Thirty-six Rockoons (balloon-launched rockets) were launched from Navy icebreaker, U.S.S. Glacier, in Atlantic, Pacific, and Antartic areas ranging from 75 N. to 72 S. latitude, as part of the U.S.-IGY scientific program headed by James A. Van Allen and Lawrence J. Cahill of the State University of Iowa (SUI). These were the first known upper atmosphere rocket soundings in the Antartctic area.

Launched from IGY Rockoon Launch Site 2, Atlantic Ocean - Latitude: 0.83 N, Longitude:0.99 W.

Evaluation of life support Phase I contractor efforts at North American Aviation and General Electric was completed. The studies of both contractors were considered excellent. The contract winner, however, was not announced because the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was taking over the manned space program. The mockup of the manned capsule developed I by North American Aviation, together with associated technical data was, subsequently, delivered to the civilian agency's Space Task Group at Langley Re"-search Center., (Rpt, Comparison of NASA Manned Space Program and USAF Manned Military Space Proposal, 25 Feb 60, prep by AFBMD; Cmdrs Ref Book, 25 Mar 59.)

NASA announced that it had completed preliminary plans for the development of the $500-million Mississippi Test Facility. The first phase of a three-phase construction program would begin in 1962 and would include four test stands for static-firing the Saturn C-5 S-IC and S-II stages; about 20 support and service buildings would be built in the first phase. A water transportation system had been selected, calling for improvement of about 15 miles of river channel and construction of about 15 miles of canals at the facility. Additional Details: here....

OMSF, MSC, and Bellcomm representatives, meeting in Washington, D.C., discussed Apollo mission plans: OMSF introduced a requirement that the first manned flight in the Saturn IB program include a LEM. ASPO had planned this flight as a CSM maximum duration mission only.

• Bellcomm was asked to develop an Apollo mission assignment program without a Saturn I.
• MSFC had been asking OMSF concurrence in including a restart capability in the S-IVB (second) stage during the Saturn IB program.

Proton s/n 229 and L1 s/n 4L are ready for launch. There remain communications problems, including the 3-channel telemetry and the SAS abort system. Launch is set for 28 September, landing after return from the moon on 4 October at 19:52, 200 to 300 km north of Dzhezkazgan. At Area 31 there is a problem with the solar cells on the Soyuz. They have to be replaced, which means acceptance tests will have to start all over. At Fedosiya parachute trials are still experiencing delays.

A Titan ITIC space booster (Vehicle #5) was launched from Complex 41 at the Eastern Test Range and inserted four satellites into separate earth orbits. The primary payload was the Lincoln Experimental Satellite (LES-6) which was the second all-solid-state ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band communication satellite to be placed into a synchronous orbit. It was designed to test communications with aircraft, ships, and ground forces. The other three satellites were Office of Aerospace Research (OAR) payloads - two Experimental Research Satellites (ERS-21 and ERS-28) and an Orbiting Vehicle (OV 2-5) research satellite. Environmental research. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A). As of 22 August 2001 located at 128.37 deg E drifting at 4.618 deg E per day. As of 2007 Feb 27 located at 91.48E drifting at 4.631E degrees per day.

A Titan ITIC space booster (Vehicle #5) was launched from Complex 41 at the Eastern Test Range and inserted four satellites into separate earth orbits. The primary payload was the Lincoln Experimental Satellite (LES-6) which was the second all-solid-state ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band communication satellite to be placed into a synchronous orbit. It was designed to test communications with aircraft, ships, and ground forces. The other three satellites were Office of Aerospace Research (OAR) payloads - two Experimental Research Satellites (ERS-21 and ERS-28) and an Orbiting Vehicle (OV 2-5) research satellite. Experimental commsat. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at 38 deg W in 1968-1975 As of 26 August 2001 located at 61.90 deg W drifting at 0.101 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 73.59W drifting at 0.201E degrees per day.

Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Launch vehicle put payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at 25 deg W in 1975-1981; over the Atlantic Ocean 18.5 deg W in 1982-1983; over the Atlantic Ocean 30 deg W in 1983-1986 As of 30 August 2001 located at 4.05 deg E drifting at 1.213 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 28.51E drifting at 1.239W degrees per day.

A launch of the Multispectral Measurements Program (MSMP) at White Sands Missile Range in Nex Mexico was aborted 30 seconds before lift-off when a sensor falsely reported the nozzle was faulty. The launch was postponed until the booster could be recertified.

Customer: SateLife. Store and forward communications satellite operating in the SatelLife 'HealthNet' LEO satellite communications network for remote regions. Still operational as of 2000.

Healthsat - II joined UoSAT-3/HealthSat-I as the second microsatellite in the HealthNet global communications system of SatelLife, a U.S. not-for-profit organisation. HealthNet, which was licensed in eighteen countries in Africa and Latin America, was providing desperately needed low cost 'last mile' communication links between medical institutions and health programmes in the developing world.

