The flight testing of the Series D Atlas missiles was completed with the successful launch and flight of Atlas 90D from Cape Canaveral. This was the 32d Atlas D to be launched in the research and development series and the 55th Atlas missile to be flown since the first attempted launch on 11 June 1957. During the flight test series to date, 35 missiles were flown successfully and 20 were rated failures. Final test flight of USAF Atlas D traveled 5,000 miles to target down Atlantic Missile Range, representing 35 successes, 8 partials, and 6 failures in 49 test launchings for D model. 75th Atlas launched at AMR, successful

They decide that the VVS must insist on spacesuits or at least light pressure garments for the crew, and windows that will allow the crew to view the parachute cupola and ground during landings. It is agreed that the insistence on ejection seats and wings can be dropped.

The General Staff of the VVS considers future cosmonaut assignments. The acceptance of Beregovoi into the active cosmonaut corps is hotly contested. He has passed all the tests, but is 43 years old, and the official maximum age for a cosmonaut is 35. Finally it is decided that on 25 January six cosmonauts will begin training for Vostok flights (Volynov, Khrunov, Belyayev, Leonov, Komarov, and Beregovoi). On 1 February four crews will begin training for Soyuz flights: Crew 1: Nikolayev, Shonin, Demin, Kugno; Crew 2: Bykovsky, Zaikin, Artyukhin, Gulyayev; Crew 3: Popovich, Gorbatko, Ponomaryova, Kolodin; Crew 4: Titov, Shatalov, Solovyova, Zholobov.

Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara announced that the Department of Defense was requesting proposals from the aerospace industry for design studies to support development of the MOL (especially cost and technical data). Three contractors would be chosen to conduct the studies, a step preliminary to any DOD decision to proceed with full-scale development of the space laboratory.

Tsien was overthrown by the 916 (Mao) Clique. Ye Zhengguang, a missile engineer, with the approval off Zhou En Lai and Marshall Nie, confronts Tsien and removes him from his post as head of the Seventh Ministry. Minister of Machine Building Wang Bingzhang was also deposed. However Tsien was protected by the leadership, made a 'Vice Minister', and claimed he supports the coup. Wang refused to cooperate and would not hand over the chops of his office to the 916 Clique.

The 'big' Soviet of Chief Designers meets and the three-launch landing concept developed a month earlier is presented in detail. Pilyugin pointed out that this was a typical contradiction. Mishin had just made a presentation to the expert commission justifying that the one-launch scheme was safe and reliable. Now they wanted to put forward a new scheme because the one-launch scheme was unsafe and unfeasible. Additional Details: here....

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, who has the Hong Kong flu.

The study was in an attempt to resolve disputes between the centres as to the best approach. Houston's Faget straight-wing two-stage vehicle was in competition with concepts from other centres - recoverable versions of Saturn boosters, and an advanced single-stage-to-orbit Aerospaceplane. Payload for the Faget vehicle was to be only 5,700 to 6,800 kg to low earth orbit, and the system was to be operational by the end of 1975, after the last Apollo flight.

NASA successfully launched the Improved Tiros Operational Satellite (ITOS I) (TIROS-M) from Vandenberg AFB aboard a two-stage, Long Tank Thrust Augmented Thor/Delta (SLV-2K), Thorad/Delta, using six solid-propellaiit, strap-on Thiokol TX 354-5 Castor II motors. This was the first use of the "Super Six" Thor/Delta (DSV-3N-6) booster vehicle that employed the six Castor II motors, three of which ignited 30 seconds after lift-off. Generating nearly 600,000 pounds of thrust, the new launch vehicle could orbit a spacecraft weighing more than twice as much as the previous Tiros Operational Satellites. Improved TIROS Operational Satellite. Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C).

Australis-OSCAR 5 was launched piggyback with ITOS-1 (TIROS-M weather satellite. Weight 17.7 kg (9 kg of which was battery mass). Box shaped 304 x 431 x 152 mm. 2 meter monopole and 10 meter dipole antennas. It was the first amateur satellite to be remotely controlled. Built by students at The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Battery powered, Australis-OSCAR 5 transmitted telemetry on both 2 meter (144.050 MHz at 50 mW) and 10 meter (29.450 MHz at 250 mW) bands that operated for 23 and 46 days respectively. Passive magnetic attitude stabilization was performed by carrying two bar magnets to align with the Earth's magnetic field in order to provide a favorable antenna footprint. The University of Melbourne compiled tracking reports from hundreds of stations in 27 countries.

Kamanin reviews his public relations operations. In ten years the cosmonauts have made 6,000 speeches and gone on 200 publicity tours. Tereshkova is the most in demand. 30 documentary films have been produced, as well as hundreds of books and brochures. The Star City Museum had 13,000 visitors in 1970.

Over Pacific. Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Launch vehicle put payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Pacific Ocean at 174 deg E in 1972-1974; over the Pacific Ocean 179 deg E in 1975-1982; over the Atlantic Ocean 1 deg W in 1982-1983 As of 28 August 2001 located at 178.00 deg E drifting at 1.569 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 7 located at 155.84W drifting at 1.593W degrees per day.

HQ USAF issued a Program Management Directive specifying that initial DOD space shuttle mission operations would be planned and controlled by a predominantly NASA team rather than by a DOD team. The Program Management Directive also directed that action be taken to minimize the impact of DOD communications security requirements on shuttle operations.

TV. BS-2a (Yuri-2a). Domestic satellite broadcasting; development of broadcasting satellite technology. Launch 0758 GMT. N launch vehicle flight no 12. Launching organization NASDA. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 110 deg E in 1984-1985; 108 deg E in 1985-1987; 110 deg E in 1987-1988 As of 28 August 2001 located at 69.57 deg E drifting at 4.403 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 153.52W drifting at 4.395W degrees per day.

Penultimate Shuttle mission to Mir. Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as the resident NASA astronaut. Endeavour docked with the SO module on Mir at 20:14 GMT on January 24, 1998.

Payloads included:

• Orbiter middeck: CEBAS (German/US biological module with fish and snails); dinosaur skull (part of a museum educational program)
• Bay 1: Tunnel Adapter
• Bay 3: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
• Bay 4-7: Transfer Tunnel
• Bay 8-12: Spacehab Double Module (payloads included supplies for Mir, X-ray crystallography detector planned for the International Space Station)
• Bay 13P: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-141, G-145 (German materials processing experiments)
• Bay 13S: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-093 (University of Michigan fluid dynamics experiment), G-432 (Chinese materials processing experiment)

Despite fits problems with his Sokol emergency spacesuit, Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as a Mir crew member on January 25. Endeavour undocked from Mir on January 29 at 16:57 GMT and made one flyaround of the station before departing and landing at Kennedy Space Center's runway 15 at 22:35 GMT on January 31.

Communications satellite. Launch delayed from January 16. The Ariane placed Insat 3C into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The Indian communications satellite had a mass of 1050 kg empty, 2750 kg fuelled. It carried 30 C-band and two S-band transponders. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 73.96E drifting at 0.007W degrees per day.

"Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads in honor of combustion experiments on this flight Red Team -"Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas. The crew had a stuffed hamster toy which played that song. It was their 'mascot' and they took it everywhere during their training.

CDR Whitson and FE-2 Tani started out with the daily reading of SLEEP (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy and Light Exposure during Spaceflight) experiment data accumulated during the night, for logging and filling in questionnaire entries in the SLEEP session file on the HRF-1 laptop for downlink. Additional Details: here....