Concept of launching of small high-performance rockets suspended from a balloon above most of the atmosphere (later called "Rockoons"), developed by Cmdr. Lee Lewis, Cmdr. G. Halvorson, S. F. Singer, and J. A. Van Allen during Aerobee firing cruise of U.S.S. Norton Sound.

Dummy firing, no upper-air research experiment. Launched at 1715 local time.

Work on MA-2 propulsion system for Atlas by Rocketdyne was begun, drawing upon the experience in developing the regeneratively cooled chamber developed for the Navaho.

The Research and Target Systems Division of ARDC headquarters completed an abbreviated development plan for a glide-rocket, research system, designated Hywards.

Hundreds of Soviet and Chinese scientists put together the technology portion of China's 12 year plan. Missile development is emphasized in the plan at the expense of the aircraft industry.

There were ten attempts to launch Navaho G-26 vehicle number 4 since the first static firing test on 3 December 1956 had been unsuccessful. The vehicle was plagued with problems with the engines and APU, resulting in engine burn-through, engine non-ignition, as well as other unrelated problems - ramjet engine fires, destruct package failures. The vehicle was pulsed from the launch order.

The first Jupiter flight was fired at 1651 hours EST from AMR. The missile achieved a 48,000 foot altitude. Flight terminated at 7.4 seconds because of missile break-up. Failure was attributed to overheating in the tail section. The trajectory to this point was as predicted.

The first design sketched out was known as Sever (North). The reentry capsule had the same configuration as the ultimate Soyuz design but was 50% larger. By summer 1959 Feoktistov had reduced the size to that of the later Soyuz, while retaining the three-man crew size.

"Poor man's rocket," Scout, was jointly announced by NASA and AF. The concept of Scout originated at Langley Research Center in 1958, based upon extensive experience with staged solid-propellant rockets.

The current Saturn launch vehicle configurations were announced:

C-1:

S-I stage eight H-1 engines, 1.5 million pounds of thrust; S-IV stage four (LR-119 engines, 70,000 pounds of thrust); and S-V stage (two LR-119 engines, 35,000 pounds of thrust).

C-2 (four-stage version):

S-1 stage (same as first stage of the C-1); S-II (not determined); S-IV (same as second stage of the C-1); S-V (same as third Stage of C- 1).

C-2 (three-stage version):

S-I (same as first stage of C-1); S-II (not determined); and S-IV (same as third stage of C-1).

The fourth firing of an advanced Polaris A-2, and the first from a ship, was made by the U.S.S. Observation Island as she cruised at 8 knots, 10 miles offshore from Cape Canaveral.

NASA Headquarters selected the Chance Vought Corporation of Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc., as a contractor to study spacecraft rendezvous. A primary part of the contract would be a flight simulation study exploring the capability of an astronaut to control an Apollo-type spacecraft.

An estimated 4 million people lined the streets of New York City for John Glenn Day. Mayor Robert Wagner presented Glenn and Robert R. Gilruth the city's Medal of Honor.

Glenn is in Washington, and meets the Secretary General of the United Nations, who mentions a plan of the Soviet ambassador to the UN. Gagarin and Titov might visit New York to address the United Nations on 19 March. This would provide an opportunity for the cosmonauts and US astronauts to meet.

MSC proposed building a manned space station using hardware already under development for the Apollo program. MSC's plan called for an orbiting station with a capacity for 18 crewmen. Manning would be accomplished through successive flights of six-man, modified Apollo-type spacecraft that would rendezvous with the station in orbit.

Mercury spacecraft 9A, configured for manned 1-day mission requirements, completed Project Orbit Run 110. For this test, only the reaction control system was exercised; as a result of the run, several modifications were made involving pressurization and fuel systems.

The launch was delayed due to malfunctions during prelaunch service.

Based on successful test flights of Chelomei's unmanned interceptor-sputnik prototypes (Polyot 1 and 2), the Soyuz 7K-PPK manned interceptor version is cancelled.

