NASA launches the Ranger 3 lunar probe, built by Jet Propulsion Laboratory and intended to go directly to the moon, transmitting pictures of the surface back to Earth until it impacts the lunar surface. This modified Ranger spacecraft design also includes a balsa wood sphere, containing seismic detection experiments, which is intended to be blasted free of the main spacecraft and impact the moon separately. A problem with the Agena second stage booster puts Ranger 3 on the wrong heading with too much acceleration, missing the moon by 22,000 miles. With three straight failures to send a costly probe to the moon, NASA’s future and the future of its lunar exploration program is now under government review.
The 85th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Larry Blyden and Arch Johnson star.
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NASA and the United States Weather Bureau launch the fourth experimental TIROS weather satellite, TIROS-4. Further refinements to the basic TIROS satellite system are made, and after TIROS-3’s discovery of a hurricane in the Atlantic well before it his the US, new enhancements are introduced specifically for early hurricane detection. TIROS-4 remains in orbit for less than six months.
The 86th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Enrest Truex and Russell Collins star.
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The 87th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Barry Morse and Joan Hackett star.
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The third manned Mercury flight, Friendship 7, puts John Glenn in orbit for nearly five hours, the first American astronaut to circle the Earth. The retro-rocket package on Glenn’s vehicle, Friendship 7, becomes an issue when a sensor indicates that the heat shield protecting the capsule’s interior from the intense heat of reentry has slipped. Intended to be cast off before reentry, the retro package is left on at the insistence of ground controllers, resulting in an unusually rough ride home after only three orbits.
The 88th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. James Best and Sherry Jackson star.
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The 89th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Lloyd Bochner and Richard Kiel star in one of the original series’ most iconic episodes.
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The 90th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Susan Gordon stars.
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The 91st episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Sarah Marshall and Robert Sampson star.
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The 147th episode of Sam Rolfe’s western series Have Gun – Will Travel is broadcast on CBS in the United States, starring Richard Boone. This episode is written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. 
The 92nd episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Richard Long and Frank Silvera star.
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The 93rd episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Joe Maross and Claude Akins star in an episode written by Serling.
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The 94th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Theodore Bikel stars.
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The 95th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Andy Devine and Milton Selzer star.
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The 96th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Joseph Schildkraut and Noah Keen star in an episode written by Serling.
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NASA launches the Ranger 4 lunar probe, built by Jet Propulsion Laboratory and intended to go directly to the moon, transmitting pictures of the surface back to Earth until it impacts the lunar surface. Another attempt to successfully launch the modified design including a seismology probe, this is the first Ranger launch in which the Agena second stage works perfectly. Unfortunately, a failure in Ranger 4’s onboard computer sends it tumbling, unable to acquire communications with Earth. Tracking the transmitter of the seismology probe, NASA determines that Ranger 4 indeed slams into the lunar far side, but without taking or transmitting a single picture, still resulting in a mission failure.
The 97th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Geoffrey Horne stars in an episode written by Serling.
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The 98th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Cliff Robertson and George Murdock star.
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At the 1962 Open House held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a student programming project is unveiled on the school’s new DEC PCP-1 computer. In an attempt to demonstrate the machine’s real-time processing power in a context that can be understood by the general public, Steve Russell and his cohorts allow visitors to play the first computer game, Spacewar. The product of months of design and hundreds of man-hours of coding, Spacewar allows two players to navigate their way around the gravity of a sun while trying to blow each other to bits (as displayed on a round oscilloscope). Never patented or copyrighted, Spacewar goes on to “inspire” countless copies, including one of the earliest coin-operated arcade video games, Computer Space.
The 99th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Phyllis Thaxter and Alex Nicol star.
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The 100th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Josephine Hutchinson and David White star in a Serling adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s short story of the same name.
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The second American orbital flight is launched, with Scott Carpenter lifting off aboard Mercury 7 (nicknamed Aurora 7). Carpenter’s five-hour, three-orbit mission is almost a carbon copy of John Glenn’s orbital flight, the primary goal being to duplicate the flight and compare the two astronauts’ reports and reactions.
The 101st episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Jesse White and Carol Burnett star in an episode written by Serling.
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The 102nd episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Donald Pleasance and Liam Sullivan star in the third season finale, written by Serling.
