Die Rakete zu den Planetenräume (The Rocket Into Interpanetary Space) by Hermann Oberth was published in Germany, and was the genesis for considerable discussion of rocket propulsion. The book would have a huge and life-changing impact on ten year old Wernher Von Braun.

The Vela Hotel Joint Management Team, with representatives from ARDC, NASA, and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), met at AFBMD headquarters. They began planning a high-altitude satellite system that would be capable of detecting nuclear explosions on the Earth's surface or in space.

NASA announced that The Boeing Company had been selected for negotiations as a possible prime contractor for the first stage (S-IC) of the advanced Saturn launch vehicle. The S-IC stage, powered by five F-1 engines, would be 35 feet in diameter and about 140 feet high. The $300-million contract, to run through 1966, called for the development, construction, and testing of 24 flight stages and one ground test stage. The booster would be assembled at the NASA Michoud Operations Plant near New Orleans, La., under the direction of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

MSC researchers compiled a preliminary statement of work for a manned space station study program in anticipation of study contracts to be let to industry for a supportive study. The study requirements outlined the general scope of such investigations and suggested guidelines for research areas such as configurations, onboard spacecraft systems, and operational techniques. Ideally, studies by aerospace companies would help NASA formulate a logical approach for a space station program and how it might be implemented. Throughout the study, an overall objective would be simplicity: no artificial gravity and maximum use of existing launch vehicles and spacecraft systems to achieve the earliest possible launch date.

The Ad Hoc Working Group on Apollo Experiments submitted its final recommendations on what should be Apollo's principal scientific objectives:

1. Examination of the physical and geological properties of the moon in the area surrounding the spacecraft.
2. Geological mapping.
3. Investigations of the moon's interior.
4. Studies of the lunar atmosphere.
5. Radio astronomy from the surface.

Grumman was invited to provide NASA with a cost-plus-incentive-fee proposal to provide four LEMs subsequent to LEM-11, with the proposal due at MSC by the close of business on the following day. The proposal should be based on a vehicular configuration similar to LEM-11 in all respects, including supporting activities, contractual provisions, and specifications applicable to LEM-11. The required shipment dates for the four vehicles would be December 13, 1968, February 11, 1969, April 11, 1969, and June 10, 1969, respectively.

NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications Homer E. Newell informed MSC that an experiment proposed by Ames Research Center had been selected as a space science investigation for, if possible, the first manned lunar landing as a part of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package. Principal investigator of the proposed experiment, the magnetometer, was C. P. Sonett of Ames with Jerry Modisette of MSC as associate.

The Apollo Program Director was being requested by Newell to authorize the funding of flight hardware for this experiment.

The primary objective of the mission, crewed by command pilot Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and pilot Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, was to rendezvous with spacecraft No. 7. Among the secondary objectives were stationkeeping with spacecraft No. 7, evaluating spacecraft reentry guidance capability, testing the visibility of spacecraft No. 7 as a rendezvous target, and conducting three experiments. After the launch vehicle inserted the spacecraft into an 87 by 140 nautical mile orbit, the crew prepared for the maneuvers necessary to achieve rendezvous. Four maneuvers preceded the first radar contact between the two spacecraft. The first maneuver, a height adjustment, came an hour and a half after insertion, at first perigee; a phase adjustment at second apogee, a plane change, and another height adjustment at second perigee followed. The onboard radar was turned on 3 hours into the mission. The first radar lock-on indicated 246 miles between the two spacecraft. The coelliptic maneuver was performed at third apogee, 3 hours 47 minutes after launch. The terminal phase initiation maneuver was performed an hour and a half later. Two midcourse corrections preceded final braking maneuvers at 5 hours 50 minutes into the flight. Rendezvous was technically accomplished and stationkeeping began some 6 minutes later when the two spacecraft were about 120 feet apart and their relative motion had stopped. Stationkeeping maneuvers continued for three and a half orbits at distances from 1 to 300 feet. Spacecraft No. 6 then initiated a separation maneuver and withdrew to a range of about 30 miles. The only major malfunction in spacecraft No. 6 during the mission was the failure of the delayed-time telemetry tape recorder at 20 hours 55 minutes ground elapsed time, which resulted in the loss of all delayed-time telemetry data for the remainder of the mission, some 4 hours and 20 minutes. The flight ended with a nominal reentry and landing in the West Atlantic, just 10 km from the planned landing point, on December 16. The crew remained in the spacecraft, which was recovered an hour later by the prime recovery ship, the aircraft carrier Wasp.

