The sixth episode of children’s fantasy series King Of The Castle is broasdcast on HTV. The series is created by Bristol-based writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin (Sky, Doctor Who), and stars Philip Da Costa. Talfryn Thomas (Survivors) and Milton Johns (Doctor Who, The Empire Strikes Back) also star.
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The second in a new generation of geosynchronous weather satellites is launched for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, GOES-2. An acronym for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-2 is initially positioned at a point over 60 degrees west longitude on Earth, though it will be repositioned several times in its career as a weather satellite. In 1993, it will cease weather monitoring operations and will act chiefly as a communications satellite serving islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as manned research facilities in Antarctica. GOES-2 will serve that function through 2001.
Mounted on the back of Boeing 747, the Space Shuttle Enterprise takes off on its first crewed flight, the first of three “captive-active” flights which see Enterprise remain in place on its carrier aircraft. For the first time, Enterprise’s computers, avionics and other flight systems are powered up in a full-up, hour-long dress rehearsal of an eventual free-flight landing test at 15,000 feet. The first crew of the Space Shuttle Enterprise consists of astronauts Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton.
NBC premieres the two-hour TV movie Exo-Man, starring David Ackroyd (AfterM*A*S*H, A Peaceable Kingdom), Anne Schedeen (ALF), and Harry Morgan (M*A*S*H). The movie is intended to serve as a pilot for a potential series, but despite decent ratings in its time slot, Exo-Man does not get a series pickup from NBC. 
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The seventh and final episode of children’s fantasy series King Of The Castle is broasdcast on HTV. The series is created by Bristol-based writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin (Sky, Doctor Who), and stars Philip Da Costa. Talfryn Thomas (Survivors) and Milton Johns (Doctor Who, The Empire Strikes Back) also star.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could join theLogBook team and write this guide or support the webmaster’s efforts to expand the site.
Congress approves the largest NASA budget in ten years, including authorization and funding for two major unmanned spacecraft: a Space Telescope to be deployed into Earth orbit via Space Shuttle, and a yet-to-be-named Jupiter orbiter and atmospheric probe, originally proposed in the late 1960s as part of the outer planets Grand Tour mission plan. The Jupiter probe, which must be ready to launch in 1982 to take advantage of a planetary configuration providing the shortest distance between Earth and Jupiter, is the subject of a fierce budget fight in Congress. (This spacecraft will go on to be named Galileo.)
UK broadcaster Anglia TV (later part of ITV) premieres the TV movie Science Report: Alternative 3, a “mockumentary” positing a scenario about Earth’s best and brightest young minds leaving their doomed world to start a colony on Mars. Originally intended to air on April 1st, 1977, the special – which is presented as an episode of a non-existent “Science Report” series – has been delayed due to broadcast industry strikes, but despite the end credits still carrying the April 1st date, the joke is lost on members of the viewing public, who call Anglia demanding further information; the “Alternative 3” scenario will gain traction as an actual conspiracy theory in the years to come, particularly when its 1978 novelization replaces the TV movie’s fictional astronauts with the names of real astronauts. (more…)
The science fiction TV movie-of-the-week Man From Atlantis IV: The Disappearances airs on NBC, starring Patrick Duffy and Belinda J. Montgomery. Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) guest stars. Man From Atlantis will continue as a weekly series in the fall 1977 season. (more…)
Riding the back of a modified Boeing 747, Space Shuttle Enterprise ascends to 22,000 feet for her second “active-captive” test flight, with all systems powered up and a crew aboard (astronauts Joe Engle and Richard Truly). The combined vehicle reaches speeds of over 300 miles per hour, and angles for “dropoff” – for upcoming test flights in which the Enterprise will actually separate from the 747 and glide to its landing strip – are studied for future reference.
Casblanca Records releases the Meco album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk, a disco interpretation of the soundtrack of Star Wars on one side, with original compositions on the second side. The single extracted from the Star Wars medley will reach the top of the charts. (more…)
20th Century Fox Records releases The Story Of Star Wars, a surprisingly literate adaptation on LP for younger listeners, recreating and encapsulating the movie’s story with narrated audio from the film. (more…)
Space Shuttle Enterprise takes off – on the back of a Boeing 747 – for the last of its “active-captive” flights, with a crew aboard and all systems powered up. For this final test flight prior to the first free-flight landing test mere weeks away, Enterprise is again crewed by astronauts Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton, and reaches an altitude of 30,000 feet.
