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3 January - Mission preparation for Apollo 9 continued on schedule - Mission preparation for Apollo 9 continued on schedule. Rollout of the space vehicle from the Vehicle Assembly Building, KSC, began. Mission Control Center simulations checkout, which began at MSC on December 20, 1968, was proceeding on schedule. Als...
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4 January - Soyuz 4/5 preparations - Kamanin and 50 VVS officers arrived at Tyuratam aboard an An-24 to supervise the launch of Soyuz 4 and 5....
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6 January - Mishin a no-show. - There is much criticism of Mishin and Keldysh for not attending launches any longer. The opinion is that they are afraid to show their faces....
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7 January - Preparations at Baikonur - The head of the launch commission for Venera-5 and 6 says that will work on the Ye-8 and Ye-8-5 robot moon landers was making progress, it would be fantasy to believe that a moon landing and return to earth could be successfully accomplished in 1969....
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8 January - Concern over the possibility of Soyuz 4 or 5 landing in the Aral Sea continues. - An Il-14 is sent on a flight to reconnoitre. It reports 12 to 50 cm ice over the entire surface. Mishin, Chertok, and the rest of he OKB-1 entourage arrive. An argument immediately ensures over provisions and planning for emergency landings. It is de...
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9 January - State Commission for the first N1 launch - The State Commission for the first N1 launch, headed by Afanasyev, convenes at Area 12 of Baikonur. All of the Chief Designers and top generals of the VVS are in attendance. Many defects are identified in the review, but there seem to be no show-stop...
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11 January - N1 state commission meeting. - The issues raised with the N1 have been cleared up and settled. Afanasyev approves the schedule leading to an 18 February first launch of the N1....
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12 January - Soyuz 4/5 profile still not settled - At Baikonur, Ustinov and Afanasyev get into an argument with Mishin. They want Soyuz 4 and 5 to accomplish a completely automatic docking, as was done successfully by Cosmos 186/188 and Cosmos 212/213. Mishin categorically rejects this. He wants a ma...
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13 January - Soyuz 4/5 profile still not settled - In the evening Afanasyev hosts 100 guests - the leadership of the space program - to watch the big Army-Dinamo football game. Space plans are discussed. The State Commission still needs to confirm the crews for Soyuz 4/5. The issue of automatic versu...
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13 January - Soyuz 4 scrub - The launch of the 13th Soviet cosmonaut into space aboard Soyuz 4 is scrubbed - the first launch scrub in the history of Soviet manned launch attempts. Despite -24 deg C temperatures and 8 to 10 m/s winds, the fuelling of the rocket proceeds successf...
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13 January - N1 payload preparation and fuelling are underway. - Four N1 launches are planned in 1969: The launch of 3L will be followed by 5L, 6L, and 7L in April, June, and November. But this is probably much too optimistic due to delays in delivery of critical systems needed to complete the boosters. But at lea...
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13 January - Soyuz 4 launch scrubbed - The 'unlucky' Shatalov entered the spacecraft at 10:30. But the -24 deg C weather was below the limits of the booster's gyroscopes. The launch was scrubbed. The launch was made successfully the next day. Later in the day Mishin discussed the N1/L3 pr...
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14 January - Soyuz 4 - Soyuz 4 is launched with Vladimir Shatalov aboard without further problems at 10:30. This time the rockets gyroscopes, the capsule communications, and the television camera all functioned perfectly. Volynov and his crew for Soyuz 5 watched the launch...
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15 January - Soyuz 5 - At 3 am an An-12 arrives from Moscow with ten newspapers, and letters for Shatalov, to be delivered by the Soyuz 5 crew to him as the first 'space mail'. At 05:15 the State Commission convened and approved launch at 10:04:30. The countdown proceeds n...
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1969 January 15-17 - Final flight program for Apollo 9 verified - The final flight program for Apollo 9 was verified; the emergency egress test with the prime and backup crew was conducted; and the software integration test between the lunar module and Mission Control Center, MSC, was completed on January 15. ...
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16 January - EVA Soyuz 4/5-1 - A day after the launch of Soyuz 5, Soyuz 4 docked with it. The Soyuz 4 active spacecraft was equipped with a long docking probe, designated 'Shtir'. The Soyuz 5 target spacecraft was equipped with the 'Konus' receptacle. The symbology lead Volynov to...
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16 January - 10 Soyuz for military proposed - The space leadership board planes to depart Tyuratam. During the flight to Moscow, Kamanin discusses with Mishin the possibility of purchase of 10 to 15 Soyuz spacecraft by the Ministry of Defence for military experiments. Mishin is very interested i...
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1969 January 17-20 - Checkout on schedule for an Apollo 10 - Checkout was on schedule for an Apollo 10 launch readiness date of May 17. On January 17 the backup crew participated in an altitude test run. The spacecraft docking test, using a simulated adapter, was completed January 20. All three fuel cells were...
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17 January - Landing of Soyuz 4 - Soyuz 4 landed at 06:51 GMT 48 km south-west of Karaganda, 40 km from the planned point, with the crew of Khrunov, Shatalov and Yeliseyev aboard. Shatalov's performance has been outstanding -- all manoeuvres were made correctly with minimal expenditu...
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18 January - Volynov's survival celebrated - The engineering team at Yevpatoriya celebrated Mishin's birthday and Volynov's survival after his re-entry. These were four stressful days -- aside from the Soyuz missions, Babakin was commanding the Venera 5 and 6 probes to Venus, which had been lau...
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18 January - Landing of Soyuz 5 - After Shatalov and Yeliseyev transferred to Soyuz 4, Volynov remained behind to live through the most unbelievable re-entry in the history of spaceflight. The service module of the Soyuz failed to separate after retrofire. Once the Soyuz started reac...
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1969 January 19-22 - Apollo 9 flight readiness test - The Apollo 9 flight readiness test began on January 19 and was successfully completed January 22, in preparation for a February launch. A one-day delay in the testing was caused by a loss of air conditioning for the RCA-110A computer. The hatch and s...
