The Shanghai design institute completed the first subscale experimental model of the T-7 sounding rocket. This would use a solid booster and liquid propellant sustainer stage. The rocket was fuelled using a bicycle pump. Launched from Laogang, on the coast, the missile reached 8 km altitude.

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. Kamanin meanwhile has the Hong Kong flu.

Kamanin has a run-in with Tereshkova over her automobile benefit. Kamanin finds Tereshkova capricious and touching, but also sometimes downright rude. She is also very energetic .... and powerful (though her leadership of the Committee of Soviet Women). She badgers Kamanin after every cosmonaut meeting, as to when another female flight will be scheduled. Kamanin knows from his fights with the leadership on the issue that this will never happen.

Maritime communications. 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 15 deg W in 1976-1990; over the Americas at 106 deg W in 1990-1997 As of 2 September 2001 located at 168.03 deg W drifting at 3.834 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 20.39E drifting at 3.837W degrees per day.

Tentative name before launching: MS-T3. Launching organization: Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, University of Tokyo. Radio frequencies: 136.725 MHz, tracking; 400.500 MHz, telemetry. Active life: two weeks. Function: (1) Test of the overall p erformance of the newly developed launch vehicle, M-3H-1. (2) Experiment of magnetic stabilization. (3) Observation of ultraviolet radiation.

The core module of Russia's new space station was placed in an initial orbit of 172 x 301 km. It was established in its operational orbit on 6 March. It passed just 10 km from Salyut 7 on 8 March. First use of the geosynchronous Luch relay sattelite for communications with the station was on 29 March. Equipment launched with the core module included:

• Splav-2 crystal growth facility
• Zona zone melt facility
• Kashtan electrophoresis unit
• Bulgarian Rozhen photometer
• Spektr-256 and MKS-M spectrometers
• Pion-M multipurpose physics unit (41 kg)
• Biryuza semiconductor materials unit
• -Ruchei electrophoresis installation
• Yantar metal coating equipment
• Mariye magnetic spectrometer
• Korund furnace (136 kg)

Total costs of Mir from February 1986 through return of Soyuz TM-9 in April 1989 were given as 1.471 billion rubles. This sum ncluded Mir, Kvant, all Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, and 2 new modules. As of April 1989 50% of the scientific equipment was inoperable and the interior was cramped due to lack of extension modules. Electric power supply problems were first reported in April 1989 (batteries would not hold charge from panels). Mass 27,300 kg as of January 1990. Complex mass with Kvant-2 65,790 kg; with Kristall, Soyuz TM, and Progress M, 89,990 kg. Additional Details: here....

Stationed at 132 deg E. CS-3A (Sakura 3-A). To continue communications services provided by the communications satellite 2 (CS-2). To meet increasing and diversifying demands for communications. To develop technologies for communications satellites. Launch vehicle H18F. Launchin g organization NASDA. Launch time 1005 GMT. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 132 deg E in 1988-1996 As of 2 September 2001 located at 85.60 deg E drifting at 7.699 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 71.73E drifting at 7.700W degrees per day.

Stationed at 133 deg W; replaced Galaxy 1. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 133 deg W in 1994-1999 As of 5 September 2001 located at 132.97 deg W drifting at 0.005 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 88.88W drifting at 3.795W degrees per day.

Solovyov and Vinogradov together with French astronaut Eyharts (launched aboard Soyuz TM-27) undocked from the forward port on Mir at 05:52 GMT on February 19, 1998, fired their deorbit engines at 08:16 GMT and landed in Kazakstan at 50 deg 11 N, 67 deg 31 E at 09:10 GMT.

Following yesterday's decision by mission managers to extend mapping operations, Endeavour's astronauts are set to continue collecting data until 5:44 a.m. Central time Monday. At that point preparations will begin to stow the 200-foot-long mast for the remainder of the mission. This 9-hour extension allows for almost 100 percent of the planned coverage of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Additional Details: here....

After an extra day in orbit, Atlantis' astronauts will try again to return to the Kennedy Space Center today to wrap up a 4.9 million mile mission to deliver the U.S. Laboratory Destiny to the International Space Station (ISS). Preliminary weather forecasts indicate the possibility of gusty winds and decks of broken clouds at the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Cape this afternoon, similar to the conditions that forced a waveoff of the Shuttle's return yesterday. Additional Details: here....

Flight delayed after the Columbia disaster. STS-120 was to have flown ISS Assembly mission ISS-10A. It would have delivered to the station the second of three station connecting modules, Node 2. With this mission the redefined ISS US Core would have been completed.

See Dragon CRS-10 (SpX 10, Dragon C112). Dragon CRS-10 was launched from Kennedy Space Center LC39A aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9; the first non-NASA launch operation ever from KSC and the first launch from KSC since 2011. NASA KSC abuts USAF Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on its northern side; previous Falcon 9 east coast launches were from SLC40 at Cape Canaveral. On this flight the Falcon 9 first stage, B1031, landed at Cape Canaveral's LZ1. CRS-10 carried three packages in its trunk for installation on ISS. The USAF Space Test Program's STP-H5 experiment suite includes a NASA lightning sensor and NRL ionosphere-study experiments. SAGE-III IP continued a long series of NASA ozone monitoring studies. SAGE-III NVP (Nadir Viewing Platform) was an adapter which will allow the IP to be installed sideways on the ISS ELC platform. On Feb 22 Dragon aborted its approach to the ISS at a distance of 1.2 km due to a navigation system error. Rendezvous was rescheduled for Feb 23 when Dragon was grappled by the SSRMS at 1044 UTC, then berthed on the Harmony module. he Dextre and Canadarm-2 robot arms were used to unload the experiments in the Dragon external cargo trunk on Feb 25-Mar 7 in a rather complicated sequence involving Dextre's two main arms and its EOTP (Enhanced ORU Temp Platform, a storage position). The experiments were installed on the Express Logistics Carriers ELC-1 and ELC-4 on the station truss. Older experiments from ELC-1, ELC-2 and ELC-4 were removed for disposal. These incuded the These included the OPALS laser comm payload launched in 2014; the RRM Robotic Refuelling Mission experiment of 2011, and the MISSE FSE adapter that mounted the MISSE 7 and 8 materials exposure experiments of 2009. These packages, with a total mass of 811 kg, were destroyed on reentry when the Dragon trunk was jettisoned following Dragon's deorbit burn. Dragon was unberthed from the Harmony module at 2145 UTC Mar 18 and released by Canadarm-2 at 0911 UTC Mar 19. After a deorbit burn at 1355 UTC it splashed down in the Pacific near 31 44N 121 15W at 1446 UTC, carrying 1652 kg of ISS return cargo. This return cargo includd 104 kg of unspecified EVA equipment.