Father of American spaceflight; launched first liquid-fuel rocket, 1926. By 1936, he had solved all of the fundamental problems of guided liquid propellant rockets and was testing essentially modern vehicles. But he was reclusive, took patents but did not share lessons learned with others. Aerojet and von Braun did not benefit from his experience.

In the summer of 1957 physicist Bob Brownlee attempted to 'contain' the blast effects of an atomic explosion from a device placed at the bottom of a 500 foot vertical shaft in the Nevada desert. A four-inch-thick steel plate weighing 'several hundred pounds' is placed over the hole (diameter not specified). This blew off as expected in the blast and was seen in films to depart the area at six times escape velocity . Brownlee never publicly challenged the Soviet's claim (to having launched the 1st Earth satellite.

The Department of Defense appointed Major General Donald N. Yates, Commander, Atlantic Missile Range, as its representative for Project Mercury support All plans relevant to Department of Defense support of the project were to be submitted through General Yates. He was also made responsible for direction and control of the Department of Defense facilities, forces and assets so used as well as performance of specific missions assigned for project support. (Memo, Thomas S. Gates, Dep Sec of Defense, to Secretaries of the Military Departments, 10 Aug 59, subj: Assignment of Responsibility for DOD Support of Project Mercury.)

A Thor/Agena A launched from Vandenberg AFB placed Discoverer XIII in orbit. On 11 August, the data capsule was ejected during the 17th pass and recovered Pacific Ocean near Hawaii by a Navy helicopter that was part of the 6593d Test Squadron's task force. Although the planned mid-air recovery was not made, the return of Discoverer XIII1s data capsule marked the first successful recovery of a man-made object ejected from an orbiting satellite. KH-1 prototype; designed to test capsule recovery system; did not carry camera; capsule successfully recovered from ocean.

The first successful launch and flight of an operational prototype Titan I occurred on 10 August 1960. After two previous failures, Titan missile J-7 was the first operational prototype to be launched and complete a successful flight test down the Atlantic Missile Range. Titan 1 J (Mk 4 RV)

Soyuz s/n 1 and 2 will be flown unpiloted by October 1966 Manned flights aboard Soyuz s/n 3, 4, 5, 6 will not take place until the first quarter of 1967. Later Mishin tours the cosmonaut training centre - the first time in his life he has visited the place. Mishin admires the new construction from Demin's balcony on the 11th floor of cosmonaut dormitory, then goes to Tereshkova's apartment on the seventh floor, and then Gagarin's apartment. Mishin insists on drinking a toast of cognac on each visit. Tyulin reveals this is a peace mission - they want to normalize relations and get on with cosmonaut training. At Fedosiya the auxiliary parachute of a Soyuz capsule failed to open during a drop test. Kamanin believes that the Soyuz parachute system is even worse than that of Vostok. His overall impression of the Soyuz is poor: the entire spacecraft looks unimpressive. The small dimensions of hatch, antiquated communication equipment, and inadequate emergency recovery systems are only the most noticeable of many discrepancies. If the automatic docking system does not function, then the entire Soviet space program will collapse in failure.

Lunar Orbiter I was launched from Cape Kennedy Launch Complex 13 at 3:26 p.m. EDT August 10 to photograph possible Apollo landing sites from lunar orbit. The Atlas-Agena D launch vehicle injected the spacecraft into its planned 90-hour trajectory to the moon. A midcourse correction maneuver was made at 8 p.m. the next day; a planned second midcourse maneuver was not necessary. A faultless deboost maneuver on August 14 achieved the desired initial elliptic orbit around the moon, and one week later the spacecraft was commanded to make a transfer maneuver to place it in a final close-in elliptic orbit of the moon.

During the spacecraft's stay in the final close-in orbit, the gravitational fields of the earth and the moon were expected to influence the orbital elements. The influence was verified by spacecraft tracking data, which showed that the perilune altitude varied with time. From an initial perilune altitude of 58 kilometers, the perilune decreased to 49 kilometers. At this time an orbit adjustment maneuver began an increase in the altitude, which was expected to reach a maximum after three months and then begin to decrease again. The spacecraft was expected to impact on the lunar surface about six months after the orbit adjustment.

