Wernher Von Braun joins the German Air Force and receives pilot training at Frankfurt/Oder and Stolp.

Wernher Von Braun joins the Nazi Party.

Von Braun's membership in the SS is 'renewed' and he is promoted to Untersturmfuehrer with the SS number 185068. According to some accounts he had joined the SS as early as 1934.

A PBY Catalina, fitted with two liquid-propellant JATO rockets developed at Annapolis, took off with 20 percent reduction in run. Liquid-propellant JATO was abandoned by Navy in 1944.

RAND authorities determined that it was feasible to design a capsule with wings for manned space flight.

Solar radiation research. Launched at 0842 local time. Reached 91.8 km.

Range achieved 270 km. First test launch of R-5.

Fourth powered flight, mach 1.683 at 16,378 m.

Vanguard Test Vehicle (TV-1), a modified Martin Viking first-stage and Vanguard solid-propellant third-stage Grand Central Rocket as second-stage, launched with instrumented nose cone to an altitude of 121 miles and met all test objectives.

Test of Vanguard third-stage separation and firing at altitude.Launched at 0129 local time.

Decision to move directly to early manned flights in orbit. Korolev, after a review with engineers, determines that planned three stage versions of the R-7 ICBM could launch a manned orbital spacecraft. Korolev advocates pursuit of manned spaceflight at the expense of the military's Zenit reconnsat program, putting him in opposition to Ustinov.

Four-stage rocket launched a 9-pound inflatable sphere to 50-mile altitude at NACA Wallops Island.

NASA's Administrator announced the naming of Goddard Space Flight Center under construction near Greenbelt, Md., in commemoration of Robert H. Goddard, American pioneer in rocket research. Dr. Harry J. Goett was appointed Director in September. STG was transferred to the authority of the newly formed Goddard Space Flight Center but remained based at Langley Field, Va.

The Army Ordnance Missile Command submitted to NASA a report entitled "Preliminary Study of an Unmanned Lunar Soft Landing Vehicle," recommending the use of the Saturn booster.

NASA Administrator Webb issued a statement concerning the 2-year Mercury manned space flight program, which said, in part: "NASA has not attempted to encourage press coverage of the first Mercury-Redstone manned flight. It has responded to press and television requests, with the result that over 100 representatives of the press, radio, and TV are now at Cape Canaveral. . . . We must keep the perspective that each flight is but one of the many milestones we must pass. Some will completely succeed in every respect, some partially, and some will fail. From all of them will come mastery of the vast new space environment on which so much of our future depends."

Grumman reported that it had advised North American's Rocketdyne Division to go ahead with the lunar excursion module descent engine development program. Negotiations were complete and the contract was being prepared for MSC's review and approval. The go-ahead was formally issued on May 2.

Decree 'On adoption into armaments of the Raduga complex of DS-P1-Yu' was issued.

KH-4B. Out-of-focus imagery is present on both main camera records.

China approved Project 714 on July 14, 1970 to develop the Shuguang manned spacecraft, to be launched in 1973. Shuguang group selection bagan in late 1970. Initial screening resulted 88 candidates from PLA pilots. After further medical and political testing in the first half of 1971, 20 finalists were selected. One candidate did not report for training for reasons that were never divulged. The program was cancelled in late 1971.

Nixon's Office of Management of the Budget (OMB) tells NASA to expect no budget increases in the next five years (e.g. $ 3.2 billion per year, meaning no more than $1 billion per year could be spent on the shuttle). Since the peak funding to develop a two-stage-to-orbit shuttle as defined in Phase B studies would be $2 billion, this meant that development of a fully reusable shuttle would not be possible.

Ustinov achieved a leadership consensus to kill the N1 by the beginning of May 1974. He achieved the agreement of the other Ministers on the Military-Industrial Commission, and finally Keldysh. Projects that were ongoing that were linked with the N1 included: the lunar base, MKBS space station, Mars robotic soil return spacecraft and manned expedition, a space radio telescope with a 100 m antenna, and multiple channel communications satellites. All of these died with the cancellation. If 8L had been successful, then after 1 or 2 further test launches, the N1-L3M could begin flying. That meant that the Soviet Union was within 3 to 4 years of establishing long-term lunar expeditions and a moon base. The Americans would have been leapfrogged. Instead, the leadership decided to develop a completely new heavy-lift launch vehicle, which never became operational before the Soviet Union collapsed.

The workers on the project put together a letter to the 25th Party Congress, saying that N1 development should continue, and that N1 s/n's 8, 9, and 10 should be flown. The Party did not accept the letter. They had been assured by the leadership that the population of the city of Leninsk, the extensive facilities and housing built for the N1, would all be used for the MKTS Soviet shuttle. Iosifiyan considered the N1 fundamentally flawed, a project that was only approved due to Kremlin politics.

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

Non-flight shuttle Enterprise, mated to External Tank number 2, and two inert solid rocket motors, is rolled out to LC39A for facility checks.

Strategic Air Command transferred to Space Command resource management of the Defense Support Program (DSP), the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), all missile warning and space surveillance radars and optical systems (PAVE PAWS, BMEWS, PARCS, Cobra Dane, AN/FPS-85, Baker Nunns, GEODSS, etc.), as well as Thule and Sondrestrom Air Bases in Greenland, Clear AFS in Alaska.

Italian astronauts trained for flights to the Mir space station.

Far eastern newspapers reported an accident at Jiuquan Launch Center late May 1999. It was said that a fuel depot exploded, resulting in casualties and delaying the first manned vehicle launch originally scheduled for October.

STS-100 landed at 16:10 GMT with the crew of Rominger, Ashby, Hadfield, Phillips, Parazynski, Guidoni and Lonchakov aboard.