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19 January - State Commission on Soyuz 4/5 - At 10:00 a State Commission convenes at Area 17. The mistakes made during the Soyuz 4/5 flight are reviewed. The EVA began with a closed valve on Khrunov's suit. The film camera was not activated, resulting in loss of one of the key propaganda points...
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20 January - Soyuz 7K-L1 s/n 13L - Launch failure - but the abort system again functioned perfectly, taking the capsule to a safe landing (in Mongolia!). At 501 seconds into the flight one of the four engines of the second stage shut down, and remained shut down for 25 seconds. The ev...
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22 January - Soyuz 4/5 celebrations - TsKBEM closed down for the day, due to celebrations at Kaliningrad and at the Kremlin with the four cosmonauts from the Soyuz 4 /5 mission. Meanwhile, work at Tyuratam preparing the N1 for its first flight continued....
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22 January - American looks likely to win moon race - Kamanin and four cosmonauts return to Moscow from Tyuratam aboard an Il-18. It has been nearly nine years since Gagarin's flight, and now America looks like the winner of the space race, with the successful flight of Apollo 8 around the moon. Kamanin...
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23 January - Cosmonauts shot at in assassination attempt - The assassination attempt is made on Brezhnev, instead hitting the cosmonaut's car, on the way to the Kremlin. A muted press conference follows. All the cosmonauts are there, except Feoktistov, who is on honeymoon with his second wife, and Nikolyaev,...
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23 January - N1 stormclouds - In the morning Mishin advised his staff of comments made by Afanasyev at the Kremlin reception the previous evening. He had called a Soviet of the chief designers for 27 January to discuss the fate of the N1 programme....
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1969 January 24-29 - Tests completed for the Apollo 9 launch - The following tests were completed in preparation for the planned February Apollo 9 launch: all Mission Control Center data system integration tests, MSC preflight readiness test, KSC launch readiness test, and MSFC preflight test. In addition, recov...
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24 January - Apollo CSM Flight Readiness Review Board - The CSM Flight Readiness Review Board convened at MSC. Martin L. Raines presented the Reliability and Quality Assurance assessment and pointed out the improvement in discrepancy reports between spacecraft 101, 103, and 104 and concluded that 104 was ...
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25 January - Apollo vs Ye-8-5 - America is preparing Apollo 9 for flight, and Kamanin muses that the Soviet reply will be the N1 and Ye-8-5, neither of which is proven or reliable. The Soviet Union would have a better chance of sending a manned L1 on a flight around the moon during...
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27 January - Soviet of Chief Designers considers N1 cancellation - Afanasyev and Keldysh chaired the unusual and extraordinary Soviet of the chief designers. Mishin opened with an emotional plea not to cancel the N1. He justified the delays and failures by saying that he had not been given sufficient budget to condu...
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28 January - Soyuz 4/5 crew feted - The last few days have been occupied with daily press conferences or meetings with the state leadership by the Soyuz 4/5 crews....
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29 January - Lunar systems status - Review of spacesuit development at Zvezda Factory with Gay Severin. The specifications for the moon suit are 10 hours life, 80 kg mass, able to handle a heat load of 500 kcal/hour. But this load is insufficient for heavy work. By comparison, the suit...
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30 January - N1/Ye-8-5 launch preparations - Mishin agrees with Tyulin that he will fly to Tyuratam on 3 February to supervise launch of the Ye-8 on 18 February and the first N1 on 21 February. ...
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31 January - Symbolic activities for the first Apollo moon landing - NASA Hq. asked Center directors for ideas for symbolic activities on the moon during the first landing to dramatize international agreements regarding exploration of the moon. Possible ideas were flying a U.N. flag with the U.S. flag on the moon; pla...
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31 January - Kamanin meets with Vershinin. - Plans for purchase of ten Soyuz spacecraft for the VVS are discussed. They next turn to Volynov's problems during the Soyuz 5 re-entry. The fault can be attributed entirely to the modular design of the spacecraft, requiring that two modules be jettis...
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31 January - Preparations for the first N1 launch. - Mishin was staying in Korolev's cottage at the launch centre. The other chief designers were staying at the cosmodrome's hotel, while the technicians and workers were at the new apartments at Area 113. Afanasyev headed the 'Little Soviet', the State ...
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3 February - 12-month plan for Apollo missions - NASA Hq. released a 12-month forecast of manned space flight missions, reflecting an assessment of launch schedules for planning purposes. Five flights were scheduled for the remainder of 1969:...
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3 February - N1/Ye-8 preparations - Kamanin arrives at Tyuratam at 15:30 aboard an An-24. The State Commission for the first Ye-8 robot lunar rover mission is chaired by Tyulin at Area 31. The spacecraft will make a soft landing on the moon, deploy a mobile lunar rover that can travers...
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4 February - UR-500K failure state commission - At Area 81 a State Commission is held on failures of the UR-500K booster. A D Konopatov describes the analysis of the stage 2 and 3 failures on the 20 January launch attempt. The number 4 engine of stage 2 shut down 25 seconds into its burn due to hi...
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5 February - Cosmonaut centre plans - Kamanin flies back to Moscow aboard an An-24. Plans for the Cosmonaut Centre are discussed during the flight. It is to consist of 600 officer, 8 generals (vs. 1 currently), 3 directorates (vs. 1 now), and 6 deputy positions (instead of 3). It will be...
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6 February - Volynov grounded - Meetings are held at the cosmonaut centre to plan for the big visit to the base by Marshal Grechko. N F Kuznetsov briefs plans for the centre with the general staff. Kamanin discusses the situation with Leonov. Leonov notes the saying from Lenin on a...
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9 February - Final meeting held to review the N1 before the launch. - Marshal Krylov, Commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces, headed the meeting. The conference room was mobbed - many unfamiliar faces were in attendance - everyone wanted to witness the historic event. General Kurushin, Commander of Baikonur, stated t...
