Dornberger, Von Braun, and Steinhoff (at the controls) fly aboard a He-111 to the Fuehrer bunker in East Prussia. There they give Hitler a review of the V-2 program, the first since his visit to Kummersdorf in March 1939. The appointment was for 11:30, but then delayed to 17:00.

When they were finally ushered into his presence, Dornberger was shocked at the terrible and changed appearance of the Fuehrer. The team begins their briefing, in the presence of Hitler, Keitel, Jodl, Butale, and Speer. The presentation began with a film of preparations and launch of an A4 on the 3 October 1942. Von Braun narrated the film, which had proven a real crowd-pleaser in the past. It showed the A4 in production at the vast assembly hall at Peenemuende, the vertical roll-out, the huge launch complex, and finally launch. Von Braun then presented a model and plans for the hardened production/launch bunker that was being built on the English Channel.

Hitler loved the bunker model, and declared he wanted to build not one, but three such facilities. Dornberger argued that mobile launchers would be militarily less vulnerable and less costly, but Hitler was unconvinced. The 7 m thick bunker walls, he declared, would 'draw every allied bomber like flies to honey. Every bomb they drop there will be one that does not fall on Germany'. Hitler asks if the payload can be increased to 10 tonnes (in order to accommodate a nuclear warhead) or if a 2,000 per month production rate was possible (in order to make mass attacks on Britain with conventional explosive or chemical payloads). Dornberger replies that it would take four to five years to develop a missile with greater payload, and that production was limited by the German industrial capacity for alcohol (used as fuel in the missile).

Dornberger noted that they did not dream of the possibility of short-term availability of nuclear energy in 1936, when the specifications for the missile were set. In any case, after the loss of the heavy water plant in Norway, it would take years to develop nuclear weapons. Hitler was visibly upset that the V-2 would not turn out to be a war-deciding weapon. But Dornberger pointed out it was a great psychological weapon - unstoppable, something against their which there was no defence.

Hitler stated that 'I have only had to excuse myself to two men in my life - and one of them was von Brauchtisch, who always championed the importance of your work, and the other is you. If we had this weapon in 1939, Britain would have conceded, and there would have been no war.

Hitler finally ordered that the V-1 and V-2 missile programs be given the highest priority in the defence ministry. Immediately needed staff and material began flowing into the program. Saur immediately ordered a production goal of 2,000 missiles per month, despite the fact that there was no prospect of producing enough alcohol fuel or training enough launch crews to actual fire the missiles at such a rate. However, there was no disagreement, since any industry leader who did not commit to meeting this production goal was threatened with immediate replacement. German alcohol production would mean the maximum number that could ever be fired was 900 per month.

Walter F. Burke of McDonnell summarized the company's studies of the redesigned Mercury spacecraft for Space Task Group's senior staff. McDonnell had considered three configurations: (1) the minimum-change capsule, modified only to improve accessibility and handling, with an adapter added to carry such items as extra batteries; (2) a reconfigured capsule with an ejection seat installed and most of the equipment exterior to the pressure vessel on highly accessible pallets; and (3) a two-man capsule, similar to the reconfigured capsule except for the modification required for two rather than one-man operation. The capsule would be brought down on two Mercury-type main parachutes, the ejection seat serving as a redundant system. In evaluating the trajectory of the two-man capsule, McDonnell used Atlas Centaur booster performance data.

The NASA Administrator and the Secretary of Defense concluded an agreement to study development of large launch vehicles for the national space program. For this purpose, the DOD-NASA Large Launch Vehicle Planning Group was created, reporting to the Associate Administrator of NASA and to the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Deputy Director of Defense Research and Engineering).

In a two hour meeting with Rudenko, Kamanin attempts to convince him of the need for specialised cosmonaut training (qualifying as spacecraft commander, pilot, navigator, engineer, etc.) for future multi-crew spacecraft. Kamanin points out that in five to seven years they will be routinely flying 2 or 3 place spacecraft and need to start differentiating training now in order to be ready in time. However Rudenko remains unconvinced. Meanwhile Bykovskiy and Tereshkova are at the cosmonaut training centre, completing their flight reports. Kamanin faces difficulties in booking a hotel for the entire cosmonaut group in the Crimea in August --- he can't find any place with fifty vacancies, and concludes he'll have to split the group up. Pressure is coming from the Foreign Ministry for Tereshkova to make an early trip to Brazil, but she is already booked for two or three tours of friendly socialist countries beginning on 30 August and any additional trips can only be made after those are completed.

Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara reported to President Lyndon B. Johnson that Space Systems Division's Titan III contract with Martin Marietta was one of the best managed contracts in the DoD. This was said to be due to the incentives applied to the program. At present, McNamara reported that the Titan III program was one percent below cost estimates and savings were being accomplished without harm to defense posture.

In a memorandum to Headquarters staff members, Advanced Manned Missions Program Director Edward Z. Gray summarized the three separate study efforts underway within NASA directed toward evaluating the S-IVB stage as a manned laboratory: (1) The spent-stage experiment support module (SSESM) study, a joint effort by MSC and MSFC. (2) A spent S-IVB-stage utilization study at MSFC. (3) A Saturn V single-launch space station. Additional Details: here....

On this typical training day 16 cosmonauts are flying, four in the morning aboard a MiG-21, 12 in the afternoon aboard L-29's. It is difficult to schedule these training flights, since the cosmonaut training unit is co-located with an aviation transport brigade and repair centre.

NASA Huntsville, dissatisfied with the shuttle concepts being pursued by NASA Houston, let contracts to Chrysler and Lockheed for alternate technical approaches to the configuration dictated to Phase B contractors by NASA Houston. Later a further contract was let to a Grumman/Boeing team. In all, 29 configurations of partially reusable to fully-reusable vehicles were explored. The baseline engine for these studies had a thrust of 250,000 kgf and a two-position bell nozzle.

Kamanin is furious. Of 25 cosmonauts that have flown, five are buried in the Kremlin Wall, one in Novdevich cemetery, and 19 are still in service. These deaths are due to the incompetent management of Ustinov, Serbin, Smirnov, Mishin, Afanasyev, Bushuyev, and Serbin. Some people are trying to blame Kamanin or the cosmonauts, saying the vent could have been plugged with a finger if the crew was properly trained. Others blame the crew in other ways. But the main problem was already brought up early over and over and over by the VVS and Kutakhov - the crew should never have flown without spacesuits! This has been going on for seven years. Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Ustinov, Smirnov, all wrote of their fear of allowing dangerous spaceflights. But these were the same leaders who supported the categorical rejection of the need for the crew to fly in spacesuits. The need for the suits was rejected first by Korolev, then Mishin. They kept saying that hundreds of manned and unmanned spacecraft had flown without depressurisation ever occurring.

The idea of plugging the vent with a finger is absurd. Had they done so, they would have had only 15 to 17 minutes to work the problem before the onset of G-forces. Imagine the real situation - retrofire was normal - the BO module jettisoned - suddenly the depress light on the caution warning panel is on! Dobrovolsky checks the hatch, but it's not the hatch -- and there are only 25 to 30 seconds until they all become unconscious. Volkov and Patsayev undo their straps and turn on the radio. The whistling of the air can only be heard at the commander's seat - where the vent valve is located. Kamanin discontinues diary entries for two years after this date.

North American Rockwell received NASA contract NAS9-14000, valued at $2.6 billion, for development of the space shuttle orbiter. Included are two flight articles, the STA Structural Test Article, and the MPTA Main Propulsion Test Article. Later production of two additional orbiters will be added, bringing the final contract value to $ 5.815 billion by 1996.

Unmanned supply vessel to Salyut 6. Delivery of fuel, consumable materials and equipment to the Salyut 6 station. Docked with Salyut 6 on 9 Jul 1978 12:58:59 GMT. Undocked on 2 Aug 1978 04:57:44 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 4 Aug 1978 01:31:07 GMT. Total free-flight time 3.92 days. Total docked time 23.67 days.

Second of two missions to Mars' moon Phobos; carried 2 landers; planned to enter Mars orbit. Phobos 1 operated nominally until an expected communications session on 2 September 1988 failed to occur. The failure of controllers to regain contact with the spacecraft was traced to an error in the software uploaded on 29/30 August which had deactivated the attitude thrusters. This resulted in a loss of lock on the Sun, resulting in the spacecraft orienting the solar arrays away from the Sun, thus depleting the batteries. Left in solar Orbit (Heliocentric).

