German Army Ordnance Office, after reviewing work of Goddard and others, decided to establish rocket program and to equip artillery proving ground at Kummersdorf to develop military missiles. The German Army issues the first budget for rocket development - 5,000 Reichsmarks.

The third flight test missile (12A) became the first successful Atlas Series A missile flight. A short-range, booster-only flight was completed with the booster impacting 575 miles down range from Cape Canaveral. During the flight, all systems performed satisfactorily. First successful test firing of USAF Atlas ICBM, the missile landing in the target area after a flight of 600 miles.

Representatives of Advanced Research Projects Agency, the military services, and NASA met to consider the development of future launch vehicle systems. Agreement was reached on the principle of developing a small number of versatile launch vehicle systems of different thrust capabilities, the reliability of which could be expected to be improved through use by both the military services and NASA.

In accordance with instructions issued by Khrushchev the previous summer, the RVSN rocket forces were established as a separate branch of the armed services. Council of Soviet Ministers (SM) Decree 1384-615 / TsK Decree 254 'On the Establishment of the Post of Commander-in-Chief of Missile Forces in the Armed Forces of the USSR--creation of the Strategic Missile Forces' are issued.

A LM test failed in the Grumman ascent stage manufacturing plant December 17. A window in LM-5 shattered during its initial cabin pressurization test, designed to pressurize the cabin to 3.9 newtons per square centimeter (5.65 pounds per square inch). Both inner and outer windows and the plexiglass cover of the right-hand window shattered when the pressure reached 3.5 newtons per sq cm (5.1 psi). An MSC LM engineer and Corning Glass Co. engineers were investigating the damage and cause of failure.

All pass. Volynov, Shatalov, and Khrunov do best; Gorbatko and Shonin make mistakes (for example stating that the spacesuit pressure is 35 atmospheres instead of 3.5 atmospheres). Kuznetsov had planned for Gagarin to be cosmonaut commander, and Beregovoi has been poorly prepared for the job. But he still plans to make Beregovoi his deputy in the position. The other cosmonauts bitterly oppose this decision, and spread stories of Beregovoi's incompetence.

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).

The first completely successful firing of the orbiter's engines is completed Three engines are run from 100% to 70% thrust for 514 seconds. Engines 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 were to have been certified ready for flight in the first half on 1979. This involved each engine being given a 1.5 second start verification firing; a 100 second calibration firing; and a 520 second flight demonstration test. But continued failures resulted in multiple rebuilds of each engine to add required modifications. The result was a two-year delay to this schedule.

Geosynchronous ballistic missile early warning satellite. Stationed at 12 deg E. Declared purpose: 'Investigation of outer space and of processes occurring in the Earth's atmosphere. Prognoz series'. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 12 deg E in 1993; 24 deg W in 1994; 12 deg E in 1994-1999 As of 4 September 2001 located at 53.14 deg E drifting at 0.397 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 8 located at 142.40E drifting at 0.029E degrees per day.

According to plan this freighter undocked from Mir on 17.12.97 at 0602 UTC. As soon as Progress-M36 was at a safe distance from Mir the German-Russian observation satellite Inspektor was jettisoned from Progress-M36 (0735 UTC). The crew of the Mir observed both autonomously flying objects on monitors of the TORU system and via portholes.

Inspektor:

Immediately after the launch of the Inspektor it was clear that it would be impossible to steer the satellite by the remote control system due to a failure of the star sensor of Inspektor. The flight around the Progress-M36 was impossible and after a few hours of observing and analysing all further operations with Inspektor were cancelled.

During Mir's orbit 67565 between 1307 and 1354 UTC during a communication session via Altair-2 the cosmonauts and TsUP thoroughly discussed the problems. Mir also transmitted images to earth with that what could be seen on monitors and via the big porthole of the Priroda module. Inspektor was flying not far from Progress-M36. Inspektor has to be given up and will decay and burn up in the earth atmosphere in the near future due to the natural drag. Next week experts of DLR will try to pick up Inspektor's telemetry to find out what went wrong.