Approved by the Secretary of Defense in November 1964, 'Project Long Life' called for the short-range launch from on operational missile base of three modified Minuteman IB ICBMs to provide a realistic test for this system. Each missile would contain enough propellant for a 7-second flight and have inert upper stages and reentry vehicles. This first launch occurred on March 1, 1965, and successfully demonstrated the ability of a SAC missile crew to launch an ICBM.

Vandenberg, adding approximately 14,890 acres to the base and increasing its size to its present 98,400 acres.

Tyulin advises that the State Commission has decided to postpone the flight of Voskhod 3 to late April. The cosmonauts ready, but the spacecraft is not. OKB-1 staff at Baikonur also are tasked to launch the Luna 10 probe and another Molniya-1 communications satellite before Voskhod 3 can be launched. No fixed date for the manned launch has been set.

Slipped to May.

The MOL mockup was completed, static structural test of flight representative assemblies was underway, and major equpment was in qualification test.

An American film on the Russian space program, for which Kamanin was interviewed, is shown at Tyuratam. Smirnov criticised Kamanin for being 'too soft' and for not using the correct party phrases to describe American imperialism.

Maximum Speed - 4631 kph. Maximum Altitude - 31850 m. Tested Saturn V insulation.

Wernher von Braun left MSFC to become NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning in Washington. Eberhard F. M. Rees, who had served as the MSFC Deputy Director Technical since 1963, became Director of MSFC.

Ministry of Defence Decree 'On formation of GUKOS on the basis of TsUKOS and subordinated to RVSN' was issued.

Maximum Speed - 1064 kph. Maximum Altitude - 17343 m. Flight Time - 437 sec.

The Soviet leadership regained some interest in the N1-L3, after the near-tragedy of Apollo 13. It was felt that the Americans might cancel the remainder of the Apollo programme, leaving the road to the moon clear for the Soviet Union. However the successful flight of Apollo 14 redeemed the project, and the Central Committee lost all interest in the N1-L3. - Additional details.

First generation geosynchronous ballistic missile launch detection satellite, remained in service for over nine years. Positioned over the Pacific Ocean at 165 deg E in 1979-1980. As of 2003 Mar 5 located at 74.63E drifting at 0.712W degrees per day.

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

SSTTP M2-31 Target mission

Training group of potential '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.

Acquisition of meteorological information required for use in the operational weather service with the aid of advanced equipment.

Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C).

University of Surrey experimental microsatellite. Built in only 6 months, UoSAT-2 carried the first modern digital store and forward (S&F) communications payload and a prototype CCD camera. Also performed magnetospheric studies. Launch time 1759 GMT. Still operational in 2000.

Military cartographic satellite; returned film capsule; maneuverable.

Geosynchronous. Stationed over 64.2E. The Intelsat 8 and 8A vehicles are the latest in the Intelsat satellite series. Spacecraft: 3-axis stabilised. Two large solar panels with 1-axis articulation. Payload: 38 C-Band and 6 Ku-Band transponders.22,000 telephone calls and 3 colour TV broadcasts simultaneously. Or up to 112,500 telephone circuits using digital circuit multiplication equipment (DCME). Two independently steerable Ku-band spot beams. Interconnected operation between C- and Ku-bands.
Financial/Operational:
Lockheed/General Electric contract October 16 1992 $ 165 million for 2 units- potential 5 units. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 47 deg E in 1997; 62 deg E in 1997; 64 deg E in 1997-1998; 31 deg W in 1998-1999 As of 5 September 2001 located at 31.47 deg W drifting at 0.013 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 5 located at 31.46W drifting at 0.006W degrees per day.

Zhang Heqi, the chief astronomer of the Chinese space program said that an earlier report regarding a Chinese 'shuttle' was incorrect - 'It is a manned spacecraft, not a shuttle'. There was to be an unmanned launch in one or two years. A manned launch would follow this test in the next few years.The first unmanned spacecraft might carry animals to pave the way for future manned flights. It was also reported that China had selected several astronaut candidates from PLA Air Force fighter pilots.

