SAS-B
NASA launches Explorer 48, renamed Small Astronomy Satellite B, from an Italian-owned offshore launch platform off the coast of Kenya. SAS-B is a smaller spacecraft than NASA’s larger Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) series, but can be aimed very precisely at any gamma ray sources that it detects. One of those sources turns out to be the pulsar remnant of a massive supernova, a discovery later named Geminga. An electrical fault will end SAS-B’s functionality in June 1973, and it will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in 1976.
Search: The Adonis File
The ninth episode of Leslie Steven’s “spy-fi” series Search airs on NBC, starring Hugh O’Brian and Burgess Meredith. Bill Bixby (The Incredible Hulk) and Deanna Lund (Land Of The Giants) guest star.