Supplemental appropriation passed by Congress authorized expanded research on guided missiles at NACA Langley Laboratory, including establishment of a rocket launch facility at Wallops Island, Va.

17 JPL Private F rockets were fired at Hueco Range, Fort Bliss, Tex.

The V-weapon launch corps remained in service until the end of March. Then Kammler went to the Harz Mountains, to command a planned final effort to use the weapons to prevent a link-up of the American and Soviet forces - a plan that came to nothing. In all, 9,300 V-1's had been fired at Great Britain in its seven months of service, of which 6,000 reached the coast. 4,300 V-2's had been launched in combat, 1,500 at London, and 2,100 at Antwerp. 20% of these used the radio guidance system. The V-1's range had been extended in test models to 370 km, although only a few of these modifications had reached the front. On the other hand, the range of the V-2 had been extended to 350 km, and this was the version provided to the front-line troops in the last months. But at the end of March 1945 the Germans evacuated the V-weapon firing areas in Holland.

First Deacon rocket launched at Wallops Island, which achieved a velocity of 4,200 feet per second.

Launched 13:10 local time. Reached 129.5 km. Carried cosmic and solar radiation, photo experiments for Applied Physics Lab, John Hopkins University.

The Office, Chief of Ordnance (OCO) disapproved Redstone Arsenal's proposed development plan for what would become the Redstone missile. The arsenal had intended to implement the manufacturing program for these missiles by creating an assembly line in its own development shops. The OCO, however, required that the development effort be done by a prime contractor. Nonetheless, delays in the acquisition of production facilities for the prime contractor caused Redstone Arsenal to fabricate and assemble the first 12 Redstone missiles along with missiles 18 through 29.

Of the 8 rockets of the first production lot fired, 6 reached the target area.

The Air Force and the Bell Aircraft Company arranged a contract for the study of an advanced, bomber-reconnaissance weapon system.

First supersonic flight; reached Mach 1.47.

Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel was renamed the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel. Its chairman was James A. Van Allen of the State university of Iowa.

A $61,000 contract was signed by the Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago, and the Air Force. Gerard P. Kuiper, principal investigator, was to produce a new lunar photographic atlas. The moon's visible surface would be divided into 44 areas, and each would be represented by at least four photographs taken under varying lighting conditions. - Additional details.

Decree 'On adoption of the R-11M into armaments' was issued.

H. Kurt Strass of the Space Task Group (STG) at Langley Field, Virginia described some preliminary ideas of STG planners regarding a follow-on to Mercury: (1) an enlarged Mercury capsule to place two men in orbit for three days; (2) a two-man Mercury capsule and a large cylindrical structure to support a two-week mission. (In its 1960 budget, NASA had requested $2 million to study methods of constructing a manned orbiting laboratory or converting the Mercury spacecraft into a two-man laboratory for extended space missions.) - Additional details.

Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 'On production of the R-7A missile at Plant No. 1001 at Krasnoyarsk-26 and establishment of a branch' was issued.

Seven Mercury astronauts completed training session at the Navy Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory, Johnsville, Pa.

The first McDonnell production spacecraft was delivered to NASA at Wallops Island for the beach-abort test.

The group was selected to provide pilots for X-20A Dyna-Soar spaceplane flights.. Qualifications: Assigned from pool of active USAF and NASA Test Pilots.. Ten test pilots (7 USAF, 3 NASA) underwent physical examinations in August 1959. Seven were secretly selected in April 1960.

TV and Infrared Observation Satellite; returned 22952 cloud cover photos. Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C).

The Titan II-Gemini Coordination Committee was established to direct efforts to reduce longitudinal vibration (POGO) in the Titan II and to improve engine reliability. Air Force Space Systems Division (SSD) and Aerospace had presented to NASA and the Air Force a series of briefings on the POGO problem that culminated in a briefing to the Gemini Program Planning Board. The main problem was that POGO level satisfactory in the weapon system was too high to meet NASA standards for the Gemini program, and further reduction in the POGO level required a much more elaborate and extensive analytic and experimental program than had so far been considered necessary. The board approved the SSD/Aerospace proposals and established a committee to oversee work toward a POGO remedy. The high-level committee was composed of officials from Air Force Ballistic Systems Division, SSD, Space Technology Laboratories, and Aerospace.

KH-4; film capsule recovered 3.1 days later. Best imagery to date.

MSC negotiated a cost-plus-incentive-fee contract, valued at $1.65 million, with Hamilton Standard for 27 prototype Apollo space suits and 12 pairs of gloves.

Decree 'On appointing KB TM as main space launch pad design organization' was issued.

Grumman presented to MSC its recommendations for an all-battery electrical power system for the LEM:

• Two batteries in the ascent stage
• Four batteries in the descent stage
• A new power distribution system
• Active cooling for the descent batteries and electrical control assemblies

The first stage of the Saturn IB booster (the S-IB-1) underwent its first static firing at Huntsville, Alabama. The stage's eight uprated H-1 engines produced about 71,168-kilonewtons (1.6 million lbs) thrust. On April 23, Marshall and Rocketdyne announced that the uprated H-1 had passed qualification testing and was ready for flight.

Shenguan is authorised to develop and produce a missile based on the Soviet P-15 ('Styx') cruise missile (later designated Haiyang).

In a meeting of Soviet Ministers, it is revealed that Voskhod s/n 7, 8, and 9 will likely not be completed. Kamanin objects - he wants these flights to be used for manned test of military equipment in space. He does not trust waiting even further for the availability of the untested and unflown 7K-OK spacecraft.

Ustinov reviews the cosmonauts. Kamanin urges that a manual docking be allowed on the Soyuz 1/2 mission - he had argued the same point with Korolev before his death. Komarov say he can accomplish a manual docking from 350 km range (once the Igla automatic system has brought him there from 23 km range). There follows a discussion of an all-female flight. Four female cosmonauts would be assigned to the mission, and Kamanin would need 5 to 6 months to complete there training. The mission is designated 'Voskhod-6'.

Ionospheric research. Spacecraft engaged in research and exploration of the upper atmosphere or outer space (US Cat B).

Ocean surveillance; probably used chemical batteries.

Acquisition of meteorological information needed for use by the weather service.

Training group of potential Vietnamese 'guest cosmonauts' for propaganda flights to the Salyut space station. The 'guests', from states allied to the Soviet Union, would be flown on Soyuz lifeboat changeout missions to the station.

Another series of tests of the shuttle ejection seat are held at Holloman AFB in support of the first shuttle orbital flights.

High resolution photo reconnaissance satellite; returned film capsule; maneuverable.

High resolution photo reconnaissance; returned film in two small SpK capsules during the mission and with the main capsule at completion of the mission.

Military navigation satellite. Positioned in plane 4 of constellation. Replaced Cosmos 2173.

The Kvant-2 hatch had been fixed from within and was used for the EVA. Objective was to repair the damaged Spektr solar panel. Handrails were installed near the panel but the crew could not complete the work before the scheduled time ran out.

The Blok-I upper stage and Oko satellite were placed in a 231 x 490 km x 62.8 deg parking orbit. Following the stage burn the Lavochkin US-KS (Oko) elliptical orbit early warning satellite built by Lavochkin was not tracked immediately, but later was reported to be in the correct standard orbit.