With less than a month to go before the launch of the first of two Voyager unmanned spacecraft, NASA attaches copper phonograph records, encased in lightweight, protective golden casings, to each of the Voyager probes. With participation from Carl Sagan (who led the effort to mount a plaque on the Pioneer probes consisting only of visual information), SETI pioneer Frank Drake, Jon Lomberg and others, the 12″ LP consists of not only sound recordings, but photos and diagrams depicting the diversity and composition of life on Earth. The sounds include various kinds of Earth wildlife, spoken messages from President Jimmy Carter and United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, music from Beethoven and Bach to Chuck Berry (the Beatles decline permission to include “Here Comes The Sun”), and Carl Sagan’s young son Nick delcaring “Greetings from the children of planet Earth.” The outer casing includes a playback mechanism and diagrams for how to use it.
In the decades to come, fictional aliens visiting or invading Earth because they have viewed the Voyager “Golden Record” becomes a staple of science fiction media.
At a meeting at Paramount, studio head Michael Eisner formally cancels plans for a Star Trek television series reuniting the original cast (a decision made easier by the other networks strong-arming potential advertisers into freezing out Paramount’s network startup attempt) and sets the wheels in motion to revamp the pilot script, Alan Dean Foster’s In Thy Image, into a feature film. Contracts for the series are renegotiated (or in some cases cancelled) for the movie, but scriptwriters and designers continue to work on Trek TV scripts just in case the movie leads to a small-screen resurgence. The impetus for finally getting the long-stalled Star Trek movie underway? 20th Century Fox’s runaway success with Star Wars.
The 42nd episode of Gerry Anderson’s space adventure series Space: 1999 airs on British broadcaster ITV, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Catherine Schell. Stuart Damon (The Champions) guest stars. (more…)
The Soviet-launched Salyut 5 military space station tumbles out of its orbit, having exhausted the fuel needed to keep it in a controlled orbit of the Earth. The two-ton space station burns up on re-entry, having been visited by only two crews; another mission to Salyut 5 had been planned, but its fuel depletion made that flight too risky to undertake.
Mere weeks before the launch of the first Voyager spacecraft, NASA swaps Voyager 2 and Voyager 1. Repeated failures have plagued the attitude and articulation control and flight data subsystems in the spacecraft designated VGR77-2, leaving mission planners with doubt about its flightworthiness. VGR77-3 thus becomes Voyager 2, and VGR77-2 undergoes repairs to correct its problems before being designated Voyager 1. The two vehicles’ thermonuclear power sources are swapped, as whichever one is Voyager 2 will require a longer-lasting power source to power all instruments for possible visits to Uranus and Neptune following the 1981 Saturn encounter. (A third vehicle, VGR77-1, is an engineering test spare which eventually goes on display at the JPL campus in Pasadena.)
The 43rd episode of Gerry Anderson’s space adventure series Space: 1999 airs on British broadcaster ITV, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Catherine Schell. Stuart Damon (The Champions) guest stars. (more…)
Released from its 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft in mid-air for the first time, and airborne on its own for the first time, the Space Shuttle Enterprise takes wing over the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base for a test landing. With no engines on board (a test shuttle that will never go into orbit, Enterprise isn’t equipped with them) and only one shot at a safe landing, Enterprise successfully touches down on the runway after a flight lasting only a few minutes, validating the unpowered approach method of landing a shuttle just returned from space.
NASA launches the first High Energy Astronomy Observatory satellite in Earth orbit, continuing the survey of the sky with sensitive detectors designed to find gamma ray and X-ray sources. HEAO-1 will remain in service through January 1979, and will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in March 1979.
Mercury Records releases 10cc‘s fifth album, Deceptive Bends, the first to be recorded after the departure of founding members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The singles “The Things We Do For Love” and “Good Morning Judge” originate from this album. (more…)
Radio astronomers at Ohio State University observe a signal from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius that seems to jump out from the usual cosmic background noise. The 72-second signal is quickly dubbed the “Wow Signal” (thanks to a hastily scribbled note), and is considered by some to be a strong candidate for a message from an extraterrestrial civilization since its frequency falls almost exactly on the hydrogen line of the electromagnetic spectrum, a wavelength closely watched by the SETI program. But more powerful telescopes listening in on the same region of space in the years and decades to come pick up no further signals. Scientists involved in the initial analysis later admit that the “message” may be of Earthly origin, reflected back from an object in space.
