Nebel, general secretary of the VfR, files bankruptcy papers with the German courts. However he does not inform any of the other members of his actions. The fact is not known until 1933.

Rocket was equipped with gyro, air and blast vanes; length 16 ft 7 5/8 in.; diameter 9 in.; altitude 1870 ft; duration 20.5 sec; corrected well; ground behind flame deflector turned green and glazed by heat.

Navy Engineering Experiment Station Annapolis completed development of rocket engine for Pelican radio-controlled pilotless aircraft (never used operationally).

In addition to responsibility for the V-weapons, Kammler was tasked with producing jet engines for manned aircraft in the northern section of the Mittelwerk. He was successful in keeping production going, but in the end, with the cities of Germany in ruins, its air bases were full of new jet fighters, but there was no fuel to operate them. There was no longer fuel for trucks, and horses had to be used for transport. There was an even bigger backlog of aircraft and missile hardware in the tunnels of Mittelwerk, but they remained there due to lack of transport. As a weapon for the jet fighters, the 5 cm R4M powder rocket was used. Each fighter had 48 of these rockets, each of which weighed 7 kg and could propel 500 g of explosive at 400 m/s to a range of 1200 to 1500 m.

Solar radiation research. Launched at 1138 local time. Failure.

USAF issues request for industry proposals for Project 7969 Manned Ballistic Rocket Research System. Two year study period.

Army activated the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala., to weaponize the Redstone and to develop the Jupiter IRBM.

Explorer I, the first U.S. earth satellite, was launched by a modified Army Ballistic Missile Agency Jupiter-C. Explorer I, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, carried the U.S.-IGY (International Geophysical Year) experiment of James A. Van Allen and resulted in the discovery of the radiation belt around the earth.

The Army Ballistic Missile Agency submitted to NASA the study entitled "A Lunar Exploration Program Based Upon Saturn-Boosted Systems." In addition to the subjects specified in the preliminary report of October 1, 1959, it included manned lunar landings.

Maximum Speed - 1949 kph. Maximum Altitude - 15170 m.

NASA Headquarters announced that the Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) manned orbital mission would be scheduled no earlier than February 13, 1962, and that repair of the Atlas launch vehicle fuel tank leak would be completed well before that time.

Soyuz 'leaves drafting boards'.

The second Martlet One flew for 146 seconds. It rose to an altitude of 27 km and landed about 11 km down range. These two flights were sufficient to prove the launch concept. The initial test series also included several wooden test slugs.

These were:

• Group 1 - Four cosmonauts (Solovyova, Ponomareva, Tereshkova, Yerkina) in final training for two simultaneous female flights in March 1963
• Group 2: Three male cosmonauts (Komarov, Bykovsky, Volynov) in training for two or three individual flights of over five days duration in the second half of 1963
• Group 3: Four flown cosmonauts (Gagarin, Titov, Nikolayev, Popovich) in academic training but also very occupied in public relations tasks
• Group 4: Six cosmonauts from the first group - not trained for Vostok and available for Vostok or Soyuz flights in 1964 and later (Nelyubov, Shonin, Khrunov, Zikin, Gorbutko, Filyatev)
• Group 5: Seven pilot-cosmonauts, just selected and starting training
• Group 6: Eight engineer-cosmonauts, just started training.

Korolev is supporting establishment of a new institute, the IMBP, for study of biological reactions to spaceflight. He plans to complete 8 additional Vostok capsules, of which two or three will be used for unmanned life sciences missions. There is continued controversy over the next few days about the acceleration of Beregovoi's training to qualify him for an early spaceflight, and Volynov's movement from the Vostok to Soyuz training groups.

Five months ahead of the original schedule, Air Force Western Test Range (AFWTR) assumed responsibilities for intercontinental ballistic missile and space vehicle support functions from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range.

First launch of prototype single-stage MD.620.

Soviet government approves plan to land cosmonaut on moon by end 1968. N-1 test plan approved, envisioning third quarter 1967 as beginning of flight hardware construction. Fall-back project would be manned circumlunar mission. First manned L1 mission imagined as early as June 1967. First N1 launch by March 1968.

MSC management directed contractors and other government agencies to stop all MSC-related manned testing in environments with high oxygen content. - Additional details.

