Launched 10:09 local time. Reached 136.8 km. Carried Ionosphere, meteorites, sky brightness, density, biological experiments for Air Research and Development Command. Last of five Aeromedical Laboratory experiments (first four known as Albert series), it carried a nonanesthetized mouse, photographed by a camera, which survived the impact.

A House Committee Staff Report stated that lunar flights would originate from space platforms in earth orbit according to current planning. The final decision on the method to be used, "which must be made soon," would take into consideration the difficulty of space rendezvous between a space platform and space vehicles as compared with the difficulty of developing single vehicles large enough to proceed directly from the earth to the moon.

U.S.S.R. announced policy of resumption of nuclear weapon testing which had been suspended March 31, 1958, and that bombs can be delivered anywhere in the world by "powerful rockets like those Majs. Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov rode to begin their unrivaled space flights around the Earth."

Gemini Project Office (GPO) reported that it was investigating the use of a parasail and landing rocket system to enable the Gemini spacecraft to make land landings. Major system components were the parasail, drogue parachute, retrorocket, control system, and landing rocket. Unlike the conventional parachute, the parasail was capable of controlled gliding and turning. Landing rockets, fired just before touchdown, reduced the spacecraft terminate rate of descent to between 8 and 11 feet per second. Research and development testing was being conducted by the Landing and Impact System Section of Systems Evaluation and Development Division at Manned Spacecraft Center, while McDonnell had just completed a limited study of the advantages and disadvantages, including time required, of incorporating the new landing system on the spacecraft. GPO briefed NASA Headquarters on the system September 6, when it was decided that no further action would be taken on the parasail.

It is discovered that Katys has a brother and sister living in Paris, a fact he did not disclose during the selection process. They left for Paris in 1910, 16 years before Katys was even born. But together with the fact that his father was executed by the Soviet state, it makes him unsuitable to be a cosmonaut. Yegorov and Feoktistov are making serious efforts to be appointed to the crew. Yegorov did poorly in zero-G training and Feoktistov is physically unqualified. Meanwhile TASS, APN, and other Soviet newspapers are stubbornly pursuing information about the crew for the forthcoming flight. Film biographies and press kits are being made of all of the candidates, so that the information can be released once the final crew - whoever they are - are in orbit. But this violation of secrecy disturbs Kamanin.

Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert named General Bernard A. F. Schriever as Director of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) Program in addition to his duties as Commander, AFSC. Brigadier General Harry L. Evans was named Vice Director of the MOL Program.

General Bernard A. Schriever, Commander. AFSC, named Brigadier General Joseph S. Bleymaier as Commander, Air Force Western Test Range (AFWTR), with headquarters at Vandenberg AFB. General Bleymaier, former Titan III (Program 624A and 624B) program director and Deputy for Manned Systems AFSC, named Brigadier General Joseph S. Bleymaier as Commander, Air Force Western Test Range (AFWTR), with headquarters at Vandenberg AFB. General Bleymaier, former Titan III (Program 624A and 624B) program director and Deputy for Manned Systems

MSC Director of Flight Crew Operations Donald K. Slayton informed ASPO Manager Joseph F. Shea that total management during thermal vacuum testing of spacecraft 008 was inadequate, resulting in misunderstandings between personnel and organizational groups concerned with the test. Slayton offered a number of suggestions for future, similar tests:

• Overall planning policies and practices should be reviewed and further defined before commitment of future test crews.
• Timeline testing philosophy was not realistic or practical in a one- g environment. It was mandatory that test plans be developed with maximum data gain and minimum crew and hardware risks consistent with overall program objectives. For example, long thermal responses during manned tests.
• A crew systems operations office should be established within the Space Environmental Simulation Laboratory to tie down the interface between crew, hardware, and management. Its scope of operation should include representation, training, and scheduling.
• The Environmental Medicine Office should define all crew and test medical requirements before crew selection. To help in this area, a flight surgeon should be assigned to each vehicle's prime and backup crews, to ensure adequate knowledge of crew members and test objectives for training and the real-time mission.
• It must be recognized that test crew participation in thermal vacuum testing was completely voluntary and that each member volunteering must weigh the hazards of such testing against the benefits to the program in general and his welfare in particular.

The 7K-VI military Soyuz was supposed to have been built on the basis of the 7K-OK model, with a first flight in December 1967. After all the problems with the 7K-OK, Kozlov replaced most subsystems and ended up with a basically new spacecraft, the Zvezda, which will have a mass of 6.3 to 6.6 tonnes. Officially first flight was set for the second half of 1968, but Kozlov says that even a flight in 1969 may not be possible. They simply can't meet the 21 July 1967 decree to have the spacecraft in service in 1968 - they need a further 18 to 24 months of development time. In Kamanin's opinion, this whole approach has been mismanaged. Urgent military experiments could have been flying long ago on a series of Voskhod flights. Furthermore there is no trainer yet for the 7K-VI. Kozlov says simply that he is not responsible for providing a trainer. Resort has to be made to a new design bureau set up specifically to produce simulators, headed by Darevskiy.

