Zucker announced a demonstration firing of his rocket over 1600 m of water between the town of Harris and the Isle of Scarp. Government officials watched as the rocket exploded, blowing the burning payload of postal covers all over the beach. The British found Zucker to be a 'threat to the income of the post office and the security of the country'. He was deported to Germany, where he was immediately arrested by the Germans on suspicion of espionage or collaboration with Britain.

Republic Aviation representatives briefed NACA Headquarters personnel on the man-in-space studies in which the company had been engaged since the first of the year. They envisioned a four-stage solid launch vehicle system and a lifting reentry vehicle, which was termed a sled. The vehicle was to be of triangular shape with a 75 degree leading-edge sweep. Aerodynamic and reaction controls would be available to the pilot. For the launch vehicle, Republic proposed a Minuteman first stage, a Polaris first stage, a Minuteman upper stage, and a Jumbo rocket fourth stage. Other details relative to reentry and recovery were included in the briefing.

Personnel from the Aeromedical Field Laboratory inspected the first animal couch fabricated by McDonnell to be used in the Mercury animal flight program. The objective of the animal program was to provide verification of successful space flight prior to manned missions; to aquire data on physical and mental demands which will be encountered by the astronauts during space flight; to provide dynamic test of technical procedures and training for support personnel in handling the aeromedical program for manned flight; and to evaluate spacecraft environmental control systems and bioinstrumentation under flight conditions.

Phase I of a joint NASA-DOD report on facilities and resources required at launch sites to support the manned lunar landing program was submitted to Associate Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr., by Kurt H. Debus, Director, Launch Operations Directorate, and Maj. Gen. Leighton I. Davis, Commander of the Air Force Missile Test Center. The report, requested by Seamans on June 23, was based on the use of Nova- class launch vehicles for the manned lunar landing in a direct ascent mode, with the Saturn C-3 in supporting missions. Eight launch sites were considered: Cape Canaveral (on-shore); Cape Canaveral (off- shore); Mayaguana Island (Atlantic Missile Range downrange); Cumberland Island, Ga.; Brownsville, Tex.; White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex.; Christmas Island, Pacific Ocean; and South Point, Hawaii. On the basis of minimum cost and use of existing national resources, and taking into consideration the stringent time schedule, White Sands Missile Range and Cape Canaveral (on-shore) were favored. White Sands presented serious limitations on launch azimuths because of first-stage impact hazards on populated areas.

At Cape Canaveral with the President's Missile Sites Labor Commission, Secretary of Labor Goldberg made public President Kennedy's message praising the voluntary, no-strike, no-lockout pledges covering labor-management relations at missile and space sites. The President's message stated that "the Nation cannot afford the luxury of avoidable delay in our missile and space program. Neither can we tolerate wasteful and expensive practices which add to the great financial burden our defense effort already places on us."

At a meeting between representatives of NASA and Public Health Service representatives, it was agreed:

• That the PHS had responsibility for the health of the nation and for any potential threat to that health from extraterrestrial life, particularly from back contamination.
• That the Office of the Surgeon General, PHS, would submit to the NASA Administrator a proposal for action deemed necessary.
• That the Department of Agriculture had a similar responsibility for the nation's crops and animals of economic importance and that the Department of Agriculture would probably accept arrangements made by PHS, and be brought into the matter at the point they considered action to be necessary.

Two planning documents are discussed. The first deals with the training of civilian cosmonauts. Two phases of training are planned, the first phase at MOM institutes and Minzorar, the second at TsPK and the VVS. In addition 50 new air force pilots will be identified for space duty in three groups in 1968, 1969, and 1970. They will be ready for the planned large number of 7K-VI and Almaz flights beginning in 1972. Brezhnev would like to see more Voskhod flights. Meanwhile Titov has qualified as a test pilot third class, and will qualify as second class by the end of the year. All in all, things are looking good in the years ahead.

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 Organization (SAMSO) in Los Angeles. He would assume his new responsibilities in the Air Force effective September 1.

Mariner 6 encountered Mars on July 31,1969. Together with Mariner 7, which arrived four days later, it returned a combined total of 143 approach pictures of the planet and 55 close-up pictures. These images, from the vehicles' television cameras, included pictures of the northern and southern polar caps as well as Phobos, one of Mars' two moons.

Kamanin meets with Titov. In his nine-year cosmonaut career, Titov has had ten major disciplinary incidents. Kamanin tells him this is the last time -- one more incident, and he will be removed from the General Staff Academy, stripped of his titles, and lose his benefits. He doesn't seem to take Kamanin seriously - to the world, he is still Cosmonaut#2, the second man in orbit...

