Weeks of delays due to problems with getting liquid oxygen to the remote test site have delayed Barre's entry in the fly-off against the Veronique. The first Eole broke up after 7 seconds of flight, a failure attributed to tracer flares fitted to the fins.

The final Minuteman II (LGM-30F) squadron of Wing VI, the 448th Strategic Missile Squadron, was turned over to SAC's 321st Strategic Missile Wing at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota. This brought Minuteman ICBM strength to 950 missile launchers - Wings I-V with 800 Minuteman I (LGM-30A/B) and Wing VI with 150 Minuteman II (LGM-30F) missiles. Boeing checkout and formal turnover to SAC were completed on 7 December.

The launch takes place at 00:07 local time (22:07 on 22 November Moscow time). Glushko, Chelomei, and Kamanin observe the launch from an observation point in -5 deg C weather. Three to four seconds after second stage ignition, the SAS pulls the spacecraft away from the booster. Telemetry shows that engine number 4 of stage 2 never ignited, and after 3.9 seconds the remaining three engines were shut dwon by the SBN (Booster Safety System) and the SAS abort tower fired. The capsule's radio beacon was detected and the spacecraft was found 80 km southwest of Dzhezkazgan, 285 km down range. The Proton problems are maddening. Over 100 rocket launches have used engines from this factory, with no previous failure. Of ten of the last launches under Mishin's direction (6 Soyuz and 4 L1) only two have went well - an 80% failure rate! Mishin is totally without luck. Kamanin and Leonov take an An-12 to see the L1 at its landing point. Leonov wants to see proof that the cosmonauts would be saved in any conditions. The capsule landed in -17 deg C and 12 m/s winds. The parachute pulled the capsule along the ground for 550 m, and the soft landing rockets fired somewhere above the 1.2 m design height. After safing of the APO self-destruct package, the capsule is lifted to an airfield by a Mi-4.

Howard W. Tindall, Jr., Chief of Apollo Data Priority Coordination within ASPO, reported an operational system problem aboard the LM. To give a returning Apollo crew an indication of time remaining to perform a landing maneuver or to abort, a light on the LM instrument panel would come on when about two minutes worth of propellants remained in the descent propellant system tanks with the descent engine running at 25-percent thrust. The present LM weight and descent trajectory were such that the light would always come on before touchdown. The only hitch, said Tindall, was that the signal was connected to the spacecraft master alarm. "Just at the most critical time in the most critical operation of a perfectly nominal lunar landing mission, the master alarm with all its lights, bells, and whistles will go off." Tindall related that some four or five years earlier, astronaut Pete Conrad had called the arrangement "completely unacceptable . . . but he was probably just an Ensign at the time and apparently no one paid any attention." If this "is not fixed," Tindall said, "I predict the first words uttered by the first astronaut to land on the moon will be 'Gee whiz, that master alarm certainly startled me.'" Tindall recommended either rerouting the signal wiring to bypass the alarm or cutting the signal wire and relying solely on the propellant gauges to assess flight time remaining.

Skynet IA, the first of two Skynet military communications satellite built for the United Kingdom by the Philco-Ford Corporation, was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a NASA Long Tank Thrust Augmented Thor/Delta (DSV-3L). The satellite was turned over to the United Kingdom on 30 January 1970, providing the United Kingdom with its first operational military communications satellite system. The Skynet satellites were designed to be usable with the Initial Defense Satellite Communication System (IDSCS) satellites of the United States. Over Indian Ocean. Military communications. Previously registered by the United States in A/AC.105/INF.220: 1969-101A, orbital data 276 x 36716 km x 28.0 deg, category C. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Indian Ocean at 41 deg E in 1969-1972?; ??? 1972-1977; over the Americas at 100-110 deg W in 1977-1998 As of 26 August 2001 located at 104.51 deg W drifting at 0.015 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 106.94W drifting at 0.015W degrees per day.

Stationed at 13 deg W. Relaying of telegraph and telephone information. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 14 deg W in 1991-1995 As of 1 September 2001 located at 7.91 deg W drifting at 0.026 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 39.91W drifting at 0.204W degrees per day.

The Progress-M33 linked up with Mir on 22.11.1996 at 010130 UTC. Approach and docking were executed in the automatic mode with the system Kurs. Until the soft mate Korzun was prepared to take over manually with TORU if necessary. During the first pass of Mir in orbit 61467 from 0050-0056 UTC Korzun reported about the approaching freighter. At 0556 UTC TsUP gave permission for the docking. Already during the pass in orb. 61468 from 0223-0234 UTC the crew reported that they had opened the hatch and that they enjoyed the fresh air which flowed in and the smell of apples.

Progress-M32: This old freighter separated from Mir on 20.11.1996 at 194414 UTC. The same day at 224218 UTC the de-orbit burn took place and she burnt up over the Pacific East from New Zealand.

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

BONUM-1 provided domestic Russian television service for Media Most, a Moscow media enterprise, broadcasting 50 channels to western Russia from a geostationary orbit at 36 degrees E. Mass was 1426 kg at launch, 800 kg of that propellant. BONUM-1 carried 8 Ku-band transponders. The Delta upper stage raised the initial 157 km x 189 km at 29.2 degree parking orbit to 159 km x 1304 km and then 1228 km x 1683 km at 26.7 degrees. A Thiokol Star 48B solid third stage boosted BONUM-1 to a 1285 x 36703 km x 19.5 degree geostationary transfer orbit, with the Thiokol Star 30 apogee kick motor placing the satellite in its final geostationary orbit. After separation of the spacecraft, the Delta made a final depletion burn to lower its orbit to 274 km x 1552 km x 25.6 degree to ensure it would quickly decay and burn up in the atmosphere. Geostationary at 35.9 degrees E. From 8 August 2000 position was 56.0 degrees E. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 36 deg E in 1998-1999 55 deg E in 2000. As of 5 September 2001 located at 56.03 deg E drifting at 0.016 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 55.94E drifting at 0.008W degrees per day.

Almost three weeks after arriving aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the Expedition One Crew is continuing to activate support systems and unload supplies and equipment from a Progress supply ship that docked to the orbiting facility late last week. Additional Details: here....

The crew exited into space from the Pirs airlock wearing Orlan suits. Tyurin hit a golf ball away from the station in a paid exhibition. Attempts to free a jammed docking antenna on Progress M-58 failed. They relocated a docking antenna on the Zvezda module which would be used in future dockings of the ATV logistics spacecraft. Before reentering the station they installed a neutron flux experiment on Zvezda.

A follow-up to CHAMP spacecraft, the Swarm was three satellites in three different polar orbits to measure the earth's magnetic field with high precision. Each spacecraft carried an Absolute Scalar Magnetometer; a Vector Field Magnetometer; an Electric Field Instrument; an Accelerometer; and a Laser Range Reflector.

The fourth in China's Tianlian-1 series of data relay satellites was launched into an elliptical geotransfer orbit. On Nov 23 at about 1000 UTC it raised its orbit with a burn over the Indian Ocean. It wa expected to replace Tianlian-1 01 at the 80E location. On Dec 1 Tianlian 1-04 was tracked on station at 76.9E, a few degrees from Tianlian 1-01.