short story.
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The Soviet Union’s unmanned space probe Vega 2 makes its closest approach to the nucleus of Halley’s Comet, within 5,000 miles of the comet’s icy core. Hundreds of photos are taken and transmitted back to Earth, along with analysis of the dust and gas surrounding the comet. Within a week, Vega 2’s mission is complete, and the probe is allowed to fall into an orbit around the sun as Halley continues to speed back toward the outer solar system.
The 19th episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC. Sam Waterston (Law & Order), Helen Shaver (Poltergeist: The Legacy), Dick Cavett, and Tim Robbins guest star in an episode directed by Martin Scorsese.
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The Soviet Union launches Soyuz T-15 on an unprecedented mission into orbit. Cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov become the first occupants of the newly-launched Mir space station on March 15th, where they remain until early May, at which time they undock the Soyuz T-15 vehicle from Mir and visit the powered-down Salyut 7 space station, becoming its final occupants until they return to Mir in late June, bringing several pieces of equipment and experiments cannibalized from Salyut back with them. The crew spends a total of 125 days in space, at the end of which Kizim is the most-traveled man in space, having accumulated over a year of total space travel time. Soyut T-15 is the last second-generation Soyuz vehicle to fly, returning to Earth on July 16th.
The European Space Agency’s unmanned Giotto space probe makes its closest approach to the nucleus of Halley’s Comet, coming within 400 miles of the comet’s core and taking unprecedented photos that help scientists refine their theories about cometary composition and formation. Giotto pays for the close encounter by taking a beating: its instruments register significant dust impacts, and one impact event jars the spacecraft off of its axis, coming dangerously close to breaking Giotto’s radio contact with Earth and forcing the vehicle to stabilize itself with thrusters. After its encounter with the comet, Giotto falls into a long, looping orbit around Earth, where it will be reactivated to study another comet years later.
Mute Records releases the fifth Depeche Mode album, Black Celebration, featuring the single “Stripped”. (more…)
CBS airs the 21st episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. William Peterson (CSI) and George Dzundza star in an episode comprised of two short stories, Need To Know and Red Snow.
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CBS airs the 22nd episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Tim Thomerson (Quark), Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) and Xander Berkeley star in an episode comprised of three short stories, Take My Life…Please!, Devil’s Alphabet, and The Library.
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CBS airs the 23rd episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Peter Coyote and Julia Migenes star in an episode comprised of two short stories, Shadow Play (another classic Twilight Zone remake) and Grace Note.
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The 14th episode of Richard Carpenter’s fanciful retelling of the Robin Hood legend, Robin Of Sherwood, airs on ITV, starring Jason Connery, Mark Ryan, Judi Trott, and Nickolas Grace. Richard O’Brien (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) guest stars in the third season premiere, which also introduces Jason Connery (son of James Bond actor Sean Connery) as Robert of Huntingdon, who takes on the mantle of Robin Hood for the remainder of the series following Michael Praed’s departure.
The 20th episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC. Paul Bartel, Eve Arden, and Griffin Dunne guest star.
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CBS airs the 24th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Victor Garber (Alias, Legends Of Tomorrow) and Jenny Agutter (Logan’s Run) star in an episode comprised of two short stories, A Day In Beaumont (written by David Gerrold) and The Last Defender Of Camelot, adapted by George R.R. Martin from Roger Zelazny’s short story. This episode closes the first season.
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The 15th episode of Richard Carpenter’s fanciful retelling of the Robin Hood legend, Robin Of Sherwood, airs on ITV, starring Jason Connery, Mark Ryan, Judi Trott, and Nickolas Grace. Richard O’Brien (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) guest stars.