High resolution photo surveillance; film capsule; maneuverable (?); also performed earth resources tasks. Investigation of the natural resources of the earth in the interests of various branches of the national economy of the USSR and international cooperation.

Manned seven crew. Deployed Eureca-1; failed to deploy Italian tether probe TSS-1. Payloads: Tethered Satellite System (TSS)-1; European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA)-1L; Evaluation of Oxygen Integration with Materials (EOlM)-lll/ Thermal Energy Management Processes (TEMP)-2A; Consortium for Materials Development In Space Complex Autonomous Payloads (CONCAP)-ll and Ill; IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC); Limited Duration Space Environment Candidate Materials Exposure (LDCE); Pituitary Growth Hormone Cell Function (PHCF); Ultravio-let Plume Instrument (UVPl).

Microgravity experiments; deployed from STS-46 8/2/92; retrieved by STS-57; European Retrievable Carrier. EURECA is a European scientific and technology mission, launched by the US Space Transportation System. The spacecraft is scheduled to be retrieved likewise by the US/STS in late spring/early summer 1993. Designator ESA/92/01. Frequency plan: 2053.4583/22 30 MHz, 28 GHz/ 18 GHz (data-relay via Olympus).

Unmanned resupply vessel to Mir. This was the first successful launch of a Soyuz-U after two failures. Docked with Mir at the forward docking port on 2 Aug 1996 22:03:40 GMT. Undocked on 18 Aug 1996 09:33:45 GMT in order to free up the docking port. By 29 August 1994 Mir was in a 375 x 390 km x 51.6 deg orbit; the Progress M-32 cargo ship, flying separately, was in a 375 x 392 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Redocked with Mir on 3 Sep 1996 09:35:00 GMT at the rear port of the Kvant module. Finally undocked from Mir on 20 Nov 1996 19:51:20 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 20 Nov 1996 22:42:25 GMT. Total free-flight time 2.20 days. Total docked time 93.91 days.

The launch of this ship with on board a crew of 2 for Mir's Main Expedition 24 is still planned for 5.08.1997 at 1535 UTC and if launch and flight go according to plan the docking will take place on 7.08.1997 at 1723 UTC. This time deviates from the normal routine to dock only a few minutes after LOS for the first pass for our position. This time the docking will take place almost 20 minutes later possibly to enable Solovyov and Vinogradov to make a video and/or photo survey of the module Spektr for damage assessment and to see whether Spektr is not the only module that suffered from the blow on 25.06.97. Recently there have been suggestions that there might be more damage than had been supposed initially.

On 6.08.1997, so 1 day after launch of Soyuz-TM26 the freighter Progress-M35, meanwhile fully loaded with trash , will leave the aft (Kvant +X axis) docking port for a 10 days lasting autonomous flight. On 7.08 Soyuz-TM26 has to dock at that port, but after the departure of Soyuz-TM25 with the relieved crew on 14.08.97, Soyuz-TM26 with on board Solovyov, Vinogradov and Foale have to redock at the forward (P.Kh.O. = -X axis) port as soon as possible. This is scheduled for 15.08.97. They can fly around, but also wait until the Mir complex has made a turn of 180 degrees around the Z-axis.

After redocking the Russians have to accept another challenge for already on 16.08.97 Progress-M35 has to redock at the aft (+ X axis) port. This time again in the automatic mode with the reliable system Kurs. There will be no time to recover from the sustained strain for the crew will have to deal with the preparations for the IVA on 20.08.97. If this IVA will be awarded by success TsUP can give green light for an EVA (so a real external one) on 3.09.97 for an inspection of the outer surface of Spektr.

Radio-amateur traffic:

On 145.985 mc Packet Radio could be monitored in which Foale gave the following Mir-status report: TNC frozen again, this time the PMS. Waiting for a replacement with Mir 24, Anatoliy and Pavel, docking on the 7th. Crew is preparing for their arrival, getting Progress loaded with trash, to be undocked before next crew. Greenhousing, but not yet showing cotyledons. Mike. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

A two year extended mission following the original one-year mission was possible, during which the orbit was to be lowered to 50 km and then 10 km altitude to obtain higher resolution measurements. However this was not funded, and the spacecraft was commanded to crash into the moon.

Launch delayed from July 25. Koronas-F was a Russian solar observatory that pointed toward Sun within 10 arc-minutes to conduct a variety of observations. In broad categories, it carried X-ray monitors to locate sources within 1 arc-sec, radio receivers to measure flux and polarization, and particle counters. Additional Details: here....

Now spacewalk veterans, Astronauts Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson will step outside for the second of three planned spacewalks today at 3:14 a.m. CDT. The sole objective of the 6 ½-hour excursion is to replace a failed International Space Station attitude control gyroscope. Additional Details: here....