ARPA issued order Number 19-59 establishing the Centaur program that would provide a high energy, liquid-fuel upper stage for use with either the Atlas or Titan boosters. Pratt and Whitney was to develop the liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engines for the upper stage vehicle to be developed by Convair/Astronautics. The development goal was to produce an upper stage vehicle that could place a satellite into a 24-hour, synchronous orbit 23,000 miles above the equator.

NASA announced that planned Ranger launchings would be increased from five to nine. These additional spacecraft would be equipped with six high-resolution television cameras. They would be programmed to begin operating at about 800 miles above the lunar surface and continue until moments before the spacecraft crash-landed. The final pictures would record features no more than eight inches across. About 1,600 photographs were expected from each spacecraft, which would no longer carry previously planned instrumented capsules. The objective of these spacecraft now was to provide information on the lunar surface in support of the manned lunar landing mission.

The first successful ballistic flight test of a cesium ion contact engine was conducted on a Scout booster launched from Vandenberg. Built by Electro-Optical Systems Corporation under an Air Force contract, the engine was the first of its kind to operate in space. The launch was designed to provide about 30 minutes of flight above an altitude of 370 km. At seven minutes into the flight the engine was operated with ion beam extraction. Full beam current of 94 mA was achieved about 10 minutes later. During the course of engine operation, an electric field strength meter was used to infer payload floating potential relative to space. Spacecraft potential was about 1000 V negative during most of the engine operation with the filament neutralizer. The absolute value of payload potential was about ten times higher than anticipated, and it was suspected that there was inadequate neutralization of the ion beam. The contact ion engine operated for 19 minutes until spacecraft reentry into the atmosphere. In addition to withstanding the environmental rigors of space flight, the ion propulsion system demonstrated electromagnetic compatibility with other spacecraft subsystems and the ability to regulate and control a desired thrust level.

The crew had to use the re-entry thrusters to orient the spacecraft due to OAMS system failures. The retrofire and re-entry were conducted in darkness by the spacecraft computer. However the computer had been misprogrammed with an erroneous rotation rate of the earth (390 degrees per day instead of 360.98 degrees per day). Cooper's efforts compensated for what he recognized as an erroneous reading and brought the capsule down closer to the ship than they would otherwise have been.

High resolution photo surveillance; film capsule; maneuverable; also performed earth resource tasks. Investigation of the natural resources of the earth in the interests of various branches of the national economy of the USSR and international cooperation.

Transported to the Mir orbital station a Soviet-Afghan crew comprising the cosmonauts V A Lyakhov, V V Polyakov and A A Momand (Afghanistan) to conduct joint research and experiments with the cosmonauts V G Titov and M K Manarov. Returned Manarov, Titov (Soyuz TM-4), Chretien (Soyuz TM-7) to Earth. Initial orbit 195 X 228 km at 51. 57 deg. Maneuvered to a 235 x 259 km orbit, then docked with Mir at 05:41 GMT on 31 August at its 339 x 366 km orbit. Moved from aft to forward port 8 Sept 88.

8 transponders for digital TV. Stationed at 128.1 deg E. Launch vehicle put payload into supersynchronous earth orbit with IFR/MRS trajectory option. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 128 deg E in 1995-1999 As of 5 September 2001 located at 128.05 deg E drifting at 0.005 deg E per day. As of 2007 Feb 20 located at 126.99E drifting at 0.144W degrees per day.

MuSat-1 Victor separated from the launch vehicle at 05:31 GMT, becoming the first Argentine-built satellite. Measuring 340 x 340 x 450mm."Victor " was an experimental vehicle, intended to evaluate in-orbit behaviour of low-cost space technologies. It carried two video cameras, oriented for earth-imaging, as well as transceivers in both UHF and S bands. The beacon could be heard every 90 seconds at 137.95 MHz as a brief burst of CW ("Hi hi de MUSAT"). Electrical power was provided by four 88-Si cells solar panels, with an end-of-life electrical power of 8 W. Its position was determined by means of a 3-axis, flux-gate magnetometer, as well as both solar and horizon sensors, while its attitude was 3-axis controlled by magnetic coils and reaction wheels, with a pointing precision of 0.5 deg. MuSat-1 was developed and built by a 25-person team at the Instituto Universitario Aeronautico, under the sponsorship of the government of the province of Cordoba, in a 3.5 year, $1.2 million effort.

FORTE - 'Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events' - was a US Los Alamos National Laboratory satellite designed to study natural and artificial radio emissions from the ionosphere. This data was needed to develop technology for monitoring nuclear test ban treaties. Air dropped in Point Arguello WADZ.

Padalka and Avdeyev redocked this ship from the aft to the forward docking port of the Mir-complex on 27.08.1998. They separated from Mir at 0544 UTC and docked again at 06.07.09 UTC. Padalka accomplished the approach and docking manually, so if the Russian treasury is able to bear this he can expect his 2nd manual docking bonus.

Communications during this operation was via the VHF channel of Soyuz-TM28 on 121.750 mc. For listeners in Western Europa there was a short pass during an elevation of 1 degree. Nevertheless such a lot of traffic could be monitored between 0600 and 0603 UTC that it was clear that the operation proceeded flawlessly. At 06.00.20 UTC Padalka reported that they had finished the fly around and that the Soyuz-TM28 was station keeping on the X-axis. They had the target dish exactly in the centre and were able to see the docking port. The fuel consumption had been very low and the SIRT indicated that there still was 463 KG available. Padalka reported that he did not want to wait and that he was about to approach and dock. At 06.02.30 UTC the distance to Mir was 15 M.