During the photo-acquisition phase of the flight, August 18 to 29, Lunar Orbiter I photographed the 9 selected primary potential Apollo landing sites, including the one in which Surveyor I landed; 7 other potential Apollo landing sites; the east limb of the moon; and 11 areas on the far side of the moon. Lunar Orbiter I also took photos of the earth, giving man the first view of the earth from the vicinity of the moon (this particular view has been widely publicized). A total of 207 frames (sets of medium- and high-resolution pictures) were taken, 38 while the spacecraft was in initial orbit, the remainder while it was in the final close-in orbit. Lunar Orbiter I achieved its mission objectives, and, with the exception of the high-resolution camera, the performance of the photo subsystem and other spacecraft subsystems was outstanding. At the completion of the photo readouts, the spacecraft had responded to about 5,000 discrete commands from the earth and had made about 700 maneuvers.

Photographs obtained during the mission were assessed and screened by representatives of the Lunar Orbiter Project Office, U.S. Geological Survey, DOD mapping agencies, MSC, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The spacecraft was deliberately crashed into moon after the mission was completed.

Applications Technology Satellite that was to have been put into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, instead was left in a nearly-useless LEO orbit. ATS-4 included two cesium contact ion engines. Flight test objectives were to measure thrust and to examine electromagnetic compatibility with other spacecraft subsystems. The 5 cm diameter thrusters were designed to operate at 0.02 kW and provide about 89 microN thrust at about 6700 s specific impulse. The thrusters had the capability to operate at 5 setpoints from 18 to 89 microN. Thrusters were configured so they could be used for East-West station-keeping. Prior to launch, a 5 cm cesium thruster was life tested for 2245 hours at the 67 microN thrust level. However the Centaur upper stage did not achieve a second burn and the spacecraft remained attached to the Centaur in a 218 km by 760 km orbit. It was estimated that the pressure at these altitudes was between 10^-6 and 10^-8 Torr. Each of the two engines was tested on at least two occasions each over the throttling range. Combined test time of the two engines was about 10 hours over a 55 day period. The spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere on October 17, 1968. TheATS-4 flight was the first successful orbital test of an ion engine. There was no evidence of IPS electromagnetic interference related to spacecraft subsystems. Measured values of neutralizer emission current were much less than the ion beam current, implying inadequate neutralization. The spacecraft potential was about -132V which was much different than the anticipated value of about -40V.

Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 91 deg W in 1979-1990 As of 2 September 2001 located at 7.26 deg W drifting at 1.139 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 158.25E drifting at 1.129W degrees per day.

Geostationary meteorological satellite. N launch vehicle flight number 8 (N-II launch vehicle). Launch time 2003 UT. Launching organization: National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). Geostationary longitude 140 deg E. Function: 1) Observation of meteorological phenomena by the visible and infra-red spin scan radiometer. 2) Collection of weather data from various stations. 3) Distribution of weather data to earth stations. 4) Monitoring of solar particles. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 160 deg E in 1981; 140 deg E in 1981-1984; 145 deg E in 1984-1985; 120 deg E in 1985-1988 As of 31 August 2001 located at 33.93 deg E drifting at 2.598 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 153.66W drifting at 2.594W degrees per day.

Glonass test flight. Testing components and apparatus from the space navigation system being set up to determine the position of the Soviet civil aircraft and vessels in the Soviet navy and fishing fleet. Three satellites launched by a single carrier rocket.

Glonass test flight. Testing components and apparatus from the space navigation system being set up to determine the position of the Soviet civil aircraft and vessels in the Soviet navy and fishing fleet. Three satellites launched by a single carrier rocket.

Glonass test flight. Testing components and apparatus from the space navigation system being set up to determine the position of the Soviet civil aircraft and vessels in the Soviet navy and fishing fleet. Three satellites launched by a single carrier rocket.

The orbiter returned to service on 9 February 1992. 62 modifications were made, including replacement of the nose cap; removal of the SEADS and SUMS experiment packages; new Auxiliary Power Units installed; carbon brakes and a drag chute installed; Orbiter 6.0 structural modifications made; AP-101S General Purpose Computers replaced the older AP-101P's; and the Thermal Protection System was reworked.

An industrial research microsatellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) for Matra and CNES to carry out 'Little LEO' communications service experiments. Still operational in 2000. S80/T was designed to investigate the technical feasibility of using a constellation of small satellites placed in near-Earth orbit to provide global communications and position location using only hand-held terminals. S80/T was the first fully commercial application of the SSTL multi-mission, modular microsatellite platform developed at the University of Surrey. The same basic platform was also used for the Korean KITSAT-A microsatellite, which accompanied S80/T into orbit on the same launch. The S80/T mission was completed, from concept to launch, within one year and SSTL delivered the platform, associated groundstation equipment and would be providing operations support during the mission within a contract of less than £1M.