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10 February - Soyuz plans - Meeting with TsKBEM Deputy Chief Designer Tregub on manned space flight plans. Soyuz s/n 14 is set for a solo seven day mission in April-May. 15 and 16 with 5 cosmonauts aboard will fly a 7 day mission in August-September, remaining docked for three ...
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11 February - Unmanned Apollo LM landing discussed - The possibility of an unmanned LM landing was discussed at NASA Hq. The consensus was that such a landing would be a risky venture. Proposals had been made which included an unmanned LM landing as a prerequisite to a manned landing on the moon. Howev...
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11 February - Military space objectives - The Ye-8 and N1 are on schedule for their respective launches. Kamanin discusses the cosmonaut training curriculum with Kerimov. No one has ever defined what it is cosmonauts are actually supposed to do in space. No one really knows what their purpos...
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19 February - Ye-8 s/n 201 + Lunokhod s/n 201 - first stage malfunction - Attempted launch of a Ye-8 with a Lunokhod lunar rover. Evidently coordinate in some way with the N1 launch two days later. A first-stage booster engine failure causes the rocket to crash 15 km from the pad after a lift-off at 09:48 local time. Kaman...
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21 February - N1 3L launch - N-1 serial number 3L was the first N-1 launched. The vehicle ran into trouble immediately at lift-off. A fire developed in the tail compartment. The engine monitoring system detected the fire, but then gave an incorrect signal, shutting down all engi...
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22 February - Apollo 9 countdown began - The Apollo 9 countdown to launch began, with launch scheduled for liftoff February 28. The 10-day flight would mark the first manned earth orbital flight of the lunar module, the first Apollo spacewalk, and the first manned checkout, rendezvous, and ...
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3 March - Apollo 9 - ...
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3 March - Soviet/Chinese troops clash on Ussuri River - Military on full alert; Tyuratam preempted by military through June...
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3 March - Apollo 9 LM - ...
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5 March - Nomination of Acting Administrator Thomas O Paine to be the NASA Administrator - President Nixon, at a White House ceremony, announced the nomination of Acting Administrator Thomas O. Paine to be the NASA Administrator....
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6 March - EVA Apollo 9-1 - Tested Apollo spacesuit....
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6 March - Concern about Apollo software - NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller, wrote MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth of his concern about Apollo software. "Software as I mean it to be understood in this letter includes computer programs, mission profile...
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10 March - Apollo 9 points to US win - Kamanin notes the successful Apollo 9 mission. In his opinion Americans will land on the moon by the end of the year. The Soviet program is 3 to 4 years behind....
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11 March - Apollo 10 transferred to Pad B, Launch Complex 39 - Apollo 10 was transferred to Pad B, Launch Complex 39, at KSC - for first operational use of Pad B. Meanwhile, a revised work schedule providing for a Flight Readiness Test on April 9 and launch readiness on May 18 was being prepared for Apollo 10....
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11 March - Cost of the Apollo 204 fire $410 million - The additional direct cost to the Apollo research and development program from the January 27, 1967, Apollo 204 fire was estimated at $410 million, principally for spacecraft modifications, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George ...
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13 March - Landing of Apollo 9 - The ...
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17 March - Russian military space management changes - There is a management shuffle in the VVS head shed. Vershinin, a good supporter of Kamanin's attempts to obtain more VVS control of the space programme, is finished. ...
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20 March - Soviet of military officers meets to review manned space plans. - A 50 minute presentation is given on space plans. Russia plans to fly no less than six different types of manned spacecraft in 1969-1970 - the Soyuz, L1, L3, Almaz, Soyuz VI, and Spiral. This will result in a decisive answer to the American Apollo pr...
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24 March - Apollo 10 would be a lunar orbit mission - NASA announced that Apollo 10, scheduled for launch May 18, would be a lunar orbit mission during which two astronauts would descend to within 15,240 meters of the moon's surface. ...
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25 March - First flight-model ALSEP delivered - The first flight-model ALSEP arrived at KSC, where it would undergo software integration tests and be prepared for installation in the LM....
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27 March - M-69 s/n 521 - Mars probe intended to enter Martian orbit and comprehensively photograph Mars, together with a landing probe....
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28 March - Military Soyuz plan rejected - Kutakhov is having trouble selling Kamanin's plans for military spaceflights and the appointment of Beregovoi to the General Staff. Marshal Zakharov has rejected the plan for ten military Soyuz, as he had done with similar earlier plans for Vostok an...
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29 March - Apollo films on view in Soviet Union - VVS General Staff views US documentaries on Apollo 8 and 9, and footage from the 1968 Turin Air Show....
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2 April - M-69 s/n 522 - Mars probe intended to enter Martian orbit and comprehensively photograph Mars, together with a landing probe. Further Mars launches during the 1969 launch window were cancelled when this attempt resulted in a major accident, which almost wiped out a...
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1969 April 7-11 - Work on Apollo 10 continued on schedule - Work on Apollo 10 continued on schedule for a May 18 launch readiness date. The flight readiness test began on April 7 and was completed on April 10. A lunar module mission-simulation run was completed on April 10, and a crew compartment fit and func...
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1969 April 14-21 - Twenty-two astronauts trained for Apollo lunar reentry - Twenty-two astronauts trained in the MSC Flight Acceleration Facility during the week, for lunar reentry. Closed-loop simulation permitted the crews to control the centrifuge during the lunar reentry deceleration profiles. Each astronaut flew four di...
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18 April - Changes in launch readiness dates for Apollo 12 and Apollo 13 missions - ASPO announced changes in launch readiness dates for the Apollo 12 and Apollo 13 missions. Apollo 12 was moved up from September 18 to September 13, 1969; and Apollo 13 was moved up from December 1 to November 10....
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19 April - Military Soyuz meeting - Kamanin meets with the General Staff, presents the results of the study he has commissioned on the military utility of manned spaceflight, and pleads for support for his proposal to procure ten Soyuz spacecraft....