Brezhnev orders a cooperative crash program to build a civilian space station to beat Skylab into orbit. The civilian station (later named Salyut) will use the Almaz spaceframe fitted out with Soyuz functional equipment. Mishin's OIS military station was cancelled and Chelomei's Almaz would continue, but as second priority to the civilian station. The Soyuz 7K-S station ferry, the 7K-ST, would be revised to be a more conservative modification of the Soyuz 7K-OK. The OIS cosmonaut group was incorporated into the Almaz group.

Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 'On adoption of the Taifun-1 into armaments' was issued.

The first DOS station was shipped in to Baikonur in an incomplete state. Work continued to complete it day and night without break. The old MIK at Baikonur was used to prepare the Soyuz launch vehicle and 7K-TOK ferry spacecraft. The station was to be called Zarya, or 'Dawn', but the name was changed just before launch to prevent confusion with the secret Chinese manned spacecraft of the same name. - Additional details.

The Military Soviet of the VVS meets from 10:00 to 15:00. Kamanin's draft decree is debated. The Apollo 14 launch has bolstered interest in Soviet spaceflight. Problems with the decree are identified, but solved. Kamanin is particularly happy that mention is made of good use of crewed spacecraft designs as opposed to total automation.

Area survey photo reconnaissance satellite; returned film capsule.

Grumman completes a study of a lower-cost external tank. It would use a Nomex core, aluminium liner, and E-glass/epoxy exterior. Although lower in cost than the baseline aluminium tank, it would be slightly heavier. Given the critical weight growth problem with the shuttle, it was not proceeded with. In fact, a continuous program of weight reduction for the baseline tank was introduced. Batch 1 External Tanks were already from 500 to 1040 kg lighter than the first tank. Batch 2, set for delivery from June 1982 to Vandenberg AFB for USAF launches, were 2700 kg lighter. The final "lightweight tank" was over 4500 kg lighter. All of these translated into equivalent additional payload for the shuttle.

Military navigation satellite. Replaced Cosmos 1448.

Second successful DFH-2 launch. Also designated STW-2, the satellite was positioned at 103 deg E. In comparison to the first two DFH-2's, a parabolic antenna reflector replaced the horn antenna. Operated in geosynchronous orbit at 103 deg E in 1986-1990. As of 3 September 2001 located at 102.75 deg E drifting at 0.030 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 46.50E drifting at 0.019E degrees per day.

Replaced Cosmos 1569. Covered Oko constellation plane 5 - 75 degree longitude of ascending node.

Test of new Topaz reactor, new systems, and ion engines aboard US-AM bus.

Serebrov tested SPK manoeuvring unit.

Shuttle Discovery undergoes its OMDP-1 Orbiter Maintenance Down Period at the Kennedy Space Center. These are undertaken every 10 to 12 shuttle missions. 70 modifications are made, including addition of a brake chute, structural inspection, and thermal protection system refit.

Aleksandr Solovyov and Sergey Avdeyev undocked from the Mir complex aboard Soyuz TM-15 on February 1 and landed the same day in Kazakhstan after six months in space at 03:47 GMT. Soyuz TM-15's flight was an in-orbit record for a Soyuz spaceship - 188 days 21 h 39 m.

30 C-band, 6 Ku-band transponders. Geostationary at 150.4E. Launch vehicle put payload into supersynchronous earth orbit with IFR/MRS trajectory option. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 113 deg E in 1996; 150 deg E in 1996-1999 As of 5 September 2001 located at 50.03 deg E drifting at 0.006 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 38.04E drifting at 0.007E degrees per day.

Kelly Space & Technology (San Bernardino, CA, USA) successfully demonstrates vehicle towing.

Progress M1 was a modification of the Progress M for the International Space Station. The first such spacecraft was diverted to raise the orbit of Mir. It docked with the unoccupied Mir space station on February 3 at 0802:20 GMT. Burns of its motor to raise Mir's orbit began on February 5 and continued through February 9. Progress M1-1 undocked at 16:33 GMT on April 26 to clear the docking port for Progress M1-2. It was deorbited over the Pacific at 19:27 GMT the same day.

The shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry at an altitude of 63.15 km and a speed of Mach 18. All hands aboard were lost. The loss grounded the shuttle fleet pending a failure investigation and left the crew of Bowersox, Pettit and Budarin aboard the International Space Station with a Soyuz emergency return vehicle but without means of major station resupply.