28 C-band transponders, 1 X-band transponder (military). Stationed at 70.05 deg W. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 70 deg W in 1994-1999 As of 3 September 2001 located at 70.00 deg W drifting at 0.003 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 71.44W drifting at 0.304W degrees per day.

16 Ku-band transponders. Stationed at 41.92 deg E. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 42 deg E in 1994-1996; 31 deg E in 1996-1999 As of 4 September 2001 located at 31.29 deg E drifting at 0.000 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 6 located at 144.60E drifting at 4.406W degrees per day.

During a radio-amateur conversation on 30.07.99 at 1450 UTC (orb. 76824) Haignere said that they had a minor problem with the attitude control of the station, but that all was well and he expected that the problem would soon be solved. During the pass in orb. 76825 (1627 UTC) TsUP gave Afanasyev computer commands related to the correction of the attitude with the use of steering rockets and the VDU-thruster, and in that way restoring the efficiency of the solar batteries. One orbit later (76826) at 1935 UTC TsUP told Avdeyev that he could use the means of the 'ship' (Soyuz-TM29) to secure the power supply.

The cause of the computer failure was a wrong command from TsUP. The crew was not very impressed and apart from the operation to restore the functioning of the gyrodynes, they continued a number of experiments and Haignere remained busy with his radio-amateur passion. TsUP altered the working schedule for the next days, using the interruption in the functioning of the attitude control to put forward the integration of the new control and navigation system (BUPO) in the Propulsion Control System of the complex. To make this integration possible, much of propulsion system had to be switched off, and so this 'failure' was utilised in a positive way.

BUPO: This is the Russian abbreviation for the new control unit. The name is Unit for Control, Docking and Orientation (Blok Upravleniya Prichalivaniya i Orientatsii). As far as I could derive from radio traffic, they concluded this work already on 31.07.99. On 2.08.1999 the crew conducted tests of the new system. That day the gyrodynes were spinning again at full speed.

It always lasts some time to gather the necessary details to know how a new system works. Several news bulletins gave the impression that the BUPO replaced the old central computer TsVM-1. But this computer, and also the SUD (movements control system), which controls the functioning of the gyrodynes, are still operational. BUPO has to secure a safe flight when the station has no crew on board.

According to the modest information at my disposal at this point, BUPO can replace the crew when the attitude control by gyrodynes fails. Thus far the crew used to take over that control by commanding steering rockets and the VDU roll control thruster, thus restoring the attitude and the correct angles of the solar batteries towards the sun. One of the first actions of the crew when the normal attitude control fails, has been the switching off of all energy consuming systems. BUPO should be able to do that when there is no crew on board.

The 'P' is an indication that this system will enable TsUP to control approach and docking operations. It stands for 'mooring' or 'docking' (Prichalivaniye). This might mean that BUPO can replace the crew when during docking operations, the automatic Kurs system fails. In the beginning of the year 2000 such an operation has to be executed. Then the 'tanker' Progress-M43, containing 4 fuel tanks, has to be docked at Mir for the final operation: giving the impulse to put the Mir-complex on a destruction course into the atmosphere. So if the Russians can not find the funds to send an extra crew (eventual Mir's Main expedition nr. 28, by Soyuz-TM30), TsUP might via BUPO secure the docking of the tanker.

Mir-routine: The cosmonauts energetically continue to execute experiments. If you did not know better, you might get the impression that Mir's exploitation would still last for a long time. Haignere does all what is necessary to conclude the Perseus program, he still executes experiments like Alice-2 and Genesis.

A few days ago Avdeyev installed equipment for the execution of the experiment Volna for the study of the efficiency of capillary intake gadgets in fuel tanks. Afanasyev worked on an experiment named Linza. Apart from these technological experiments the normal series were mentioned, giving all kinds of spectrometers and other devices the opportunity to sing their swan song.

But the fact that the crew will leave the space station before long more and more emerges in the radio traffic. The crew already is training in the Chibis suit, always a standard training for crews about to return to earth and they undergo extra medical checks, especially of the cardio-vascular system. Meanwhile they are replacing equipment, for instance a few days ago some accumulator batteries.

During radio-amateur conversations Haignere told that they have to do a lot of work during the last weeks of their mission. One of the main tasks is to prevent that an eventual extra crew will arrive in a chaos.