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26 April - Soyuz program review - The commission considers plans for the rest of the Soyuz production. Spacecraft s/n 14, 15, and 16 are to fly in August 1969, 17 and 18 in November 1969, and 19 and 20 in February-March 1970. Crews selected for the August flights are: for spacecraft ...
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28 April - Apollo 10 launch vehicle damage - A power outage, required to permit maintenance work at the KSC Launch Control Center, was relayed to the pneumatic controls of the S-IC stage of the Apollo 10 launch vehicle, causing the prevalves to open and allowing 5,280 liters of RP-1 fuel to dra...
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5 May - Apollo manned-test abort of the portable life support system - ASPO reported a recent manned-test abort of the portable life support system had been caused by a nonfunctional lithium hydroxide canister. Quality control procedures were in existence and if properly implemented would have precluded the abort incide...
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1969 May 7-8 - The fifth and final drop test of Apollo LM-2 - The fifth and final drop test of LM-2 was made on May 7. The first four drop tests had been made to establish the proper functioning of all LM systems after a lunar landing. The fifth test was made to qualify the functioning of the pyrotechnics after...
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8 May - Russian only hope is major Apollo failure - Mishin, Keldysh, Pashkov, Smirnov, and Serbin meet. Some of them are still expecting a big failure in the Apollo programme that will set the Americans back and still make it possible for Russia to be first on the moon. These are black days in the Sov...
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9 May - Science sequence recommended for the Apollo 12 mission - NASA Hq. informed MSC that, for planning purposes and Change Control Board action, the following science sequence was being recommended for the Apollo 12 mission:...
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10 May - Military space research plans - Kamanin makes a speech to the VVS Soviet, setting forth again plans for military research in space. His presentation shows how far the USSR is behind the Americans, and the need to regain the lead. He again proposes 10 to 12 military Soyuz flights be...
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16 May - Myth 'we were never in the moon race' disseminated by the Soviet Union - Keldysh first revealed the new 'party line' at a press conference on the semi-successful Venera 5 landing on Venus. When asked about Soviet lunar plans, he revealed that Russia would only use robot probes, that it wouldn't risk men's lives in such an...
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18 May - Apollo 10 - Final dress rehearsal in lunar orbit for landing on moon. LM separated and descended to 10 km from surface of moon but did not land. ...
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18 May - Apollo 10 LM - ...
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24 May - Way clear for Apollo 11 - Kamanin writes that Apollo 10 has completed its lunar mission successfully. The way is clear for the final step in American winning the moon race....
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26 May - Landing of Apollo 10 - ...
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27 May - Manned Apollo lunar roving vehicle go-ahead - MSFC was authorized to proceed with development of a manned lunar roving vehicle for use on the Apollo missions beginning in mid-1971. A meeting was scheduled for June 6 in Washington to establish requirements for development of the vehicle....
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29 May - N1 State Commission - Over two days a State Commission reviewed all of the conclusions of the N1 3L failure investigation and the readiness of N1 5L for flight. All of the fixes identified to remedy the 3L failure had been incorporated into 5L. It was felt that the behavi...
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1 June - Original planned date for first LK test - Original planned date for first test of LK in earth orbit....
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1 June - Soviet lunar plans - Despite having no stand testing of the N1 first stage, Mishin still expected the first Soviet lunar landing to take place by the end of 1970. He began pushing Kamanin to assign L3 flight crews for the missions. Mishin's staff did not believe he had t...
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1969 June 9-13 - Studies of impact of empty Apollo stages on the lunar surface - Studies were being conducted to determine the feasibility of intentionally impacting an S-IVB stage and an empty LM stage on the lunar surface after jettison, to gather geological data and enhance the scientific return of the seismology experiment. D...
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9 June - Apollo 11 on schedule - Preparation of Apollo 11 was on schedule for a July 16 launch date. Lunar landmark and landing site mosaics were delivered for flight crew training. A flight readiness test, begun on June 4, had been completed June 6 despite an MSC Mission Control Ce...
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9 June - Delegates from the international Communist conference tour the Gagarin Centre. - They are shown the Soyuz, L1, and Soyuz docking simulators. Tereshkova speaks on the future in space. The delegates view the living areas of Star City, visit the Gagarin Museum, and are shown the film 'Four in Orbit'....
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10 June - Revised Soviet lunar plans - The VPK Military-Industrial Commission issues a decree on the schedule for the rest of 1969. There are to be five launches of Ye-8-5 lunar soil return robots, on 14 June, 13 and 28 July, 25 August, and 25 September. There are to be two launches of Ye...
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13 June - Color TV coverage for Apollo 11 approved - Apollo Program Director Phillips wrote MSC ASPO Manager George Low, that "based on the excellent results of the color TV coverage on the Apollo 10 mission . . . I concur with your plan to carry and utilize a color TV camera in the Command Module...
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13 June - Leonov in trouble - Leonov interviewed by Japanese reporters. He tells them that both manned and unmanned lunar spacecraft are in preparation and that lunar rocks will be returned by Soviet spacecraft by March 1970....
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14 June - Ye-8-5 s/n 402 - Another attempt to launch a Ye-8-5 to return lunar soil to the earth, 'scooping', the Americans' impending Apollo 11 mission. Yet another UR-500K launch failure. This time the UR-500K booster functioned perfectly, but the Block D upper stage did not ...
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18 June - Mishin and Kamanin select candidates for the lunar landing mission. - They are Leonov, Bykovsky, Voronov, Khrunov, Yeliseyev, Makarov, Rukavishnikov, and Patsayev. Mishin expects a landing by the end of 1970; Kamanin thinks this is impossible. Afanasyev and Mishin propose modernisation of the N1, but this will take thr...
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20 June - Kamanin meets with Chief of Ministry of Defence General Staff Zakharov. - Zakharov is violently opposed to the Ministry of Defence spending a single kopeck on the exploration of space. It all must be paid for by the Academy of Sciences or be consigned to the waste bin....