Mir:

As of the beginning of his autonomous flight Inspektor was an unguided missile and a collision with the Mir-complex was possible. So the Russians decided to bring Mir in a somewhat higher orbit. This orbit correction took place on 17.12 at 1511 UTC.

Progress-M36:

The transmissions of this freighter could be monitored during all possible passes on 17.12.1997. When Progress-M36 will be put on a destruction course was not yet decided when this report went to the press. (The use of Progress-M36 for some additional tests of the TORU system might be a possibility.)

Progress-M37:

Life goes on and so the launch of the next freighter is still on schedule. This launch has been put forward and will take place from Baykonur on 20.12.97 at 0845 UTC. If all goes as fervidly wished Progress-M37 will dock at Mir on 22.12.97 at 1045 UTC.

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

Flight controllers in Houston and Moscow continued to monitor and checkout systems on the International Space Station this week, completing a successful test firing of both of the Zarya module's large thrusters that raised the station's orbit by about four statute miles. Additional Details: here....

Endeavour's crew began a journey home today, waking up at 3:19 a.m. CST to "Please Come Home For Christmas" sung by Jon Bon Jovi. Weather permitting, Endeavour is scheduled to return to Earth just before noon today. On board Endeavour, Commander Dom Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Dan Tani, along with the returning Expedition Three crew of Frank Culbertson, Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin, are preparing for a scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center. Preliminary weather forecasts predict generally acceptable conditions at the landing site, with a possibility of rain showers in the vicinity. The Entry flight team, led by Flight Director LeRoy Cain, will receive its first weather briefing of the day at 6:30 a.m. Additional Details: here....

Launch delayed from late November, then December 12. The Dutch New Skies Satellites' NSS-6 telecommunications spacecraft was developed by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. It was to be positioned at 95 deg E to provide broadcasting and business services coverage of the Pacific Rim, Australia, India, the Middle East and southern Africa. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 95.01E drifting at 0.008W degrees per day.

White Knight/SpaceShipOne Flight 43L / 11P. Eighth flight of SpaceShipOne and first powered flight. 15 second burn of the rocket motor and supersonic flight. Motor light off at altitude and inflight engine performance. Vehicle handling qualities through transonics and feather performance from altitude. Launch conditions were 14.6 km and 207 kph. Motor light off was achieved at 13.5 km and 0.55M. Burnout occurred at 1.2M and apogee was 20.7 km. There was no noted flight control flutter or buzz during the climb. Feather recovery exhibited a +/-30 roll initially and then settled down into the familiar falling bathtub mode. The wing was de-feathered and locked by 10.6 km. A nominal landing pattern was flown but touchdown caused the left main gear to collapse and the vehicle rolled to a stop off the runway in the soft sand. Although the damage was not major, repairs were expected to take approximately three weeks to complete.

AMC-16, like AMC-15, was a hybrid Ku/Ka-band satellite built by Lockheed Martin and based on the A2100 spacecraft platform. The spacecraft was to become operational in early 2005 from 85º West with a 15 year design life. The satellite carried 24 x 36 MHz/140 W Ku-band transponders and 12 x 125MHz/75 W spot beams. Coverage included the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. Launch was delayed from December 6 and 16. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 118.75W drifting at 0.002W degrees per day.

Quartet of electronic intelligence satellites, which succeed Essaim as France's next space-based SIGINT demonstrator. Like Essaim, Elisa consists of four Myriade microsatellites equipped with electronic intelligence instruments to intercept radar transmissions from space. Elisa was to offer a pre-operational capability until a fully operational space-based intelligence capability would be deployed in 2016.

China launched the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), given the postlaunch name Wukong ('Monkey King'). DAMPE was a Chinese Academy of Sciences particle physics experiment with a bismuth-germanium oxide calorimeter, and will study electrons, gamma rays and cosmic rays in the GeV to TeV energy range. The satellite has a mass of 1900 kg.