The Army Ballistic Missile Agency completed and forwarded to higher authority the first edition of A National Integrated Missile and Space Vehicle Development Program, which had been in preparation since April 1957. Included was a "short-cut development program" for large payload capabilities, covering the clustered-engine booster of 1.5 million pounds of thrust to be operational in 1963. The total development cost of $850 million during the years 1958-1963 covered 30 research and development flights, some carrying manned and unmanned space payloads. One of six conclusions given in the document was that "Development of the large (1520 K-pounds thrust) booster is considered the key to space exploration and warfare." Later vehicles with greater thrust were also described.

The Air Force created a Directorate of Astronautics to manage and coordinate astronautical research programs, including work on satellites and antimissile-missile weapons. Brigadier General Homer A. Boushey was named to head the office. Later in the month the order was rescinded by James H. Douglas, Secretary of the Air Force, who considered the creation of such a group before the activation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency to be premature.

Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 'On the Development of Research on Cosmic Space-future of Soviet space program (piloted. interplanetary, spaceplane)' was issued.

Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 1386-618 'On the Creation of AMS for Landing on the Moon. and Flights to Venus and Mars-- approving automated lunar and interplanetary spacecraft' was issued.

Fired from AMR at 1908 hours EST. The original countdown of 480 minutes was shortened to 240 minutes. The flight was successful in all phases. The nose cone impacted 0.3 nm over and 2.0 nm right of the 2,299.4 nm range.

Representatives of the Langley Research Center briefed members of STG on the lunar orbit method of accomplishing the lunar landing mission.

NASA Administrator James E. Webb, in a letter to the President, explained the rationale behind the Agency's selection of lunar orbit rendezvous (rather than either direct ascent or earth orbit rendezvous) as the mode for landing Apollo astronauts on the moon. Arguments for and against any of the three modes could have been interminable: "We are dealing with a matter that cannot be conclusively proved before the fact," Webb said. "The decision on the mode . . . had to be made at this time in order to maintain our schedules, which aim at a landing attempt in late 1967."

Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced cancellation of the X-20 Dyna Soar project at a news briefing at the Pentagon. McNamara stated that fiscal resources thereby saved would be channeled into broader research on the problems and potential value of manned military operations in space, chiefly the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) project. These decisions on the X-20 and MOL had been discussed and coordinated with NASA, and, although the Air Force received responsibility for the MOL project, NASA would continue to provide technical support. By the end of 1963 $410 million had been spent on Dynasoar, with another $373 million needed through the first flight. It was decided to complete re-entry testing of the Asset subscale unmanned vehicle, at a cost of $ 41 million.

Launch vehicle test. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).

Maximum Speed - 5913 kph. Maximum Altitude - 34503 m.

At-sea operational qualification tests, using boilerplate 29 to simulate spacecraft 009, were completed. All mechanical system components performed satisfactorily, except for the recovery flashing light. - Additional details.

Area survey photo reconnaissance satellite.

Area survey photo reconnaissance satellite.

Area survey photo reconnaissance satellite; returned film capsule; deployed science capsule.

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

Solar probe. Solar Orbit (Heliocentric). Launched by the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. Helios A (Helios I). Heliocentric orbit 190 days, 0.309 x 0.985 AU x 0 deg. Exploration of the interplanetary space between the earth and the sun and study of solar influences on that area.

Complete overland roadway construction, Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base

Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 'On adoption of the Tselina-D into armaments' was issued.

Military-Industrial Commission (VPK) Decree 342 'On development of the Topaz-1 thermionic nuclear reactor for Plasma-A spacecraft' was issued.

Manned two crew. Docked with Salyut 6. Carried Yuri Romanenko, Georgi Grechko to Salyut 6; returned crew of Soyuz 27 to Earth. Conduct of joint experiments with the Salyut-6 scientific station.

Civilian naval navigation satellite.

Soyuz T-3 landed at 09:25 GMT.

Soyuz T-7 landed at 19:03 GMT, 118 km E of Dzhezkazgan, with the crew of Berezovoi and Lebedev aboard.

First automatic landing from 4000 m altitude. Time 24 minutes.

Stationed at 128 deg E. Provision of telephone and telegraph radiocommunications and television broadcasting. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 128 deg E in 1987-1991; 170 deg W in 1991-1997 As of 3 September 2001 located at 140.92 deg W drifting at 0.213 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 154.31W drifting at 0.091W degrees per day.