They will load all waste, especially human waste and garbage, in the Progress-M42 and they will have to prepare all on board systems for the flight of Mir in the unmanned status. He also spoke about the extra exercises they have to do to be ready to meet the earthly gravity conditions.

Communications: During the last weeks the radio traffic is very dense. The crew regularly uses 2 different channels: 143.625 and 130.165 mc. Via one channel they speak with TsUP, via the other channel they exchange Packet Radio traffic or hold a second conversation. The transceiver for radio-amateur traffic is almost always red-hot, especially when Haignere is using it. He continues to express his displeasure about the lack of discipline among radio-amateurs who fail to listen before calling.

If the dense working schedule of the cosmonauts makes this possible, there will be a lot of radio-amateur activities during the last 2 weekends, possibly also with SSTV images.

Eventual extra expedition next year: Optimists are sure that such a mission will take place. If so this will be the 28th Main Expedition to Mir, the crew of which will fly to Mir on the Soyuz-TM30. The members of the present crew are not optimistic: Avdeyev and Haignere are not sure that such a mission is possible. At TsUP there is some hope, but the most used expression there is: 'ne veroyatno' (unlikely).

For Russia another mission is more important. Nowadays 2 crews are training for a flight to the International Space Station in December 1999 to be there when the Service Module (Zvezda) will arrive there.

That crew must be there for the eventual manual docking of Zvezda if the automatic mode fails. The first crew consists of Padalka and Budarin, the stand-in crew of Korzun and Treshchov.

The return flight of the present and probably last crew with the Soyuz-TM29 is scheduled for 28.08.1999. Regretfully this decision is irreversible.

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202

STS 105 was an American shuttle that carried a crew of ten (including three crew for the ISS - one American and two Russian), five tonnes of supplies, hardware, and a bedroom suite to accommodate a third astronaut in the Destiny module. The crew installed in the station two new science experiment racks that were carried in the Leonardo container which was first lifted out of the shuttle and bolted to the Unity module. Leonardo then carried back all the trash from the ISS back to the shuttle. They crew installed the MISSE (Materials International Space Station Experiment) container outside the ISS to test the effect of radiation on materials and some low-cost science experiments such as microgravity cell growth studies inside the station.

The 15,107 kg payload consisted of:

• Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock and 3 EMU spacesuits - 2160 kg
• Bay 4P: Adapter beam with G-780 (Mayo High School, Rochester, Minnesota experiment to study germination of faba beans) and PSP-1 (NASA-GSFC canister with passive experiments and ballast) - 200 kg
• Bay 5: Integrated Cargo Carrier/KYD - 1280 kg, with the Early Ammonia Servicer for the station's P6 truss- 640 kg and two small exposure experiments PEC-1 and PEC-2, to be installed on the be installed on the ISS Quest module as part of the MISSE materials exposure program
• Bay 7-12: MPLM FM1 (Leonardo) module - 9800 kg total including 3300 kg of payload to be transferred to the Station
• Bay 13P: Adapter beam with G-774 (Microgravity Smoldering Combustion (MSC) experiment) and SEM-10 (canister with 11 school experiments) - 410 kg
• Bay 13S: Adapter beam with Simplesat and ACE avionics - 355 kg
• Sill: RMS arm - 410 kg

The Leonardo MPLM module was lifted out of Discovery's payload bay at 1326 GMT on August 13 and docked to Unity's nadir at 1554 GMT. 3300 kg of cargo from Leonardo was transferred to the Station. Then 1700 kg of station garbage and materials were loaded into Leonardo. It was unberthed from Unity at 1816 GMT on August 19 and returned to the payload bay for the return to Earth at 1917 GMT.

Discovery undocked at 1452 GMT on August 20 with the Expedition 2 crew aboard, leaving Expedition 3 at the Station.

At 1830 GMT on August 20 the Simplesat test satellite was ejected from a GAS canister in the cargo bay. Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center at 1822:58 GMT on August 22 on runway 15, after a deorbit burn at 1715 GMT. The Expedition Two crew of Usachyov, Voss and Helms had been in space for 167 days. Discovery was taken out of service after the flight for structural inspections. Its last maintenance down period was in 1995-1996.

The hatch open was opened at 14:17 GMT and closed at 19:51 GMT. The astronauts installed a new WAL6 antenna to replace the old one (its cover floated away on 19 August 2013). New retaining straps were added to the other WAL antenna covers. The old WAL-6 antenna and two decontamination towels were jettisoned into orbit.