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23 June - Preparations for the Apollo 11 on schedule - Preparations for the first manned lunar landing continued on schedule for a July 16 launch of Apollo 11. ...
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27 June - The decision - who would be first on the moon - How the decision was reached on who would be the first man to step out onto the moon was reported in a letter by ASPO Manager George M. Low: "Some time during the middle of the night, I had a call from Associated Press informing me that they had...
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3 July - N1 5L launch - N-1 serial number 5L began to fail at 0.25 second after liftoff when the oxidizer pump of engine number 8 ingested a slag fragment and exploded. A fire ensued as the vehicle climbed past the top of the tower. Engines were shutdown until the acceler...
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13 July - Luna 15 - Unmanned soil return mission launched coincident with Apollo 11 mission in last ditch attempt to return lunar soil to earth before United States. After completing 86 communications sessions and 52 orbits of the Moon at various inclinations and altit...
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16 July - Apollo 11 - First landing on moon. ...
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16 July - Apollo 11 LM - ...
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18 July - NASA Administrator Paine approved the shift from a "wet" to a "dry" Orbital Workshop for AAP. - NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine approved the shift from a 'wet' to a 'dry' Orbital Workshop concept for AAP following a review presentation by program officials on the potential benefits of such a change. On 22 July, AAP Director William C. Schnei...
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21 July - EVA Apollo 11-1 - Explored lunar surface near LM and deployed EPISEP unmanned scientific station equipment....
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21 July - EVA Apollo 11-2 - Threw excess equipment out of LM before lift-off....
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21 July - Soviet engineers view moonwalk - At the same time the reconstruction schedule for the destroyed N1 launch complex was being laid out, Apollo 11 landed on the moon and the Americans won the moon race. Mishin's engineers watched the live television at TsNIIMASH. Afterwards Tyulin dec...
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22 July - Soviet post-mortems after Apollo 11 - Two sequential N1 failures could not just be blamed on the poor reliability of the first stage. It was apparent that, compared to the Americans, both the management and the development practices of the Soviet space programme were inferior to the Amer...
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24 July - Landing of Apollo 11 - At 16:50 GMT ...
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29 July - Tentative planning schedule for the Apollo program - NASA issued a tentative planning schedule for the Apollo program:...
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31 July - Gen Samuel Phillips made Commander of SAMSO - The Secretary of Defense announced the assignment of Lt. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips (USAF), who had been serving as Apollo Program Director in the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight, to be Commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Organizatio...
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1 August - VPK hearing on N1 improvements - The VPK Military-Industrial Commission and the Central Committee of he Party discussed the matter of delaying further N1 tests until completely redesigned engines became available. Back came the ritual reply -- a Soviet manned lunar landing must be a...
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1 August - The DOS Conspiracy begins - With the collapse of the work on the N1, the whole reason for Mishin's design bureau's existence simply vanished in the air. A new high-priority project was needed. Korolev had begun development of a Multi-Module Space Base (MKBS) before 1966. Howeve...
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7 August - Zond 7 - Circumlunar flight; successfully recovered in USSR August 13, 1969. Only completely successful L1 flight that could have returned cosmonauts alive or uninjured to earth. Official mission was further studies of the moon and circumlunar space, to obta...
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7 August - Apollo lunar roving vehicle restricted to a 181-kilogram weight limit - MSFC-NASA Hq. correspondence emphasized the need to restrict the lunar roving vehicle to a 181-kilogram weight limit. If necessary, range and speed would be traded off to retain this weight limit....
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12 August - Apollo LM-6 (Apollo 12) guidance computer removed and replaced - During lunar module checkout activities at KSC, the LM-6 (for Apollo 12) guidance computer was removed and replaced because of an unexpected restart during panel revalidation....
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20 August - MSC rejected a Grumman proposal to use the Apollo LM as a lunar reconnaissance module - MSC rejected a Grumman proposal to use the LM as a lunar reconnaissance module. MSC pointed out that an MSC special task team had recently studied a number of proposals for lunar reconnaissance. These included use of a command module test vehicle, th...
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21 August - Final crew selections are made for the Soyuz 6, 7, 8 flights. - Sevastyanov and Nikolayev did poorly on the final test for the 7/6 crew. Therefore Shatalov and Yeliseyev have been selected. Khrunov has been in an auto accident, and Kuklin didn't pass his centrifuge tests - so they're out as well....
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22 August - Rocco A Petrone named as Director of the Apollo Program - NASA named Rocco A. Petrone, Director of Launch Operations at KSC, to succeed Samuel C. Phillips as Director of the Apollo Program effective September 1....
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26 August - Soyuz 6-7-8 are slated to fly in the first half of October. - Tests of the spacecraft at Baikonur showed 40 to 60 defects, requiring replacement of 17 to 25 equipment items. This demonstrates the poor quality of final assembly and test at TsKBEM and inadequate measures to protect the spacecraft during storage a...
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1 September - Kamanin lists the reasons the Soviets have lost the moon race. - The Americans were able to pull equal in the race during their Gemini programme, then ahead with Apollo. The Soviet Union is now four to five years behind. Kamanin's accounting:...
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2 September - Apollo 11 samples 3.1 billion years old - Analyses of the radioactive decay of Argon 40 and Neon 21 in two lunar samples indicated that the minimum age of the part of the Sea of Tranquillity from which the samples were obtained was about 3.1 billion years - plus or minus 200 million years....
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3 September - L3 Trainer and Female Cosmonauts - Meeting of Kamanin with S G Donevskiy. The L3 trainer will not be finished until May 1970 - and the current schedule for the first manned L3 launch is December 1970! But in any case Kamanin assesses the latter date as unrealistic -- there is no rocke...
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5 September - State Commission meets on the Luna 15 failure investigation - It is felt the problems are understood and go-ahead is given for the next lunar soil return robot launch attempt on 23 September. Kamanin considers this very unlikely to be successful -- all of the plans for automated spacecraft and their booster roc...