The HealthSat-II mission was completed, from concept to launch, within one year. SSTL were responsible for all the programmatic aspects of the mission including procuring the launch slot on the Ariane ASAP and arranging suitable insurance for the launch and early commissioning phase - all within a total contract price of £1M. Additional Details: here....

Experimental Interferometric Microsatellite built by Interferometrics Inc, of Chantilly, Virginia. The satellite was also equipped with amateur radio equipment, constructed by AMRAD, a non-profit organization of radio amateurs, to conduct digital satellite communications experiments. The Amrad-Oscar-27 payload was an 'FM Repeater', consisting of a crystal controlled FM receiver operation at 145.850 MHz and a crystal controlled FM transmitter operating at approximately 436.795 MHz. Output power of the transmitter was normally 0.5 watts. Because of the satellite's limited power budget the amateur transmitter was on for only part of the daylight portion of each orbit. As of September 1998, the satellite passed its five year design goal.

KITSAT-OSCAR 25 was a South Korean experimental microsatellite based on the SSTL UoSAT bus built by the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). KO-25 was operated from The Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) in South Korea. KO-25's mission was to take CCD pictures, process numerical information, measure radiation, and receive and forward messages. The Infrared Sensor Experiment (IREX) was designed to acquire I/V characteristics of IR sensors. A passive cooling structure was devised for this experiment. KO-25 was eventually operated purely as a packet store-and-forward satellite.

Atlantis was launched on a mission to the Russian Mir space station. The TI rendevous terminal initiation burn was carried out at 17:32 GMT on September 27, and Atlantis docked with the SO (Docking Module) on the Mir complex at 19:58 GMT. The crew exchange was completed on September 28, with David Wolf replacing Michael Foale on the Mir crew. On October 1 cosmonaut Titov and astronaut Parazynski conducted a spacewalk from the Shuttle payload bay while Atlantis was docked to Mir. They retrieved four MEEP (Mir Environmental Effects Payload ) exposure packages from Mir's SO module and installed the Spektr solar array cap. The MEEP experiments had been attached to the Docking Module by astronauts Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford during Shuttle mission STS-76 in March 1996. In addition to retrieving the MEEP, Parazynski and Titov were to continue an evaluation of the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER), a small jet-backpack designed for use as a type of life jacket during station assembly.

Atlantis undocked from Mir at 17:28 GMT on October 3 and conducted a flyaround focused on the damaged Spektr Module to determine the location of the puncture in its hull. The Mir crew pumped air into the Spektr Module using a pressure regulator valve, and the Shuttle crew observed evidence that, as expected, the leak seemed to be located at the base of the damaged solar panel. Final separation of Atlantis from Mir took place around 20:28 GMT. After two landing attempts were waved off on October 5 due to heavy cloud cover, the crew fired the engines to deorbit at 20:47 GMT on October 6 and landed at Kennedy Space Center at 21:55.

Geosynchronous communications satellite. Stationed at 75 deg E. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 75 deg E in 1999. As of 2 September 2001 located at 74.98 deg E drifting at 0.005 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 75.00E drifting at 0.004W degrees per day.

Launch delayed from August 25/26. Customer: Astonautic Technology (M) SDN. BHD. Malaysia's first microsatellite built through a technology transfer programme with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd Carried multi-spectral Earth imaging CCD cameras, meteorological Earth imaging CCD camera, digital store and forward communications, cosmic-ray energy deposition experiment (CEDEX)

Experimental satellite developed by the GAUSS (Gruppo di Astrodinamica dell' Universita degli Studi 'la Sapienza') in Roma. Unisat was financed by ASI and MURST (Ministero dell'Universtia e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica). It carried NiMH batteries, a magnetometer, and a payload consisting of a space debris sensor and a camera.

The International Space Station's Expedition Three crew - Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin - is poised for the first of three planned space walks following today's successful jettison of a segment of a new docking port and airlock now attached to the orbiting complex. Additional Details: here....

Delayed from December 2004; February 1, March 17, 2005. Moved up from May 20 2005. Then delayed from May 4, July 29, August 26, September 22, 2005. Became operational at 23:30 GMT on 16 December. First GPS Block IIR-M version, which added extra navigation signals for both civil and military users. The NASA-funded L2C tracking demonstration was managed by JPL and explored the use of a new Civilian code signal (L2C). The data was collected with Trimble NetRS receivers L2C-enabled firmware. The sites were globally distributed: South Africa, Norway, Antarctica, Hawaii, and Alaska.

India's PSLV-C35 vehicle was launched on Sep 26 with a cluster of small satellites. For the first time, the PS4 final stage made multiple burns to deliver payloads to different orbits. Its first burn reached a 718 x 732 km orbit at 0358 UTC, and ISRO's SCATSAT ocean wind speed scatterometer mission was deployed at 0359. At 0504 and 0554 UTC two more burns reached a 661 x 704 km orbit and the DLA dual launch adapter was ejected, followed by deployment of the remaining payloads. PRATHAM from IIT Bombay, with an ionospheric science instrument 0930LT SSO