NBC airs the seventh episode of Quinn Martin’s horror/sci-fi anthology Tales Of The Unexpected. (This series is not to be confused with the longer-lived British series of the same name, created by acclaimed author Roald Dahl.) Joanna Pettet and Gary Collins (The Sixth Sense) guest star. (The series has already been cancelled at this point; NBC is burning off the remaining episodes into off-season time slots.)
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The 44th episode of Gerry Anderson’s space adventure series Space: 1999 airs on British broadcaster ITV, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Catherine Schell. Carolyn Seymour (The Survivors) and Nigel Pegram (Robert’s Robots) guest star. (more…)
NASA launches Voyager 2 (weeks ahead of Voyager 1), giving the unmanned space probe the best shot of taking advantage of a favorable planetary alignment known as the “Grand Tour”. Using a series of carefully calculated gravity assists, Voyager has the potential to visit all four of the major outer gas planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – in under 15 years without having to expend fuel to make the trip. If Voyager 2 survives long enough to visit Uranus or Neptune, it will become the first man-made spacecraft to visit either planet.
NBC airs the eighth and final episode of Quinn Martin’s horror/sci-fi anthology Tales Of The Unexpected. (This series is not to be confused with the longer-lived British series of the same name, created by acclaimed author Roald Dahl.) Bill Bixby (The Magician, The Incredible Hulk) and Robert Pine (CHiPs) guest star. (The series has already been cancelled at this point; NBC is burning off the remaining episodes into off-season time slots.)
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Sire Records releases the Annie Haslam album Annie In Wonderland, produced by Roy Wood (ELO, Wizzard, The Move). (more…)
The 45th episode of Gerry Anderson’s space adventure series Space: 1999 airs on British broadcaster ITV, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Catherine Schell. Kathryn Leigh Scott (Dark Shadows) guest stars. (more…)
Mushroom Records releases the third Split Enz album, Dizrythmia, the first of the group’s recorded output to feature frontman Tim Finn’s younger brother Neil as the new guitarist. This is also the first album to feature new recruits Nigel Griggs on bass and drummer Mal Green, both of whom will remain through the band at the peak of its success in the early 1980s. (more…)
The 46th episode of Gerry Anderson’s space adventure series Space: 1999 airs on British broadcaster ITV, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Catherine Schell. Roy Marsden and Angus MacInnes (Star Wars) guest stars. (more…)
The 454th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The Rutans, shapeshifting mortal enemies of the Sontarans, appear for the first and only time in the original series. Doctor Who’s 15th season on the air begins with this episode. (more…)
The unmanned robotic Voyager 1 space probe lifts off on a voyage to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond, taking advantage of a once-in-175-years alignment of the planets in the outer solar system. Originally designated Mariner 11, one of many planned space probes in the now greatly scaled-back Mariner Jupiter/Saturn ’77 program, Voyager 1 is also the first spacecraft to take a picture of the Earth and its moon from beyond the moon’s orbit, and will become the first human-made object to leave Earth’s solar system.
The first Space Shuttle external tank, given the designation MPTA-ET (main propulsion test article external tank), is completed at NASA’a Michoud assembly plant in New Orleans. Though constructed to flight specifications (as they stand in 1977), MPTA-ET is not intended for orbital flight, but is instead erected on a test firing stand at a NASA facility in Mississippi for tests of the three-engine shuttle propulsion system, tests which do not produce a satisfactory result until July 1980. Its job completed, MPTA-ET is later put on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The 37th episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. This is the first episode of season three, and the first episode to air on NBC, which salvaged the series from its cancellation by ABC. This puts Anderson in a position that may be unique in American broadcast history: playing the same character as a series regular on two rival networks simultaneously.
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CBS premieres the first episode of a new live-action Saturday morning science fiction series, Space Academy, produced by Filmation (previously responsible for the animated Star Trek series). Depicting a crew of teenagers tasked with maintaining the safety of outer space, Space Academy is in the right place at the right time to capitalize on Star Wars mania. (more…)