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8 September - Kuznetsov is in the hospital for 45 days after a heart attack. - Beregovoi is in charge of NII TsPK....
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12 September - Shatalov and Yeliseyev are progressing well for their Soyuz 8 flight. - Kamanin advises Nikolayev his chances of being named to fly Soyuz 8 are very low. Tereshkova arrives at Kamanin's office in the evening. She is infuriated that her husband is not to be allowed to fly the mission. She says she will take the matter to ...
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18 September - Soyuz 6/7/8 go-ahead - Smirnov recommended to the VPK Military-Industrial Commission that the flights go ahead in October. The triple Soyuz flight would make heavy demands on the Soviet tracking system. The problems were worked out in simulations and worldwide exercises c...
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18 September - Approval is given for proceeding with the Soyuz 6-7-8 flights - However the board makes a big fuss over Kamanin having trained only four back-up cosmonauts to support eight prime-crew cosmonauts. A follow-up meeting is held with Smirnov and Afanasyev at 19:15, where Kamanin's training is denounced as a big failur...
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19 September - MSC reports that 136 flags of other nations were flown on Apollo 11 - MSC replied to a query that 136 flags of other nations, the U.N. flag, and flags from each state and territory of the United States had been flown on ...
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19 September - L1 state commission - VPK Deputy Chairman Tyulin headed a state commission on the L1 programme. Mishin pushed for a manned L1 circumlunar flight in 1970. This meeting was only five days before a Ye-8-5 robot spacecraft was to have returned lunar soil from the earth. The ...
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20 September - The success of Zond 7 has emboldened Mishin and Tyulin. - They want to fly Zond 8 unpiloted in December 1969, to be followed by a two-man L1 lunar flyby in April 1970. This would look bad compared to the Apollo moon landings, but there was no other manned space mission they could offer the leadership in 197...
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22 September - Kamanin arrives at Tyuratam at 15:00 aboard an An-124 - A second arrives 50 minutes later. They bring the 49-strong VVS contingent for the Soyuz 6-7-8 state commission. The other members of the commission arrive aboard an Il-18. 2 to 3 weeks earlier an epidemic of dysentery swept the cosmodrome. This was ...
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23 September - Cosmos 300 - Robotic lunar soil return mission. Failed to leave low earth orbit due to Block D stage failure....
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23 September - Guinness records for Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 - In response to a query from ...
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23 September - Two Volga buses transport the cosmonauts and VVS specialists to Area 31. - To ensure the buses do not exceed 60 km/hour checkpoints are manned along the roads. The readiness review is conducted form 10:00 to 13:00. The crews, and spacecraft are ready. Mishin is away 'sick' again. General Pushkin and Beregovoi are at Area 81...
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24 September - N1 on launch pad 110 west. - This was the first new launch vehicle erection activity detected by US reconnsats after the destruction of pad 110 east in the July launch failure. The all-white launch vehicle, with no payload, is believed to be either N1 mockup 1M1 or flight vehicl...
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24 September - Soyuz 6-7-8 readiness review is made by Ustinov, Kerimov (for Afanasyev), Mishin, and Karas - The members do not believe the three spacecraft and crews are ready for flight. They rate the availability of the actual spacecraft for training before the flight at 20 to 30%, while the trainers are being used at 200% of their rated capacity. The re...
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24 September - Ye-8-5 failure analysis - The cause of the Ye-8-5 failure is found to be a valve that was stuck open after the first stage burn, resulting in the oxidiser boiling away in the vacuum of space. Tyulin inquires about the possibility of commanding the Ye-8-5 to conduct a series o...
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25 September - James A McDivitt appointed Apollo ASPO Manager - James A. McDivitt was appointed ASPO Manager at MSC. George M. Low, former ASPO Manager was temporarily on special assignment at MSC to plan future MSC programs and work on organizational matters....
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25 September - The Central Committee debates plans for the upcoming visit of two cosmonauts tot he USA. - They rule out 22 October as a start date, in order not to have the embarrassment of them being there during the Apollo 12 mission. They reject Belyayev and Shatalov as candidates for the trip; they want Beregovoi and Belyayev or Beregovoi and Feoktis...
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27 September - Fuelling begins of Soyuz 6. - V A Smirnov and other specialists again go over the near-disaster with Soyuz 5. The true cause of the failure of the re-entry capsule to separate has never been established, but the separation systems have been fully reworked (latches, pyrotechnics, ...
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28 September - Soyuz 6-7-8 flight preparations - It is Sunday, but the cosmonauts are at work, training on the scientific equipment for the flight and preparing for the autonomous navigation experiment. Nikolayev is preparing the work plan for the launch of the first spacecraft. The cosmonauts have...
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29 September - Soyuz 7 manual rendezvous proposed - Meeting with the crew commanders for the upcoming flights. The ship's logs/flight plans are reviewed. The draft flight plans provided by Anokhin at TsKBEM had many errors that had to be corrected. Shatalov proposes a method of making a more fuel-effi...
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30 September - Politburo approves Soyuz 6/7/8 flight. - Ustinov, Smirnov, Afanasyev, Mishin, and Kutakhov appear before the Politburo and affirm the readiness of the spacecraft, boosters, and crews of Soyuz 6/7/8 for flight. Approval is given to proceed....
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1 October - Problems with Beregovoi. - Kamanin notes that Beregovoi is not doing well as chief of the cosmonaut centre. But he still feels no other cosmonaut has any better leadership qualities....
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2 October - Soyuz 6/7/8 State Commission - The State Commission convenes at Tyuratam and affirms everything is ready for the Soyuz 6/7/8 flight....
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3 October - Mishin arrives at Tyuratam. - Kamanin notes he now always shows up only after the State Commission has met....
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5 October - Sunday at the cosmodrome - It is agreed that future pre-flight reviews of spacecraft operations should not just be limited to standard procedures, but should cover back-up and emergency procedures as well, even though this will take 2 to 3 days longer to prepare. It is Sunday ...
