These would run through August 9, 1938 and included 30 flight tests of 10-in.-diameter motors, in nitrogen-pressured rockets. The series was divided into three sections: A, B, and C. Section A covered development of a nitrogen-pressured flight rocket using 10 in, motors based on the K series and ran from May 11 to November 7, 1936 (L1-L7). Length of the L Series Section A rockets varied from 10 ft 11 in, to 13 ft 6 1/2 in.; diameter 18 in.; empty weight 120 to 202 lb; loaded weight 295 to 360 lb; weight oxygen about 78 lb; weight gasoline 84 lb; weight nitrogen, 4 lb.

Recognizing that rocket test ranges will exceed White Sands capability, Cape Canaveral selected for future long range flights. President Truman signed a bill providing a 5,000-mile guided-missile test range, which was subsequently established at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Negotiations with British government begin for installation of string of tracking stations in Bahamas Islands.

NASA awarded a letter contract to General Dynamics/Convair to design and manufacture the Little Joe II test launch vehicle which would be used to boost the Apollo spacecraft on unmanned suborbital test flights. The Little Joe II would be powered by clustered solid-fuel engines. At the same time, a separate 30-day contract was awarded to Convair to study the control system requirements. White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex., had been selected for the Little Joe II max q abort and high-altitude abort missions.

Korolev reports still problems with components of the electrical system from the Kharkov factory -- the same problems that existed in 1962. The cosmonauts will go to Tyuratam on 27/28 May, with launch planned for 3/5 June. Bykovskiy is named prime for Vostok 5, with Volynov his backup. Tereshkova is named prime for Vostok 6, with Solovyova and Ponomaryeva both as her backups. This selection is however made despite strong support for Ponomaryeva as prime by Keldysh and Rudenko.

Replying to a suggestion by MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth that AAP capitalize on Apollo hardware to an even greater extent by using refurbished CSMs, Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller deferred any action toward implementing a competitive effort for such work. This was necessary, he said, because of the present unsettled nature of AAP planning. Additional Details: here....

From 1963-1965 Ustinov was both head of the Soviet for the National Economy and the First Secretary of the Presidium of Soviet Ministers. He supported civilian space projects and instructed the military to co-operate in them. But after Khrushchev was ousted, Ustinov had less influence with the Ministry of Defence.

After the death of Korolev in January, a letter was sent to the Central Committee requesting that Mishin be appointed director of OKB-1. Ustinov tried to line up support for Mishin, but by the time of the first first Saturn IB orbital flight on 26 February 1966, no decision had been made. America was progressing on the path to the moon, but Russia was stalled. An alternate that had been considered was Sergei Okhapkin, another Deputy Chief Designer at TsKBEM. But Okhapkin knew only spacecraft, he had never developed complete launch-booster-spacecraft systems. By the time Mishin was appointed, it was clear that the race was lost. The American's planned their first Saturn V launch in September 1967 and their first manned flight in 1968. Mishin could not expect trials of the LK lunar lander until 1969 at the earliest. There were insufficient funds allocated, and the schedule had no allowance for test flight failures. Ustinov, Morozhin, and Keldysh pointed fingers as to who had presented such unrealistic schedules to the Politburo. Keldysh now supported unmanned robot lunar landers in development by Babakin. Even these would not land until 1970, allowing three years of flight trials to achieve reliability. Khrushchev, it seemed, was to blame for such enormous unaffordable projects. This in turn put Ustinov in danger, as Khrushchev's point man for space.

MSC Deputy Director George M. Low recommended to Maxime A. Faget, MSC, that, in light of Air Force and Aerospace Corp. studies on space rescue, MSC plans for a general study on space rescue be discontinued and a formal request be made to OMSF to cancel the request for proposals, which had not yet been released. As an alternative, Low suggested that MSC should cooperate with the Air Force to maximize gains from the USAF task on space rescue requirements.

The ninth, and last, Force Modernization Minuteman II (LGM-30F) research and development flight test missile^ FTM 2095, was launched from Vandenberg AFB. This missile also carried the fourth Mark 12 reentry vehicle to be test flown on a Minuteman missile launched from Vandenberg AFB.

Holidays - in the first ten days of May, the civilians work only two days, while the military must work four. Kamanin assigns cosmonauts to the State Commission that will select the design for the Gagarin memorial obelisk. He then reviews cosmonaut pilot aircraft type qualifications. Titov is current on the Su-7, MiG-21, and several other high-performance aircraft. Nikolayev and Leonov are still certified to fly two or three MiG fighter types. Belyayev, Bykovsky, Popovich, Kutachov, and the others are only current on the L-29 trainer. The L-29 is 20 times more reliable than the MiG-21 or Su-7, and the MiG-15 trainer is 4x to 5x more reliable than the high performance types. In general the cosmonauts are against plans to move the air regiment to TsPK from Chkalovsky air field due to greater air space restrictions over Moscow.

Orbital Test Satellite; replacement for OTS-A; communications experiments. European Space Agency satellite. Launch time 2259 GMT. Reached definitive position, 10 deg east longitude, on May 24 at 0800 GMT. Launch by US Delta rocket. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at 10 deg E in 1978-1982 over the Atlantic Ocean 5 deg E in 1982-1990 As of 30 August 2001 located at 18.51 deg W drifting at 4.070 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 39.02E drifting at 4.083W degrees per day.

Energia was to deliver the military Skif-DM Polyus battle station into orbit. Due to delays in completion of the enormous static test facility at Baikonur, which could test the entire Energia vehicle stack, it was decided to launch the vehicle without the verification the tests would provide. The launch of 6SL was planned for 21:30 Moscow time. It was delayed five hours when a leak was detected in the Block 3A electrical distribution section, then by another hour due to a fault LH2 thermostat. The launch vehicle performed successfully, but the payload failed to inject itself into orbit due to a guidance system failure.

Stationed at 140 deg E. Provision of telephone and telegraph radiocommunications and television broadcasting. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 140 deg E in 1987-1989; 103 deg E in 1989-1992 As of 28 August 2001 located at 132.07 deg W drifting at 9.420 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 61.02W drifting at 9.418W degrees per day.

This was intended to be the second ERIS intercept flight, but there was either an ERIS launcher problem or a range safety problem that aborted the attempt after the target vehicle was on its way towards Kwajalein.It took just over one year to recover from that abort and to perform the intercept attempt against target vehicle "2B".

The telecommunications satellite, the most sophisticated and complex satellite ever built in China, was equipped with 24 transponders used for television, digital transmission and other telecommunications services. It had a design life eight years. After over one year of tests the satellite was delivered to the end user, China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corporation (Chinasat) on August 12 1998. A long term operation contract for the redesignated Chinasat-6 was signed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), Chinasat and the Xian Satellite Control Center. Chinasat-6 operated in geosynchronous orbit at 125 deg E in 1997-1999. As of 5 September 2001 located at 124.99 deg E drifting at 0.011 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 6 located at 123.93E drifting at 0.104W degrees per day.

Hubble Servicing Mission SM-4. Atlantis rendezvoused with the Hubble space observatory, grappled it with the RMS arm, and secured it in the payload bay at 18:12 GMT on 13 May. After repairs and upgrades over four EVA's, the satellite was released at 12:57 GMT on 19 May. Atlantis landed at Edwards AFB at 15:39 GMT on 24 May.