First V-2 rocket launched using the Leitstrahlstellung radio guidance station.

ARDC headquarters issued System Requirement 12, which called for studies of a reconnaissance aircraft or missile possessing a range of 3,000 nautical miles and capable of reaching 100,000 feet.

The American Rocket Society and the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel issued a summary of their proposals for a National Space Establishment. The consensus was that the new agency should be independent of the Department of Defense and not, in any event, under one of the military services.

Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Pacific Missile Range declared officially operational for firings.

Tsien proposes to add electronic countermeasures and other penetration aids to the DF-5 ICBM in order to defeat the planned American ABM system.

Korolev visits the centre, and spends more than six hours with the cosmonauts. However he says nothing about concrete flight plans. Afterwards Kamanin meets with Gagarin, Titov, Popovvich, Nikolayev, Tereshkova, Bykovsky, Komarov, and Belyayev (Leonov is at courses at the Academy). A profound pessimism prevails. Nothing has come of the letter to Brezhnev.

Kamanin and 50 VVS officers arrived at Tyuratam aboard an An-24 to supervise the launch of Soyuz 4 and 5.

NASA had canceled the Apollo 20 mission and stretched out the remaining seven missions to six-month intervals, Deputy Administrator George M. Low told the press in an interview after dedication of the Lunar Science Institute (next to MSC in Houston). Budget restrictions had brought the decision to suspend Saturn V launch vehicle production after vehicle 515 and to use the Apollo 20 Saturn V to launch the first U.S. space station in 1972.

The Chinese space tracking ship "Yuanwang 3" has returned to the Jiangnan Port of Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province after successfully completing its mission with China's first experimental spacecraft "Shenzhou." The other three ships, Yuanwang 1, 2 and 4, returned from their missions earlier. During their 259-day voyage, the four ships traveled some 62, 000 nautical miles and experienced some heavy seas while tracking and communicating with the "Shenzhou" for a total of 150 minutes. (People's Daily) --- note the December 12 news (all 4 ships return) on this site is not precise.