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5 October - DOS Conspiracy briefed to Ustinov - Mishin was opposed to the DOS space station concept - he wanted to pursue the N1-launched MKBS. Afanasyev and Deputy Minister Tyulin wouldn't support the idea either. None of them wanted to take the risk. The only chance was to get to VPK Chairman Us...
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6 October - Soyuz 6/7/8 experiment review - Meeting between the Soyuz 6/7/8 crews and engineers. Shatalov pushes his idea for a manually flown spacecraft rendezvous, provided that Soyuz 7 and 8 visually acquire each other immediately after Soyuz 8 is put into orbit. He believes this would not ...
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8 October - Soyuz 6/7/8 State Commission - Kamanin takes General Efimov to see the roll-out of the Soyuz 6 booster. Mishin calls during the tour to ask that Volkov be switched with TsKBEM engineer Grechko on the Soyuz 7 crew. Kamanin refuses at this late date, noting in disgust Mishin is alwa...
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9 October - Final preparations - The ship's logs/flight plans are reviewed one more time. Tyuratam commander General Kurushin runs through the Svinets ABM experiment again with Shonin and Kubasov - they're ready. The Communist Party has selected Beregovoi and Feoktistov for the trip...
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10 October - Major milestones for the Apollo 16-20 missions - Major milestones were reached for extending astronauts' staytime on the moon and increasing their mobility for the Apollo 16-20 missions. Modifications in the A7L spacesuit incorporating improved waist mobility were authorized, and letter contract au...
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10 October - Cosmonaut awards discussed. - Bad weather at the cosmodrome - rain and 12-15 m/s wind. The traditional meeting of the cosmonauts and their support teams takes place at 15:00 at Area 31. Afterwards Kamanin meets with VVS General I M Moroz and Efimov. The future policy is that a co...
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11 October - Soyuz 6 - Tested spacecraft systems and designs, manoeuvring of space craft with respect to each other in orbit, conducted scientific, technical and medico-biological experiments in group flight. Carried Vulkan welding furnace for vacuum welding experiments ...
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12 October - Soyuz 7 - Tested spacecraft systems and designs, manoeuvring of space craft with respect to each other in orbit, conducted scientific, technical and medico-biological experiments in group flight. Was to have docked with Soyuz 8 and transferred crew while Soyu...
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12 October - Decision that Apollo 12 mission would examine Surveyor III and recover its TV camera - A portion of the Apollo 12 mission would be devoted to an examination of ...
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13 October - Soyuz 8 - Tested spacecraft systems and designs, manoeuvring of space craft with respect to each other in orbit, conducted scientific, technical and medico-biological experiments in group flight. Was to have docked with Soyuz 7 and transferred crew while Soyu...
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14 October - Soyuz 7-8 docking problem - Orbital manoeuvres for the Soyuz 7-8 docking have proceeded normally. The automated rendezvous system is supposed to kick in when the spacecraft are 250 km apart. The plan is that Soyuz 7 and 8 will dock while Soyuz 6 observes from only 50 m away. Ho...
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15 October - Second attempt to dock Soyuz 7 & 8 - rendezvous of Soyuz 6 with Soyuz 8 - Following an orbital correction during the night, Soyuz 7 and 8 are expected to be less than 1 km from each other when communications are regained at 9 am. Instead they are 40 km apart. It will require two more orbits over Soviet territory to refine ...
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16 October - Landing of Soyuz 6 - further attempts to dock Soyuz 7 and 8 - Soyuz 6 lands successfully at 09:52 GM, coming to rest in a vertical position. A recovery helicopter lands 10 minutes later, finding the cosmonauts have already emerged from the capsule. After the landing of Soyuz 6 there are two further attempts to ...
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17 October - Landing of Soyuz 7 - The landing commission meets at the command post at 08:00. Soyuz 7 is to land on orbit 97, beginning a 95 m/s retrofire impulse at 11:44:11. The main parachute is to deploy at 12:12:34. All is reported normal aboard the spacecraft, except that the So...
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18 October - Landing of Soyuz 8 - Kamanin's 61st birthday begins with a communications session with Soyuz 8. Yells come from the spacecraft. What's wrong? the ground nervously inquires. They reply they are only celebrating the successful closing of the hatch, and the glowing 'SA herm...
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19 October - DOS Conspiracy briefed to wide circle of space planners - In the euphoria after the return of the Soyuz 6/7/8 crews, the problem was how to get Ustinov to meet further with the DOS 'conspirators'. Mishin had prohibited any meetings by TsKBEM staff with the Communist Party Secretary unless Mishin was also pr...
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19 October - Post mortem on the Soyuz 6-7-8 mission - State commission meets to do a post mortem on the Soyuz 6-7-8 mission. Kamanin gives a 15-minute briefing on the readiness of the crews for flight. He pointed to the need for more information and training on manual flight and navigation of the spacec...
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20 October - Weight loss of Soyuz 6-7-8 crew - The medical reports show all the cosmonauts lost 1.5 to 3.5 kg during the flight (with Filipchenko having the greatest loss). However Kamanin plays tennis with Gorbatko, Shonin, and Volkov just two days after the flight. They show no apparent ill eff...
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21 October - Cosmonaut press conference at Baikonur - The cosmonauts hold a press conference on their flight. They are only allowed to speak one of ten prepared responses to questions, despite Kamanin's objections....
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22 October - Cosmos 305 - Robotic lunar soil return mission. Failed to leave low earth orbit due to Block D stage failure....
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22 October - Opposition to a major effort to develop a lunar flyer until after the Apollo 16 mission - The Flight Crew Operations Directorate expressed opposition to a major effort to develop a lunar flyer until after the Apollo 16 mission. Plans for Apollo flights 12 through 16 required that the LM be maneuvered to landings at various points of scien...