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NASA and the United States Weather Bureau launch the fifth experimental TIROS weather satellite, TIROS-5. Further refinements to the basic TIROS satellite system are made, including new systems designed to keep the satellite in orbit – and in service – for a much longer period of time. A problem with the Delta rocket used to launch TIROS-5 puts the satellite in an elliptical orbit which is maintained for less than six months.
British broadcaster ABC airs an episode of the play anthology series Armchair Theatre, Dumb Martian, adapted by Clive Exton from a story by John Wyndham. Originally intended to be the pilot of an all-science-fiction anthology called Out Of This World, this episode is aired as an episode of Armchair Theatre by a decision from producer (and future Doctor Who creator) Sydney Newman, whose protege, Irene Shubik, will be the new anthology’s story editor. Out Of The World begins its short run on ABC a week later. This episode no longer exists in the archives.
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The first episode of the British science fiction series The Andromeda Breakthrough, created and written by John Elliot and astronomer Fred Hoyle as a follow-up to 1961’s A For Andromeda, is broadcast on the BBC, starring Peter Halliday, Susan Hampshire, John Hollis (The Empire Strikes Back), and Mary Morris. Unlike A For Andromeda, this series exists in the BBC archives in its entirety.
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British broadcaster ABC airs the first episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of This World. Adapted by Leon Griffiths from a story by Rog Phillips, the story stars Nigel Stock and is introduced by Boris Karloff (in much the same way that Rod Serling introduced episodes of The Twilight Zone). This script will be reused in 1969 during the third season of the BBC’s anthology series Out Of The Unknown, whose original producer, Irene Shubik, is script editor of Out Of This World. This episode no longer exists in the archives.
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The second episode of the British science fiction series The Andromeda Breakthrough, created and written by John Elliot and astronomer Fred Hoyle as a follow-up to 1961’s A For Andromeda, is broadcast on the BBC, starring Peter Halliday, Susan Hampshire, John Hollis (The Empire Strikes Back), and Mary Morris. Unlike A For Andromeda, this series exists in the BBC archives in its entirety.
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The United States launches the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear weapons test, detonating a 1.4 megaton warhead at an altitude of 250 miles, the largest space-based nuclear test to date. The flash of the detonation creates a brief “false sunrise” over much of the Pacific Ocean, as well as an unusual auroral display resulting from the sudden release of charged particles trapped within Earth’s magnetic field. An electromagnetic pulse is also observed, more powerful than expected, causing some damage to the Hawaiian power grid. The radiation released in low Earth orbit also interferes with some satellites, including shortening their operational life spans (this includes the Telstar communications satellite, not launched until the next day). Starfish Prime is part of the “Fishbowl” series of high-altitude nuclear tests.
The first Telstar communications satellite is launched, the first attempt to forge a permanent trans-Atlantic telecommunications link with an satellite that both receives and actively retransmits signals. A multinational venture between communications companies and government agencies in America, England and France, Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television broadcast, bringing together the three major American networks of the time and the BBC for a one-of-a-kind joint news broadcast. Live intercontinental telephone calls and other TV broadcasts are also handled by Telstar. Though it’s an experimental satellite, Tesltar is expected to remain in service for some time, but its operational life is reduced to less than a year by, among other things, the effects of high-altitude nuclear weapons tests. Telstar shuts down in February 1963, but remains in orbit to this day.
The third episode of the British science fiction series The Andromeda Breakthrough, created and written by John Elliot and astronomer Fred Hoyle as a follow-up to 1961’s A For Andromeda, is broadcast on the BBC, starring Peter Halliday, Susan Hampshire, John Hollis (The Empire Strikes Back), and Mary Morris. Unlike A For Andromeda, this series exists in the BBC archives in its entirety.
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British broadcaster ABC airs the third episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of This World. Adapted by Clive Exton from a story by Tom Godwin, the story stars Peter Wyngarde and Jane Asher, and is introduced by Boris Karloff (in much the same way that Rod Serling introduced episodes of The Twilight Zone).
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The fourth episode of the British science fiction series The Andromeda Breakthrough, created and written by John Elliot and astronomer Fred Hoyle as a follow-up to 1961’s A For Andromeda, is broadcast on the BBC, starring Peter Halliday, Susan Hampshire, John Hollis (The Empire Strikes Back), and Mary Morris. Unlike A For Andromeda, this series exists in the BBC archives in its entirety.
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