Air Force Ballistic Missile Division replied to the 11 March 1959 letter in which the civilian agency demurred at accepting the charge of $3.55 million without the right to negotiate the cost. The missile division reminded National Aeronautics and Space Administration that it had already committed $2.761 million to the space agency's Order HS-24 and in the immediate future additional funds were required up to $3.556 million to cover the cost of the basic Atlas booster and additional work schedule through the launching sequence as stipulated in the development plan. (Msg, WDPP-4-4, Cmdr AFBMD, to NASA, 24 Apr 59.)

The Dyna-Soar program office completed a system package program, further elaborating the three-step approach. Under Step 1, 20 air-launch tests would not begin until January 1964 and overlap with the beginning of space launches. The first of two unmanned launches would take place in August 1964, followed by 12 manned suborbital launches atop a Titan 2 beginning in April 1965, which would extend the speed envelope gradually from 4.9 km/s to 6.7 km/s. Step 2A would be completed with a single orbital flight from Cape Canaveral to Edwards Air Force Base in April 1966. The interim operational vehicle, capable of reconnaissance, satellite inspection, space logistics missions, and bombing, would be available in October 1967. The complete weapons system, including space-to-earth and space-to-space missiles, would become operational in late 1971.

The first Scout vehicle (#111) was launched from Vandenberg AFB and carried the Navy's Solar Radiation (SOLRAD 4B) payload (which was actually the last classified Grab ELINT satellite). However, a third stage failure resulted in payload impact 225-NM downrange. Solar radiation monitor.

Area survey photo reconnaissance satellite. Program partially completed. Failure of primary spacecraft orientation system. It was to spend four days in space, to be followed by another mission during 5-10 May. This meant that Vostok 3/4 could not be launched before 20-30 May. The cosmonaut prime crew returned from their in-suit parachute training at Fedosiya.

The commission considers plans for the rest of the Soyuz production. Spacecraft s/n 14, 15, and 16 are to fly in August 1969, 17 and 18 in November 1969, and 19 and 20 in February-March 1970. Crews selected for the August flights are: for spacecraft 14, Shonin and Kubasov; for 15, Filipchenko, Volkov, and Gorbatko; for 16, Nikolayev and Sevastyanov. Back-ups will be Kuklin, Grechko, and Kolodin. All of the spacecraft will fly 4 to 5 day missions. Spacecraft 15 and 16 will dock and remain together 2 or 3 days to form an 'orbital station'. Experiments planned for the flight are:

• Visual observation of rocket launch plumes using the Svinets device
• Film and photography of the spacecraft 15-16 docking from spacecraft 14
• Demonstration of welding in weightless vacuum conditions using the Vulkan device
• Demonstration of autonomous navigation by the cosmonauts using a sextant
• Medium wave radio communications
• Test of new television sensors for the Soyuz orientation system

Spacecraft 17 through 20 will fly 15 to 16 day missions to demonstrate the new SZhO life support system for the L3, and conduct rendezvous and docking operations using the L3's Kontakt system. Additional Details: here....

Acting NASA Administrator George M. Low discontinued the quarantine for future Apollo flights to the moon beginning with the Apollo 15 mission. The decision was based on a recommendation of the Interagency Committee on Back Contamination (ICBC). The ICBC would continue as an active body, however, at least until the results of the last Apollo lunar mission were reviewed. Biomedical characterization of returned lunar samples would also be continued.

Continued operation of the long-range telephone and telegraph radio-communication system within the Soviet Union and transmission of USSR central television programmes to stations in the Orbita and participating international networks (international cooperation scheme).

Sixth Yantar second generation reconnaissance test flight and first completely successful flight. Both small SpK film capsules successfully recovered during course of flight, as was the main OSA cabin with its camera, computer, and main film cannisters. First full duration Yantar flight.

SAMSO terminated the SIRE (Satellite Infrared Experiment) contract with Lockheed because of large cost overruns. The SIRE payload was to have been launched on flight P80-2 and was to have measured the long wave infrared signatures of space objects against the stellar background. SAMSO began to develop a program to fly the SIRE sensor on space shuttle sortie missions around the mid-1980s.

Magnetosphere and solar wind investigations. Prognoz-10-Intercosmos. Investigation of the structure of interplanetary and circumterrestrial shock waves generated by the interaction of the solar wind and the earth's magnetosphere. Carries scientific apparatus developed by scientists and specialists o f the USSR and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in the 'Intercosmos' programme of international cooperation in the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space.

Given on Western lists as a geosynchronous ballistic missile early warning satellite. However not listed as such in Russian lists, and officially ...'conducted atmospheric, ocean studies. Investigation of the seas and oceans and the processes occurring in the earth's atmosphere'. So may have carried test instruments for second generation SPRN or had other purposes. Stationed initially at 12 deg E; Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 24 deg W in 1988 As of 1 September 2001 located at 49.66 deg W drifting at 1.409 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 70.52W drifting at 1.424E degrees per day.

After an automatic approach guided by the system Kurs Priroda linked up with Mir complex on 26.04.1996 at 1243 UTC. Quite an achievement to aim and dock a mass of 20 tons (like a huge locomotive) with a precision of less than millimetres. Priroda can take a breath for a while at the forward axial docking port of the transition section (P.Kh.O.). During the first pass of both objects for our position in Mir orbit 58195, 1235-1239 UTC, it was obvious that there were no intentions to switch over to the manual remote control TORU. At 123530 UTC Onufriyenko reported that Priroda was hovering for a while in a distance of 182 M and that all was going well. From that distance Priroda started the final stage of the approach and flawlessly docked with Mir. Just like during the whole autonomous flight the Telemetry transmitters of Priroda in het UHF band could be monitored. During the passes after the docking these transmitters remained active. Reason for this is the fact that Priroda will remain electrically autonomous until the accomplishment of the repositioning to the +Z axis.

On 27.04.1996 at 0800 UTC Priroda will remove itself with a manipulator arm (the Lyappa) to the +Z axis. After that operation the airseal can be checked before the opening of the hatches. The repositioning will take place out of our range.

A part of the cargo of Priroda consists of biological experiments for the production of clean medical preparations and 900 KG equipment and experiments for the American astronaut Shannon Lucid. Priroda has been equipped by a lot of equipment for scientific research of the earth (all kinds of devices and camera's for remote sensing) and the atmosphere.

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

Good news greeted space station flight controllers this morning when, shortly after awakening, Expedition Two flight engineer Susan Helms reported that the International Space Station computer systems may be returning to normal. Working at a laptop computer aboard the station that serves as the crew's primary interface with the station's United States command and control computer system, Helms reported the good news at about 3:45 a.m. Shortly afterward, Helms performed a series of troubleshooting steps that restored the ground's ability to monitor and send commands to the station's U.S. systems. Additional Details: here....

Second European Galileo navigation system test satellite. The booster placed the Giove/Fregat stack on a suborbital trajectory. The Fregat stage then burned to enter a a 170 km parking orbit. The stage burned at least twice more before releasing the satellite into its operational orbit. Retired in 2012 as the production models went on-line.

Ionosphere mission. Impacted in S China Sea. The Hainan sounding rocket station was a small facility at 109 07E 19 31 N, on the other side of Hainan from the new Wenchang Space Center. The TY-3F sounding rocket had a booster stage added to the earlier single-stage Tianying design, to increase its apogee