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22 October - Cosmonauts arrive in Moscow - The cosmonauts fly from Baikonur to Moscow, escorted by six MiG-21 fighters to Vnukovo airfield, where they receive honours all around, followed by meetings with reporters. Brezhnev was no there - he was on his way to Baikonur to observe the Tyulpan ...
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23 October - Cosmonauts feted at TsKBEM - Traditional meeting between the cosmonauts and the engineers and workers at TsKBEM. They are quizzed on the flight failures, followed by dinner and toasts. Kamanin tells Afanasyev that instead of messing about with the N1-L3, they should build 8 to 1...
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27 October - Cosmonauts tours. - Kamanin assigns cosmonauts to upcoming foreign propaganda tours. Beregovoi and Feoktistov are to go to the United States, Tereshkova to Hungary, Popovich to France, Khrunov to Odessa. Titov will not be given this privilege because of his numerous aut...
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28 October - Apollo lunar roving vehicle (LRV) contract awarded to the Boeing - A lunar roving vehicle (LRV) cost-plus-incentive-fee contract was awarded to the Boeing Co. LRV-1 was scheduled for delivery on April 1, 1971, leaving only 17 months for vehicle development, production, and tests. The LRV project was managed at MSFC ...
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3 November - Apollo team made a walkaround inspection of Apollo 14 - The spacecraft walk-down team, established by ASPO in July in an effort to stem the increased number of human errors found in flight hardware, made a walkaround inspection of CSM-110 (Apollo 14 hardware). Cooperation of North American Rockwell and th...
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3 November - Press conference preparations - A meeting is held with Mishin and Keldysh to prepare the cosmonauts and other participants for an upcoming press conference. Kamanin notes a huge amount of time is spent in such preparations....
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1969 November 4-7 - Preparations for a November 14 launch of Apollo 12 - Preparations for a November 14 launch of Apollo 12 continued on schedule. ...
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5 November - Press conference - lunar project raised. - Major press conference. Keldysh dodges questions from American reporters on the Soviet lunar landing program. The cosmonauts perform all right, no mistakes. Kamanin views Keldysh as a braking force on the space programme. He attributes the loss of th...
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10 November - Apollo 12 targetting point for Surveyor 3 changed - At the request of the Apollo 12 crew, the internal primary guidance and navigational control system targeting for descent was being changed so that the automatic guidance would land LM-6 at ...
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10 November - Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E Mueller resigns - NASA announced the resignation of Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller effective December 10. In December Charles W. Mathews was named Acting Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight until a successor for Mueller w...
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14 November - Apollo 12 - ...
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14 November - Apollo 12 LM - ...
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17 November - Changed nomenclature for the lunar exploration phase of the Apollo program - NASA discontinued the use of names such "LEO," "ALEM," and "Apollo Lunar Exploration Program" that had been used since ...
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19 November - EVA Apollo 12-1 - Explored lunar surface near LM and deployed ALSEP unmanned scientific station equipment....
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20 November - EVA Apollo 12-2 - Moonwalk to Surveyor 3, which had landed two years before. Recovered parts of Surveyor 3 which seemed to show that Earth bacteria could survive for that period in space and be revived....
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20 November - EVA Apollo 12-3 - Threw excess equipment out of LM before lift-off....
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24 November - Landing of Apollo 12 - Parachute deployment and other reentry events occurred as planned. The CM splashed down in mid-Pacific at 3:58 p.m. EST (20:58 GMT), 7.25 kilometers from the recovery ship, U.S.S. ...
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26 November - Christopher C Kraft, Jr, appointed Deputy Director of MSC - Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., was appointed Deputy Director of MSC. Kraft, Director of Flight Operations at MSC since November 1963, succeeded George S. Trimble, Jr., who had resigned September 30....
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28 November - Soyuz 7K-L1E s/n 1 - first stage malfunction - Attempted test flight of Block D upper stage in N1 lunar crasher configuration. Payload was a modified Soyuz 7K-L1 circumlunar spacecraft, which provided guidance to the Block D and was equipped with television cameras that viewed the behavior of the...
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1 December - First flight Almaz station close to completion - Ten stations 'in advanced stage of completion' by end of year....
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1 December - Final L1 State Commission - Yuri Semenov proved his management abilities in the successful unmanned launches and recoveries of Zond 7 and 8 on circumlunar missions. At the final state commission on the L1 program, VPK Deputy Chairman Tyulin said that if had been in charge inste...
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15 December - Mobile equipment transporter for Apollo LM-8, LM-9, and LM-10 - NASA was considering incorporation of a mobile equipment transporter on LM-8, LM-9, and LM-10, to help with problems such as the ...
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1969 December 16-18 - Apollo lunar roving vehicle preliminary requirements review - A lunar roving vehicle preliminary requirements review was held at MSFC. MSC was asked to review the requirement for a roll bar which it had requested in the interest of astronaut safety. Navigation system requirements as defined by MSC would require...
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26 December - DOS formally authorised - Ustinov called the DOS 'conspirators' to Kuibyshev Street. Mishin was sent away to Kslovodsk and Chelomei and Glushko were not invited. No one wanted to listen to any more of Glushko's diatribes about Kuznetsov's engines. ...
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28 December - Sigurd A Sjoberg named Director of Flight Operations - MSC announced the appointment of Sigurd A. Sjoberg as Director of Flight Operations, replacing Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., who had been appointed MSC Deputy Director Nov. 26. Sjoberg had been Deputy Director of Flight Operations since 1963....
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30 December - Soyuz 9 planned - Belyayev seriously ill. - The leadership suddenly announces that a solo Soyuz mission of 17 to 20 days is to be flown for Lenin's 100th birthday (April 22). This will seize the space endurance record from the Americans and provide biomedical information for the DOS station, t...
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31 December - 1969 in retrospect. - Tereshkova is on a tour of Jordan and Syria. Kamanin muses over the year 1969. He is able to rationalise that it wasn't a bad year -- they flew 9 cosmonauts on five space missions. But of course they lost the moon to the Americans. He blames Mishin, ...
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