Gemini 6 was to have been the first flight involving docking with an Agena target/propulsion stage. However the Agena blew up on the way to orbit, and the spacecraft was replaced by Gemini 7 in the launch order.

For lack of a target, NASA decided to have Gemini 6 rendezvous with Gemini 7. This would require a quick one week turnaround of the pad after launch, no problem with Russian equipment but a big accomplishment for the Americans. The first launch attempt was aborted; the Titan II ignited for a moment, then shut down and settled back down on its launch attachments. Schirra waited it out, did not pull the abort handles that would send the man catapulting out of the capsule on their notoriously unreliable ejection seats. The booster was safed; Schirra had saved the mission and the launch three days later went perfectly. The flight went on to achieve the first manned space rendezvous controlled entirely by the self-contained, on-board guidance, control, and navigation system. This system provided the crew of Gemini 6 with attitude, thrusting, and time information needed for them to control the spacecraft during the rendezvous. Under Schirra's typically precise command, the operation was so successful that the rendezvous was complete with fuel consumption only 5% above the planned value to reach 16 m separation from Gemini 7.

Final countdown for the launch of Apollo 8, the second manned Apollo mission, began on schedule at KSC. Significant launch preparation events included the "wet" countdown demonstration test on December 10, three days of flight simulations, an operational review, and launch site recovery exercises. Mission preparations were on schedule for launch on December 21. Launch preparations were also on schedule for the next two flights, Apollo 9 and 10.

Nikolayev, Leonov, Popovich, Bykovsky, Khrunov, Gorbatko, Zaikin, Volynov, and Shonin all receive their diplomas from the Zhukovskiy Test Pilot Engineering Academy. Khrunov graduates with honours. All of them began training for a lunar landing on January 8. Titov and Gagarin will complete their studies for the diploma in May. Ponomareva and Solovyova willl graduate in the second half of 1968, leaving only Tereshkova, Kuznetsova, and Yerkina. Tereshkova has had her appendix removed in surgery at the Vishevskiy Centre. The surgery went well.

NASA was considering incorporation of a mobile equipment transporter on LM-8, LM-9, and LM-10, to help with problems such as the Apollo 12 astronauts had in carrying hand tools, sample boxes and bags, a stereo camera, and other equipment on the lunar surface. The MET also could extend lunar surface activities to a greater distance from the lunar module. A prototype MET and training hardware were being fabricated and were expected to be available in late December.

Kamanin returns from vacation after two weeks at his dacha. Lunokhod was successsfully revived after surviving a lunar night. Venera-7 is set to soft-land on Venus. NII-TsPK holds a science/technology conference on manned spaceflight. 80 papers are presented, with 600 attendees from 39 organisations present. Kamanin talks to Mishin for the first time since the unpleasant phone call in October.

Launch of mission LVI-1 came at 04:00 on 15 December. At 176 seconds the ADU escape tower separated from the LVI. Once the final stage had shut down in orbit, by command from the launch vehicle sequencer, the VA 009A (also given as 009P) and its TDU separated from the LVI. Two seconds later VA 009 (or 009L) was ejected. Fifteen minutes after launch all systems of the both VA capsules were in operation. The guidance system detected the direction of flight and oriented each spacecraft for retro-fire, and the pair began the return to earth after less than one revolution. At an external atmospheric pressure of 165 mm (10 km altitude) the NO section jettisoned, the three-cupola drogue parachute ejected, and the antennae and altimeter were deployed. The Komara landing radio beacon (installed on the landing section of the parachute) was activated when the spacecraft was 1.0 to 1.5 m above the ground - which occurred at the same moment on both 009 and 009A. The Kaktus special system tripped the soft landing PRSP (parachute landing propulsion system). The soft landing was accomplished with higher accuracy than Soyuz, both capsules being recovered at 44 deg N, 73 deg E, on December 15, 1976 3:00 GMT. The flights were officially given the designations Cosmos 881 (VA 009A) and Cosmos 882 (VA 009). US intelligence believed them to be tests of recoverable manned spaceplane prototypes.

