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USA
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USSR
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5 January - VVS Reviews TsKBEM Facilities and Programs - Two hour meeting between the VVS leadership and Mishin at TsKBEM. Mishin claims he will fly the N1 to orbit this year, and that it will have a payload of 95 to 100 tonnes to low earth orbit. He wants to make 4 to 5 unmanned launches in 1971-1972, fol...
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29 January - Space vehicle for the Apollo 14 mission determined ready for launch - The space vehicle for the Apollo 14 mission was determined ready for launch on January 31. The Flight Readiness Review had been held at KSC on December 17, 1970; all required action and open work had been completed; and the Pre-Liftoff Readiness Revi...
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31 January - Apollo 14 - The ...
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31 January - Apollo 14 LM - ...
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5 February - EVA Apollo 14-1 - Explored lunar surface near LM and deployed ALSEP unmanned scientific station equipment....
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5 February - Soviet view of Apollo 14. - Apollo 14 successfully lands on the moon. Kamanin notes that the Soviet Union is now five to six years behind, due to the mistakes of Mishin, Keldysh, Smirnov, and Ustinov. Shonin is training on Soyuz s/n 32 at the KIS of TsKBEM....
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6 February - EVA Apollo 14-2 - Attempted to reach rim of Cone Crater on moonwalk with ''golf cart'' for hauling equipment....
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6 February - EVA Apollo 14-3 - Threw excess equipment out of LM before lift-off....
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9 February - Landing of Apollo 14 - The CM and SM separated, the parachutes deployed, and other reentry events went as planned, and the ...
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26 February - Cosmos 398 - Second space test of the LK moon lander test using the T2K version. Followed the same programme as Cosmos 379. ...
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1 March - N1-L3 loses remaining priority - 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 su...
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4 March - N1/L3 Expert Commission - Pushkin and Kuznetsov brief Kamanin on the results of the N1/L3 expert commission. They found that the N1/L3 is unreliable and that the design needs to be fundamentally re-examined. Therefore the Soviet Ministers and Central Committee passed a decree...
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13 April - Cosmodrome jammed for series of historic launches. - Nikolayev and others are flying to the cosmodrome. All of the cosmonauts except Volynov will be present for the historic launch of the first space station., the first crew to the station, and the N1 launch planned for 1 May. Kamanin has an argument w...
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14 April - Zarya renamed Salyut - All of the pressure on the N1 project was going on simultaneously with the launch preparations for DOS#1. The Central Committee had approved the name 'Zarya' (Dawn) for the station, but it was felt that this name might offend the Chinese, who's secre...
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14 April - N1 threatened again - An expert commission met to consider the N1-L3. Keldysh made several categorical demands:...
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15 April - Salyut preparations - The Salyut station was prepared in a huge two story bunker built for launch vehicle / payload processing. The contrast between the money lavished by the military on this facility for Chelomei's projects and the limited funds available for a proper N1...
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19 April - Salyut 1 - First manned space station. Salyut 1 included a number of military experiments, including the OD-4 optical visual ranger, the Orion ultraviolet instrument for characterising rocket plumes, and the highly classified Svinets radiometer. Primary objecti...
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26 April - Quarantine for crew members who would go to the moon on future Apollo flights was discontinued - 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 ...
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27 April - James C Fletcher sworn in as NASA Administrator - James C. Fletcher was sworn in as NASA Administrator at a White House ceremony. Fletcher decided to push for Congressional approval of the stalled space shuttle program, but found that would only be forthcoming if the US Air Force agreed to participa...
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1971 May - Block Sr Lox/LH2 stage development begins - The final version of the N1M replaced the fourth and fifth stages of the N1 with the single liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen Block Sr stage....
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10 May - Cosmos 419 - Mars probe intended to enter Martian orbit and comprehensively photograph Mars. Rocket block failed to reignite in Earth Orbit. It is widely believed this spacecraft was launched with the primary purpose of overtaking Mariner 8, which had been launch...
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15 May - Go-ahead to develop LH2/LOX stage for N1M - Decision made to proceed with development of the multi-engined stage Block Sr with a propellant mass of 66.4 tonnes. This single stage would be used in place of the previously-planned Blocks S and R to insert the modernized Lunar Expeditionary Comple...
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15 May - Party line on Soviet space program. - Shatalov is actively pushing his candidacy for the position of Kamanin's deputy. Popovich and Sevastyanov prepare for a trip to the Paris Air how on 2 June. They need 'correct' replies to inevitable questions about the moon race, the Salyut 1 station...
