Russian engineer cosmonaut 1966-1971. Member of first space station crew, however perished during landing. From 1958 a civilian engineer, Korolev OKB, involved in the development of the Vostok and Voskhod spacecraft. 2 spaceflights, 28.7 days in space. Flew to orbit on Soyuz 7 (1969), Soyuz 11.

Deployment of the R-5M in 1956 caused the Sixth Directorate of the Ministry of Military Forces of the USSR's First Military Subdivision, consisting of two brigades, to be formed. The need for a new arrangement for safeguarding nuclear weapons deployed with field units led to a decree replacing the Sixth Directorate with a Twelfth General Directorate of the Ministry of Defence, charged with the development, trials, deployment, and security of nuclear warheads.

The third and final Series E Atlas missile squadron of nine missiles, the 566th Strategic Missile Squadron of the 706th Strategic Missile Wing at Francis E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, became operational. The wing now had three squadrons - two Atlas D and one Atlas E - and a total of 24 missile launchers.

A Goddard Space Flight Center report summarizing recommendations for ground instrumentation support for the near-earth phases of the Apollo missions was forwarded to the Apollo Task Group of the NASA Headquarters Office of Tracking and Data Acquisition (OTDA). This report presented a preliminary conception of the Apollo network.

The tracking network would consist of stations equipped with 9-meter (30foot) antennas for near-earth tracking and communications and of stations having 26-meter (85-foot) antennas for use at lunar distances. A unified S-band system, capable of receiving and transmitting voice, telemetry, and television on a single radio-frequency band, was the basis of the network operation.

On March 12, 1963, during testimony before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Edmond C. Buckley, Director of OTDA, described additional network facilities that would be required as the Apollo program progressed. Three Deep Space Instrumentation Facilities with 26-meter (85- foot) antennas were planned: Goldstone, Calif. (completed); Canberra, Australia (to be built); and a site in southern Europe (to be selected). Three new tracking ships and special equipment at several existing network stations for earth-orbit checkout of the spacecraft would also be needed.

News reaches Moscow that Kennedy has been assassinated. Kamanin talks with Rudenko, who is not interested in Kamanin's plans for a wider VVS role in space. Rudenko believes Korolev's promises that Soyuz will start test flights in 1964 and that no further Vostok flights are necessary. Kamanin pleads that without such flights the American Gemini program will fly unopposed and give the Americans a decisive lead in the space race. The Soviet Union could launch a modified Vostok - a three place spacecraft - to upstage Gemini but the decision has to made now. Rudenko is unmoved.

Gagarin, Belyayev, and Leonov are preparing for a meeting with Brezhnev. Nothing controversial is to be raised. The real issue now is to develop a winged, manned orbital spacecraft, and a winged booster stage for space launches. This will be essential to future manned military activities. Mikoyan's MiG bureau has been working on the orbital spaceplane, and Tupolev the winged booster stage. Titov, Filipchenko, and Matinchenko and a few other cosmonauts will coordinate with Mikoyan on development of the spaceplane design.

North American informed MSC of a fire in the reaction control system (RCS) test cell during a CM RCS test for spacecraft 009. The fire was suspected to have been caused by overheating the test cell when the 10 engines were activated, approximately 30 sec prior to test completion. An estimated test delay of two to three weeks, due to shutdown of the test cell for refurbishment, was forecast. MSC informed the Apollo Program Director that an investigation was underway.

Unmanned test of manned lunar mission launch vehicle serial number 7L. This article incorporated significant changes to the previous model, including roll 'steering' engines to prevent the loss of control that destroyed 6L. The rocket ascended into the sky, and the engines ran 106.93 seconds, only seven seconds before completion of first stage burnout. Programmed shutdown of some engines to prevent overstressing of the structure led to propellant line hammering, rupture of propellant lines, and an explosion of engine number 4. The vehicle disintegrated. Additional Details: here....

A Thor-Delta launched from the Eastern Test Range lifted the second of two Skynet II (Skynet IIB) defense communications satellite for the United Kingdom into an elliptical transfer orbit. Two days later, a firing of the satellite's apogee boost motor placed the satellite in a near circular orbit prior to final positioning in a synchronous orbit over the Indian Ocean. The first Skynet II satellite, Skynet IIA, was lost in January 1974 due to a booster failure after launch from Cape Canaveral. Military communications. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Indian Ocean at 50-55 deg E in 1975-1977; drifting As of 3 September 2001 located at 18.23 deg E drifting at 0.206 deg W per day. As of 2007 Feb 27 located at 54.93E drifting at 0.393E degrees per day.

