Jupiter Missile Combat Training Launch 209, the first in a series of 12 CTL firings, was launched from AMR to a prescribed range of 1514 nm. The nose cone impacted .79 nm over and 2.19 nm right of the intended target. All missions were accomplished. The missile followed the intended flight path and performed within the accuracy requirements of the Jupiter system. IAF troops conducted the firing after LOD of MFSC completed the preliminary checkout. The primary mission of the test woe to evaluate the capabilities of launch crews under operational alert conditions.

The Bendix Corporation reported to the Manned Spacecraft Center that it had completed the design and fabrication of an air lock for the Mercury spacecraft. This component was designed to collect micrometeorites during orbital flight. Actually the air lock could accommodate a wide variety of experiments, such as ejecting objects into space and into reentry trajectories, and exposing objects to a space environment for observation and retrieval for later study. Because of the modular construction, the air lock could be adapted to the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft.

However the Commission did not agree to disarm the APO destruct system aboard the capsule. They don't want any chance of 'Soviet electronic secrets' falling into the hands of the Americans. Kamanin disagrees - he thinks they should conduct one fully ballistic re-entry and landing of an L1 to see if the landing system would function and the crew would survive. What's the point of deploying recovery ships to the Indian Ocean if they are only going to blow up the capsule anyway if the SUS fails and it reverts to ballistic mode? Mishin's answer: 'I was always against having those forces in the Indian Ocean!' Yet he had demanded those 7 to 9 recovery ships in February!

L1 launch attempt, lift-off at 02:00 local time. The spacecraft was to separate at 589 seconds into the flight. Instead at 260 seconds, a short circuit in the malfunction detection system incorrectly indicated a launch vehicle failure. This in turn triggered the SAS abort system. The SAS shut down the good stage and separated the spacecraft from the booster. The capsule landed safely 520 km downrange from the launch site. This was the third such abort, which if nothing else proved the reliability of the SAS - all of the spacecraft landed safely.

Intended first space station mission; soft docked with Salyut 1. Launch nearly scrubbed due to poor weather. Soyuz 10 approached to 180 m from Salyut 1 automatically. It was hand docked after faillure of the automatic system, but hard docking could not be achieved because of the angle of approach. Post-flight analysis indicated that the cosmonauts had no instrument to proivde the angle and range rate data necessary for a successful manual docking. Soyuz 10 was connected to the station for 5 hours and 30 minutes. Despite the lack of hard dock, it is said that the crew were unable to enter the station due to a faulty hatch on their own spacecraft. When Shatalov tried to undock from the Salyut, the jammed hatch impeded the docking mechanism, preventing undocking. After several attempts he was unable to undock and land.

A Thor/Delta carrying the NATO IIIA satellite was successfully launched from LC-17B, Eastern Test Range. Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at 18 deg W in 1976-1982; over the Atlantic Ocean 30 deg W in 1982-1984; over the Atlantic Ocean 50 deg W in 1984-1985; over the Atlantic Ocean at 30 deg W in 1985-1989; over the Americas at 125 deg W in 1989-1991 As of 5 September 2001 located at 4.12 deg E drifting at 1.524 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 142.00E drifting at 1.522W degrees per day.

Stationed at 53 deg E. Provision of telephone and telegraph radiocommunications and television broadcasting. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 53 deg E in 1984-1987 As of 3 September 2001 located at 55.62 deg E drifting at 0.094 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 2 located at 96.90E drifting at 0.028E degrees per day.

The planned launch date/time for the Module Priroda is 23.04. 1996 at 11hrs 48mins 43secs UTC. If all goes according to plan the Priroda will dock to Mir (forward docking port transition section -P.Kh.O.-, -X axis) on 26.04.1996 at 1203 UTC.

Priroda: The module for remote sensing Priroda is also known as TsM-I and 77KSI. In space Priroda has a mass of 19.5 tons. The mass of the payload is 10.5 tons, among which 1.2 tons as a supplement for the equipment of the Mir-complex, the remote sensing equipment has a mass of 4.7 tons and Priroda can transport 1.8 tons cargo. The original planning foresaw in a solar array in the front of Priroda (axial), but the place of the array is now used for the installation of extra equipment and experiments. So during the autonomous flight Priroda has to depend on the nickel cadmium accumulators for her power supply. Priroda must have an active lifetime of more than 3 years.

Cargo: Priroda will also deliver additional equipment to the Mir station, experiments for Shannon Lucid and the SAFEX-2 transceiver for radio-amateur activities.

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

The second planned power test aboard the International Space Station was completed late last week setting the stage for the arrival of Discovery next month on the first logistics flight carrying hardware and supplies to the outpost, which celebrated its fifth month in orbit two days ago. Additional Details: here....

FE-1 Kononenko performed major periodic replacements on the SM(Service Module)'s ASU toilet facility, changing out replaceable parts with new components, such as a sensor unit (A8A-9060), two receptacles (PR and MP), four hoses, a T-connector, an elbow fitting, an indicator, a filter insert (F-V), and the pretreat container (E-K) with its hose. Additional Details: here....

Communications satellite with C/Ku hybrid payload, and, to have been stationed at 32.8 deg E for coverage of Africa. New Dawn Satellite Co. Ltd. was a joint venture of Intelsat and Convergence Partners, Johannesburg, South Africa. Couldn't deploy its C-band antenna, although the Ku-band deployed and was functional.