Stationed at 99 deg E. Transmission of Central Television programmes to a network of receivers for collective use. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 99 deg E in 1988-1996 As of 28 August 2001 located at 156.78 deg W drifting at 13.031 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 173.37E drifting at 13.036W degrees per day.

Soyuz TM-10 landed at 06:07 GMT, 69 km NW Arkalyk, with the crew of Akiyama, Manakov and Strekalov aboard.

Swedish Space Corporation micro-satellite Astrid-2 was ejected from the Nadezdha 5 COSPAS satellite at 15:25 GMT and was to measure the auroral electromagnetic fields and particle environment.

Continued assembly of International Space Station. Connected cables between Zarya and Unity modules and deployed antennae.

ESA's X-ray Multi-Mirror space observatory was the biggest science satellite ever built in Europe. Complementary in characteristics to NASA's Chandra satellite, the spacecraft were expected to make major new astronomical discoveries.

Meteorology satellite. Launch postponed from late 2000, then delayed from November30. The Meteor-3M weather satellite carried visible and IR sensors as well as NASA's SAGE III instrument which studied aerosols and the ozone layer. This was the first launched of a modernised version of the spacecraft. Launch be Zenit launch vehicle from Baikonur rather than Tsyklon 3 from Plesetsk allowed the spacecraft to be 350 kg heavier, carrying additional sensors and various piggy-back payloads.

The Russian Kompas satellite, built by Makeyev for the IZMIRAN geophysics institute, was an 80 kg satellite with a magnetometer and other sensors designed to attempt prediction of earthquakes. The satellite was originally built for use on the Shtil rocket.

Badr B was Pakistan's second satellite. Built in collaboration with the English company SIL, it had a mass of 70 kg and carried an Earth imager.

Maroc-Tubsat was built by the Technical University of Berlin for the Centre Royal de Teledetection Spatiale, Morocco, and had a mass of 47 kg. It carried an imager and a store-forward communications test payload. The satellite measured 32x34x36,2 cm and was still in operation as of 2003.

The 8 kg Reflektor was built by NII KP in Russia for space debris studies in a joint experiment with the Air Force Research Lab. The satellite consisted of of four triangular fins on a square base plus a deployable boom, with an array of laser retroreflectors. The satellite was 1.4 m long and 0.5 m wide but only 6 kg in mass. It will be used to calibrate laser imaging systems and other optical sensors.

The astronauts exited from the Shuttle's airlock and installed thermal blankets on the International Space Stations's P6 solar array gimbal motor bearings, which were distorting due to temperature changes. The blankets were installed by 2010 GMT; after failing to engage a solar array latch, the crew moved on to retrieve tools for the next mission and returned to the airlock.

Suborbital ICBM test with dummy warhead. Test delayed from November 1, December 5.

Three navigation satellites of the GLONASS system were launched to replenish the constellation. This was the fourth end-of-year replenishment launch since 2000.

Improved version of the Glonass satellite.

The first of two operational anti-ballistic missiles to be deployed during 2005 at Vandenberg AFB was lowered into its underground silo. This marked the first installation in the continental United States.

The mission used solid rocket booster pair RSRM-95 and external tank ET-123. At SSME burnout Discovery was in a 58 km x 220 km x 51.6 deg preliminary burn. The OMS-2 burn at 02:25 GMT placed the shuttle in a stable 225 x 250 km orbit from which rendezvous maneuvers began. Discovery docked with the ISS at 22:12 GMT on December 11. In the most demanding ISS assembly mission ever, the crew would require an additional spacewalk to complete installation of the P5 truss, retraction of the recalcitrant port P6 solar array wing, and activation of the truss electrical and cooling system. Sunita Williams rode the shuttle to the station, and remained behind with the EO-14 crew; ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, already aboard the station, was returned to earth. Due to weather problems a landing at White Sands was considered; but in the end Discovery landed safely at Kennedy Space Center, after which it was to enter a year-long overhaul cycle.

Classified National Reconnaisance Office payload; probable primary payload data relay communications. May also have carried SBIRS HEO-2 infrared missile warning sensor and a TWINS-B magnetospheric research experiment. Initial orbit 261 x 16776 km x 60.0 deg.