European Space Agency satellite. Launch time 0135 GMT. Reached definitive position, 0 deg longitude over the Gulf of Guinea, on 7 December. Launched by United States Delta rocket. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at E-4 deg W in 1977-1981; 8E-12 deg E in 1981-1984; 2E-6 deg E in 1984-1985 As of 29 August 2001 located at 51.23 deg E drifting at 0.354 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 3 located at 11.52E drifting at 0.055W degrees per day.

Manned five crew. Deployed a classified payload. Orbits of Earth: 78. Distance traveled: 3,218,687 km. Landed at: Concrete runway 04 at Edwards Air Force Base, Cali. Landing Speed: 368 kph. Touchdown miss distance: 570.00 m. Landing Rollout: 2,366.00 m. Payloads: DoD Mission - third space shuttle night launch.

Stationed at 40 deg E. Operation of the long-range telephone and telegraph radio-communications system and transmission of television programmes. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 40 deg E in 1990-1996; 140 deg E in 1996-1999 As of 31 August 2001 located at 45.22 deg E drifting at 0.368 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 85.49E drifting at 0.416E degrees per day.

On 21.11.97 at 2132 UTC Mir was hit by the umptieth computer failure. This happened to be the computer which had been delivered by Shuttle Atlantis and installed during the combined flight of Atlantis and Mir in September 1997. In the night from 21 to 22.11 Solovyov and Vinogradov were on duty and during every possible pass they discussed the problems with TsUP. On 22 and 23.11 a number of systems remained off to reduce power consumption. Again radio traffic during some passes in the night from 22 to 23.11. For the repair the crew used the 2d new computer which had been brought to Mir by the freighter Progress-M36. On 24.11 the computer and other systems worked flawlessly which enabled the crew to work on the sub-satellite Inspektor, still on board Progress-M36. Inspektor will be launched from the departing Progress-M36 on 17.12.97.

Solidarnostj:

(Due to a failure of my own computer - solidarity of my PC with the colleague on board Mir? - I could not distribute a Mir-report about the failure of the Ts.V.M. on board Mir, so I passed this news on to friends in UK and the USA. They could not obtain additional information and for an official confirmation we had to wait until Monday 24.11.)

Altair-2:

This satellite is operational again after a period of maintenance of the ground facilities for this geostationary satellite. On 21.11 there were good TV and phone communications during orbit 67167. From traffic during this session could be derived that the EVA's which had been scheduled for the beginning of December 1997 possibly would be put back until January 1998. (Meanwhile this has been confirmed: the EVA's take place on 5 and 9.01.1998) This means that the repair of the antenna for the 145.985 mc will be postponed also.

Inspektor:

This week the crew will prepare the sub-satellite Inspektor for an inspection flight on 17.12.97. During the departure of Progress-M36 the freighter will jettison the Inspektor. The Inspektor has to fly around the Progress-M36 for video images of that ship and after that the satellite will inspect the outer surface of the Mir-complex.

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

FE-1 Yuri Malenchenko performed Part 2 of the ground-controlled test of the Russian data telemetry system's MKO multiplex exchange channel, using BSR-TM payload data telemetry (TM) and the 4PrNP-6 data gathering application of the BITS2-12 Onboard Telemetry Measurement System. Additional Details: here....

Communications satellite to replace IS-1R at 24 deg W over the Atlantic. The Centaur AV-024 upper stage maneuvered and then released the satellite into a 6157 km x 39094 km x 22.5 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit at 08:53 GMT. IS-14 then used its own propulsion to reach its operational orbit. Mass 2517 kg unfuelled.

Docked at the Rassvet module of the ISS at 02:49 GMT on 24 November 2014 with the crew of Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti. Return was delayed over a month before the booster for the Soyuz TMA-16M crew could be cleared for flight following the third-stage explosion of the booster for Progress TMA-11M. Undocked on 11 June 2015 with the same crew at 10:20 GMT and then landed at 13:43 in Kazakhstan.

Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle carried its prototype crew capsule to 100.5 km altitude, the booster reaching 100.4 km. The booster was recovered in a controlled vertical rocket landing, the first such successful landing on the Earth's surface following an exoatmospheric flight. The crew capsule landed nearby on a parachute.