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19 May - Mars 2 - Mars probe intended to conduct of a series of scientific investigations of the planet Mars and the space around it. Parameters are for Mars orbit. Mid-course corrections were made on 17 June and 20 November. Mars 2 released the descent module (1971-0...
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28 May - Mars 3 - Mars probe intended to conduct of a series of scientific investigations of the planet Mars and the space around it. Parameters are for Mars orbit. The Mars 3 orbiter also carried a French-built experiment which was not carried on Mars 2. Called Spect...
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1 June - N1-6L launch commission - The review of launch preparations veers off into a discussion of what the booster was now for. Pilyugin questioned the seriousness of intent of the TsKBEM staff. The digital control system priorities within the bureau were with DOS and Almaz -- why w...
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15 June - Soyuz Kontakt and DOS-2 crew assignments made. - Crews are formed for six Soyuz (Kontakt?) flights. Soyuz s/n 18 - Filipchenko and Grechko; Soyuz s/n 19 - Lazarev and Makarov; Soyuz s/n 20 - Vorobyov and Yazdovsky; Soyuz s/n 21 - Yakovlelv and Porvatkin; Soyuz s/n 22 - Kovalyonok and Isakov; Soyuz ...
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24 June - Soyuz 11 Day 19 - Dobrovolsky and Patsayev successfully complete the Svinets experiment, fixing the position of a rocket launched at night. The N1 launch has been delayed again. Karas reports that telemetry shows many problems with the rocket, even just sitting on the...
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26 June - N1 6L - Superbooster failure of N1 serial number 6L. This was a substantially improved vehicle, incorporating filters in the propellant lines to prevent any foreign objects from getting into the pumps. The shape of the tail of the booster was modified, and v...
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27 June - Soyuz 11 Day 22 - The shocking news of rocket engine designer Isayev's premature death is received at the Soyuz 11 control point at Yevpatoriya. This is followed by the news that the third N1 failed 57 seconds into its flight. A total of 13 N1's were built, and all th...
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29 June - Soyuz 11 day 24 - final preparations for landing. - Big dramas are being played out at the cosmodrome over the N1 failure, but Mishin seems protected by someone very high up and is untouchable in the blame game. This is the last full day aloft of the Soyuz 11 crew. At 19:30 the State Commission at the...
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4 July - Soyuz 11 failure investigation - This was a very difficult time for TsKBEM. All work at the bureaus came to a complete halt after the loss of Soyuz 11 and N1 6L. Simultaneous expert commissions investigated the loss of N1 6L and Soyuz 11. TsKBEM was seen as responsible for every fai...
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26 July - Apollo 15 - ...
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26 July - Apollo 15 Subsatellite - Released from Apollo 15 into 102 x 142 km lunar orbit on 4 August 1971 at 20:13:29 GMT; studied lunar particles and included fields experiments. Last telemetry from lunar orbit in 1984....
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26 July - Apollo 15 LM - ...
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31 July - EVA Apollo 15-1 - Photographed lunar surface panorama from top hatch of LM....
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31 July - EVA Apollo 15-2 - Explored lunar surface near LM and deployed ALSEP unmanned scientific station equipment....
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1 August - EVA Apollo 15-3 - Drove in lunar rover to Hadley Delta....
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2 August - EVA Apollo 15-5 - Threw excess equipment out of LM before lift-off....
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2 August - EVA Apollo 15-4 - Drove in lunar rover to Hadley Rille....
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5 August - EVA Apollo 15-6 - Deep space retrieval of film cartridges from Service Module....
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7 August - Landing of Apollo 15 - CM and SM separation, parachute deployment, and other reentry events went as planned, but one of the three main parachutes failed, causing a hard but safe landing. Splashdown - at 4:45 p.m. EDT (20:45 GMT), after 12 days 7 hours 12 minutes from launc...
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12 August - Cosmos 434 - Final LK moon lander test using the T2K version. ...
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2 September - Luna 18 - Attempted lunar soil return mission; crashed while attempting to soft land at Latitude 3.57 N, Longitude 50.50 E - Mare Fecunditatis. Luna 18 used a new method of navigation in lunar orbit and for landing. The spacecraft's designer, Babakhin, had die...
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28 September - Luna 19 - Heavy lunar Orbiter; conducted lunar surface mapping. Luna 19 entered an intermediate earth parking orbit and was then put on a translunar trajectory by the Proton Block D stage. It entered lunar orbit on October 3, 1971. Luna 19 extended the systema...
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