Traffic during the pass in orbit 71521, 0731-0741 UTC, made it clear that the redocking had been successful. The cosmonauts were back on board of Mir. They switched back on all the systems they had switched off before the operation. An air hose had been deployed from the base block to the Soyuz-TM28 and they started the conservation of that ship. During the following passes these activities were still going on.

The new crew: This crew, that of the 26th Mir Main Expedition, presents themselves as if they already were on board for months. Every time I am surprised that cosmonauts making their first spaceflight very quickly adjust themselves to the new situation and demonstrate that they fully have things in hand. Those who selected and trained these cosmonauts did their work well. (This time Padalka is making his first flight, Avdeyev his 3rd.)

Altair-2:

On 13.08.1998 something went wrong with this geostationary satellite over 16 degrees West. During the transfer of data of the relaksatsiya experiment from Mir to TsUP the antenna actuator failed. The communications stopped for the antenna of Altair-2 was no longer aimed at the ground station Shcholkovo near Moscow. A provisional damage assessment seems to justify the conclusion that Altair-2 might be lost.

Luch-1/Gelios (95054A - 23680): This relay satellite is placed over 77 degrees East. After the launch on 11.10.1995 it was reported that this satellite would be used for the data , telephony and Television relays for Russian manned space flight. Observers in Eastern Europe who can 'see' this satellite better than we in the west, reported that they never heard or saw anything from that object. Just like Altair-2 Luch-1 has been registered as a military satellite.

Unbelievably soon after the failure of Altair-2 the Russians inserted Luch-1 in the communications chain for Mir -TsUP traffic. After a test communication in the morning of 15.08.1998 the first regular relay of phone and TV between Mir and TsUP could be realised some orbits later. The Russian Television complex Ostankino in Moscow serves as tracking station for Luch-1.

Ostankino is able to handle phone and TV relays to and from Mir, but modifications have to be implemented to do the same with Telemetry (and possibly Packet Radio).

For spacewalks (EVA's), docking and descent operations the position over 16 degrees West is better than that over 77 degrees East. Also NASA preferred 16 degrees West during Phase 1 of Shuttle/Mir and after the failure of Altair-1 in the beginning of 1997 they asked the Russians to transfer Altair-2 from 96 degrees East to 16 degrees West.

More about communications:

I just have learned that the Mir voice relay sites at NASA's bases in the US will remain in operation, at NASA's expense, per a decision by Frank Culbertson to demonstrate US generosity.

The loss of Altair-2 means that the amount of information monitored by me will decrease. I now am depending on that what I can monitor via the VHF-channels.

For some weeks the Russians have problems with the transfer of radiograms by Packet Radio via the service frequencies. Probably the problem has something to with the uplink from a number of tracking stations in Russia. In this period they use for the transfer of radiograms the old RTTY system.

There are no problems with the Packet Radio in the radio-amateur band. Recently they used the 145.985 mc for that purpose, but now they regularly can be heard on 145.940 mc.

Progress-M39:

The redocking of this freighter was scheduled for 29.08.1998 but has been put back. Now this operation is now planned for 1.09.1998. Based on calculations I think that this will take place at about 0400 UTC. The plan is to execute the approach and docking in the automatic mode by the system Kurs, but Padalka and Avdeyev prepared the TORU, the remote control system for eventual use. Padalka will be ready to take over manually if necessary and maybe he has a chance to earn his 3rd manual docking bonus. For us in Western Europe the elevation during the pass in which the objects are in range during the final phase of the approach (orb. Mir 71596, 0350-0353 UTC) is only 1 degree.

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

Launch postponed from february, July 22 and August 25. First launch of the H-2A launch vehicle. A failure after all of the problems with the earlier H-2 version would probably have resulted in cancellation of the program. The Laser Ranging Experiment satellite carried 126 laser retro reflectors and separated from the second stage at 0739 GMT into its operational 'Molniya' type orbit. The eventual goal of H-2A was to launch geosynchronous spacecraft at costs comparable to those of other countries. The LRE remained in a simulated geosynchronous transfer orbit; laser reflections from it would be used to precisely ascertain the orbital injection accuracy of the H-2A.

Delayed from July 30, moved up from September 18 and August 30. Docked with the Zvezda module of the ISS on August 31. Undocked from the station at 08:36 GMT on 28 January 2004 after being filled with trash and unneeded equipment. Deorbited and reentered over the Pacific at 13:46 GMT.

Recoverable satellite officially stated to be conducting space scientific research, land surveying, mapping and other scientific experiments. Said to have improved experimental technology, with higher orientation precision and more complex on-board computers and software. Controlled from the Xian Satellite Monitoring and Control Centre. Successfully re-entered and recovered after 27 days in space at 23:55 GMT on 24 September.

RapidEye AG of Brandenberg paid for launch of a constellation of five environmental monitoring satellites in a single launch, each with a mass of 152 kg including 12 kg of propellant. The satellites had an optical resolution of 6 meters, and were designed to provide on-demand images for agricultural storm damage assessment and support of emergency services.

Crew: Sturckow, Ford, Forrester, Hernandez, Fuglesang, Olivas. Deliver to the ISS and install the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM); Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier (LMC); Three-crew quarters, galley, and second treadmill (TVIS2); and the Crew Health Care System 2 (CHeCS 2).