Caracterisation de l'Environnement Radioelectrique par un Instrument Spatiale Embarque; examined Earth RF environment. Customer: Alcatel Espace/DME. French government research payload incorporated into an advance microsatellite platform. Still operational as of 2000.

The start of this cargo ship from Baykonur took place on 5.07.97 at 04.11.54 UTC. During the pass in orb. 2, 0847-850 UTC, the Telemetry transmissions in the 166 and 165 mc could be heard and during the pass in the next orbit these transmissions, but also those of the beacon in the 922.755mc could be monitored. On 6.07.1997 during the passes in the orbits 18, 19 and 20 good signals on all frequencies and with the doppler shift on 922.755 mc 2 times TCA's could be determined: 071751 and 085100 UTC.

Progress-M35, approach and docking: Again all went of old: a stable and reliable execution of this operation by the automatic system Kurs. The docking took place on 7.07.1997 at 05.59.24 UTC. During Mir's orbit 65015 from 0549-0554 UTC the approach was going on. At AOS the Progress-M35 was in a distance of 147 M. Tsibliyev reported very little deviations in the course and attitude of Progress-M35. There was a stable GSO (gyrostabilised orientation) and all went so successful that Tsibliyev could load some date, given him by TsUP, in a computer. Just before LOS the distance was still 120 M and the approach was continued with a speed of 30 cm\sec.

During the next passes they did not speak about the opening of the hatches to Progress-M35. The main subject was the good functioning of the gyrodynes, the good attitude of the complex and the fact that the solar arrays had been turned to a good angle in relation to the sun. The accumulators could be fully charged. The crew has to remove temporarily the spacesuits from the P.Kh.O. (transition section) to get more room for the transfer of goods from Progress-M35 to the rest of the complex.

The Russians deserve a heartfelt 'Molodtsy' (well done fine fellows). But please let those responsible for Russian manned spaceflight as soon as possible make a deal with the Ukrainian factory Khartron for the restoration of the delivery of the system Kurs. In that way docking-operations can be executed with a 99.99% reliability!! Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

The first satellite launch from a submarine. The Shtil-1 launch vehicle was a converted R-29RM (RSM-54) three stage liquid propellant submarine launched ballistic missile made by the Makeyev design bureau. The satellite payload is placed in the standard R-29RM reentry vehicle. The launch plaform was the K-407 Novomoskovsk, a 667BDRM Delfin class submarine of the Russian Northern Fleet's 3rd Flotilla. Launch was from the Barents Sea at 69.3 degrees N x 35.3 degrees E. The Shtil contained an Israeli instrument package.

The first satellite launch from a submarine. The Shtil-1 launch vehicle was a converted Makeyev R-29RM SLBM. The satellite payload was placed in the standard re-entry vehicle. The launch platform was the K-407 Novomoskovsk, a 667BDRM Delfin class submarine of the Russian Northern Fleet 3rd Flotilla. The launch was made from a firing range in the Barents Sea off the coast of the Kolskiy Peninsula, at 35.3 deg E 69.3 deg N. The payloads were the Tubsat-N and Tubsat-N1 `nanosatellites'. Tubsat-N entered a 400 x 776 km x 78.9 deg orbit. Both carried small store-forward communications payloads used to keep track of transmitters placed on vehicles, migrating animals, and marine buoys. They are owned, operated and built by the Technische Universitat Berlin (TUB). Tubsat-N was the larger of the pair, with dimensions of 32x32x10.4 cm and a mass of 8.5 kg.

The dual Tubsat-N/Tubsat-N1 repersented the Technical University of Berlin's first Nanosatellite project. Tubsat-N1 measured 32x32x3.4cm and had a mass of 3 kg. The technology demonstrator satellite provided store and forward communications and conducted attitude control experiments.

First launch of a pair of satellites, DirecTV 10 and 11, that will beam HDTV programs to 500 local markets from the company's primary orbital slot at 101 degrees west longitude. Acquisition and launch cost of $300 million per satellite; one ground spare also built.

Launched on into a 181 x 239 km orbit; docked with the ISS Rassvet module at 0406 UTC Jul 9. The Soyuz MS was a new variant of the ferry ship with upgraded onboard systems. Crew was Anatoliy Ivanishin (Roscosmos), Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and Kate Rubins (NASA). On Oct 30 at 0035 UTC Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins undocked from Rassvet in Soyuz MS-01; they landed in Kazakhstan at 0358 UTC.