This launch was the first Ariane 5 to use the 17-m Long Fairing and the first to launch north from Kourou. The booster placed the European Space Agency's Envisat polar platform in orbit. The flight profile was quite different from earlier Ariane 5 GTO launches where the EPC core stage usually reached a marginal orbit. In this case EPC separation at 350 km high 10 min after launch. The stage was on a -2610 x 651 km x 93.8 deg orbit, reaching apogee around 0125 UTC and reentering north of Ellesmere Island at about 0136 UTC. The EPS final stage with Envisat only achieved a positive perigee at 22 minutes after launch, with a circular 790 km sun-synchronous orbit reached at 25 min after launch. ESA reported the booster put the satellite to within 20 m of the desired orbital position.

Hubble Servicing Mission 3B. STS-109 main engine cutoff came at 1130 UTC with Columbia in a 55 x 574 km x 28.5 deg transfer orbit. The OMS-2 burn at about 1207 UTC raised perigee to about 195 km. There was a problem with a freon cooling loop on the Orbiter, but it wasn't quite bad enough to affect the mission. The Hubble Space Telescope closed its aperture door on March 2 in preparation for the rendezvous. Columbia got within 100m of HST by 0852 UTC on March 3 and grappled it with the RMS at 0931 UTC. HST was berthed on the FSS in Columbia's payload bay by 1032 UTC.

In the course of five spacewalks, the crew installed new equipment on HST. This was the first flight of Columbia since the launch of Chandra in 1999 following refurbishment. In the first two spacewalks, two new solar arrays were installed, and the two old arrays stowed on the RAC carrier. The RWA-1R reaction wheel assembly on the MULE carrier replaced the faltering RWA-1 in the telescope. The third spacewalk was the most difficult, as HST was entirely powered down while astronauts replaced its power controller unit, not designed for on-orbit replacement. On the fourth spacewalk the astronauts removed the European FOC camera, aboard HST since launch in 1990, and replaced it with the new ACS (Advanced Camera for Surveys). They also installed the CASH wire harness, part of the aft shroud cooling system. On the final spacewalk, the astronauts installed the NCS (NICMOS cooling system) cryocooler in the aft shround and the associated NCS radiator on the telescope's exterior. The NICMOS infrared camera had been idle since its original thermal control system failed. With the removal of FOC, the COSTAR device (which deployed contact lenses for the original instruments) became obsolete, since the newer instruments made the corrections to the incorrect HST mirror internally. Cargo manifest:

• Middeck:4 EMU spacesuits - 480 kg
• Bay 4: RAC (Rigid Array Carrier) - 2393 kg. The RAC carried the two folded SA-III rigid solar arrays which replaced the SA-II roll-up arrays. It calso carried the DBA2 diode box assembly which controlled the arrays, and a wire harness and containers associated with the NICMOS cooling system.
• Bay 7-8: SAC (Second Axial Carrier) - 2517 kg. The SAC was a specially designed pallet that flew on the first two Hubble SM flights, STS-61 and STS-82. On this flight it carried the ACS camera up (and the FOS camera down) as well as the NCS cryocooler, the PCU-R power controller, the CASH wire harness, and the thermal covers used in the PCU replacement.
• Bay 11: FSS (Flight Support System) - 2111 kg. The FSS first flew on STS 41-C (the Solar Max Repair) and was reused for each of the HST SM flights. It carried the BAPS Berthing and Positioning System, which was the docking ring for HST. Stowed on the FSS were a support post for BAPS and a cover for the HST low gain antenna.
• Bay 12: MULE (Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment Carrier) - 1409 kg. The MULE carried the NCS radiator, the NCS electronics support module, and the RWA-1R reaction wheel unit. MULE first flew on STS-48 carrying the UARS satellite, and then on STS-95 carrying the HOST payload which tested out the NCS.
• Sill: RMS arm No 201 - 410 kg

Delayed from February 17, 18 and 23, 2005 due to of heavy seas. The satellite would supplement the American XM network's satellite direct-broadcast digital radio service. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 85.14W drifting at 0.010W degrees per day.