Kamanin attends a reunion of cosmonauts on the occasion of the arrival of the Soyuz 15 crew at Chkalovsky Airfield. Demin has flown at the age of 48, the oldest astronaut ever, until Slayton makes his flight. Kamanin talks to Glushko and learns that the N1 has finally been cancelled. The misbegotten project went for eight years only because of the unconditional support of Mishin by Keldysh, Smirnov, and Ustinov. The earliest Soviet lunar landing cannot occur earlier than the Tenth Five Year Plan (e.g. 1980). Kamanin learns that Soyuz 15 was supposed to be a thirty-day flight, but the Igla automatic docking system failed yet again.

Obtaining meteorological data and information on the radiation status of geovicinal outer space. The satellite included the Temisat German small space facility, which was separated from Meteor-2 on the seventh transit of the flight. Western interceptions of Meteor 2-21's transmissions indicated that the spacecraft did not perform as well as earlier vehicles in the series, particularly with regard to image quality and stable signal strength. The spacecraft operated through the end of 1994 on 137.400 MHz and 137.850 MHz, switching when required to avoid interference with other Russian Earth observation spacecraft.

The Temisat micro-satellite was a piggyback payload designed to collect and re-transmit environmental data from terrestrial sensors and was separated from Meteor-2-21 on the seventh transit of the flight. Temisat was registered by the Telespazio Italian partner in agreement with the Kaiser-Threde Company (Munich). Environmental measurements were acquired through ground sensors, collected, temporarily stored on the ground, and logged by an autonomous terminal until upload request is received from TEMISAT.Characteristics: (a) Mass 42 kg (b) Dimension 35 x 35 x 35 cm, (c) Electric power 62 W Max, (d) Attitude control : 2 magnetic coil, 1 Am**2, (e) On-board memories - 2 of 8.5 Mbytes each, (f) Lifetime 5 years. Drift of the ascending node of orbital plane: 0.8 deg/d westwards. Copassenger of METEOR 2 satellite.

The 2d attempt to dock this freighter to Mir also did fail. The estimated docking time was 30.08.94 at 1450 UTC. The Progress-M24 softly hit the Mir-complex twice after which Progress-M24 immediately moved away. The Mir-crew felt the little shocks caused by the 2 contacts. They reported this during the pass in Mir's orbit 48762 at 1615 UTC. They also tried to assess eventual damages by looking through portholes. The transmitters of Progress-M24 functioned normally after the event.

TsUP: In this flight control centre specialists did (until deadline of this report) not know the causes of both failures. More docking attempts are under consideration, but the decision depends on further analyses and results of meetings of specialists today. An eventual 3d attempt will not be made today (31.08). Among the possibilities is the use of the system TORU (Tele-orientation and guidance), which enables the crew to guide Progress-M24 from inside Mir.

Consequences: These can be far-reaching for Russian manned spaceflight if further attempts to dock Progress-M24 would fail. Except from the normal cargo (food, water, fuel, repair material, post etc.) Progress-M24 had to deliver a part of the experiments for the Euromir94 mission and American equipment to enhance some systems on board Mir. The spare stock now available for life on board of the complex is enough for 1 month. So new supply before the end of September is urgently needed. Further failures can hamper the plans for the near future, i.e. the EVA-s in September, Euromir94 and the flights of American astronauts and Mir-Shuttle operation.

(Derived from an enormous amount of information available until 31.08.94 at 1130 UTC.)

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

North Korea reported the launch of its first satellite on the first of September. This announcement was followed on September 14 by the release of a photograph of the satellite and the claim that the satellite had completed its 100th orbit of the earth between 08:24 and 11:17 local time (2017 GMT) on September 13. Video of the launch, the satellite, and an animation of the satellite in orbit around the earth were distributed to foreign news agencies the following weekend. The satellite appeared almost identical to the first Chinese test satellite (which itself appeared almost identical to the US Telstar).

Despite these claims no foreign observer ever detected the satellite visually, by radar, or picked up its radio signals. The Pentagon at first claimed it was an ICBM launch, and that the satellite story was just a cover for the test. However on further analysis of the data collected on the launch they admitted nearly a month later that there had been some a satellite launch attempt. What seems to have happened is that the third stage either failed and fell into the Pacific or misfired and put the satellite into a low orbit where it decayed very quickly before it could be detected by foreign observers. Additional Details: here....

China and Russia signed a new agreement in Beijing on the co-operation in the peaceful space exploration. Joint research would be conducted in telecommunication systems, Earth surface monitoring, and satellite navigation. The agreement also covered scientific research aboard the Mir space station, but not visits of Chinese cosmonauts to Mir. It was also reported that Russia was working with China not only on design of the new manned spacecraft, but also on the 921-2 space station.

63rd and last flight of Atlas IIAS. 576th and final launch of Rocketdyne-powered Atlas rockets. Final launch from LC36A after 42 years of use. Launch delayed from June 24 and 25, July 1 and 27, August 27, 28, 29 and 30. The payload was probably a communications satellite used to relay data from imaging spy satellites.