Medium-capacity Communications Satellite for Experimental Purposes . Launch vehicle Delta 2914-137. Launch time 0047 UT. Geographical longitude on geostationary orbit: 135 deg E. CS is a spin stabilized geostationary communications satellite. Characteris tics of satellite: Weight approx 340 kg at an early stage in orbit, configuration: cylindrical, height 3.48 m, diameter 2.18m, Expected life more than three years. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Pacific Ocean at 135 deg E in 1977-1983 over the Pacific Ocean 150 deg E in 1984-1985 As of 25 August 2001 located at 78.79 deg E drifting at 4.904 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 94.72W drifting at 4.901W degrees per day.

Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 24 deg W in 1982-1985; 27 deg W in 1985; 53 deg W in 1985-1988; 174 deg E in 1988-1990; 177 deg E in 1990-1992; 177 deg W in 1992-1995; 157 deg E in 1995-1998 As of 5 September 2001 located at 57.52 deg W drifting at 2.890 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 101.94W drifting at 2.904W degrees per day.

Investigations of the planet Venus and Halley's Comet. The APV-V plasma antenna did not deploy until the first mid-course correction burn. Deployed lander and balloon at Venus on June 19 1985. Rendezvoused with comet Halley on March 6, 1986. Fitted with scientific apparatus and equipment built in the USSR, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, German Democratic Republic, Poland, France, Federal Republic of Germany and C zechoslovakia.

Stationed at 45 deg E. Radio telephone and telegraph communications and transmission of television programmes. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 45 deg E in 1990-1994. Replaced by Raduga 31. As of 3 September 2001 located at 103.47 deg E drifting at 0.067 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 47.08E drifting at 0.104W degrees per day.

Stationed at 95 deg W; 24 C-band, 24 Ku-band transponders; TV for Caribbean and Central America. Launch vehicle put payload into subsynchronous earth orbit with MRS trajectory option. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 95 deg W in 1996-1999 As of 3 September 2001 located at 95.05 deg W drifting at 0.008 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 132.80W drifting at 0.084W degrees per day.

There is no a shuttle program in China, stated Liu Jiyuan, former president of China Aerospace Corporation, adding that the formal shuttle project had not started. He also said that the first Shenzhou manned flight would depends on the results of unmanned tests, and that no animal flights were planned.

The 10 crewmembers of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station will bid farewell to each other this morning shortly before the hatches are closed between the two vehicles about 7:30 a.m. CST prior to Endeavour's departure from the complex. Additional Details: here....

Launch abort - booster shut down in silo. Missile target, launched from Alaska, impacted in Pacific Ocean. Delayed from January, August, November, December 9 and 12. The failed attempt was later said to be due to a very minor software glitch which created a gap in the flow of electronic messages between the flight computer and the interceptor's thrust vector controller. Five flight tests of the system were scheduled for 2005, including at least two attempted intercepts. The IFT-13c test was expected to be repeated as early as mid-February. IFT-14 was planned for March or April.

One of the two different series of military surveillance satellites launched under the YW designation, although YW 5 was in a lower orbit similar to the ZY-2 satellites, lower than previous YW satellites. The launch vehicle was announced as a CZ-4B, but appeared to be a CZ-4B with the CZ-4C's restartable YF-40A upper stage under the larger CZ-4C nose fairing.

ISS EO-26 crew. Docked at the Rassvet module of the ISS at 20:11 GMT on 17 December. The crew boarded Soyuz TMA-20 and undocked at 21:35 GMT on 23 May 2011. They pulled back 200 m from the station, then took comprehensive photography of the station until 22:17 as it rotated before them. After departure from the visinity of the station, the Soyuz fired its engines at 01:36 GMT on 24 May to start the descent into the atmosphere. The orbital module and service modules separated from the descent module at 02:01 GMT. The crew landed safely in Kazakhstan at 02:27 GMT.

Docked with ISS. On Jun 18 Expedition 47 crew members Yuriy Malenchenko, Tim Kopra and Tim Peake transferred from the Rassvet module to Soyuz TMA-19, closing hatches at 0235 UTC and undocking at 0552 UTC. Soyuz TMA-19M made its deorbit burn at 0822 UTC and reentered for a safe landing in Kazakhstan at 0915 UTC.