The leadership has approved Kamanin's plan for the selection in the next year of 60 new cosmonaut trainees, including five women. Kamanin expects to see some of the women in orbit by the second half of 1962. DOSAAF has submitted 40 to 50 potential female candidates, selected from their files. Meanwhile, Titov is set to tour Indonesia in January. The Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 group flight is planned for March 1962.

The L3 spacecraft still does not even exist in mock-up form. All of the leadership are responsible for this farce - Malinovskiy, Smirnov, Ustinov, Brezhnev. There is no single manager of the space program. The VPK and Central Committee operate on rumours. The Interagency Soviet headed by Keldysh was supposed to coordinate space activities, but in fact has not functioned in the last four to five years. There is no single military space organisation in the Ministry of Defence. Piloted flight tests are being run by former artillery officers in the RSVN. Various organizations of MAP and VVS coordinate ground and flight tests poorly. These are the reasons for the failure of the Soviet Union in space. Today in the Central Committee Ustinov asked - 'how to answer Apollo 8?' Ustinov relies on Keldysh, Keldysh supports Mishin, and Mishin is unfit for his duties. But Mishin is not even there! The program they come up with: In January 1969, 2 Venera probes will be launched, two manned Soyuz missions, and L1 s/n 13 will be sent around the moon. In February the first N1 will be launched. By the end of March the first Ye-8 robot will land on the moon and return lunar soil to the earth. This meeting is followed by a session of the VPK at 16:00. The crews are named for the Soyuz 4 and 5 flights.

A 'small Soviet' of designers was held to review whether to continue pursuing the N1 launch vehicle or not. Although a first manned lunar landing was not achievable, the N1 could still be used to establish a lunar base by the beginning of the 21st Century. Additional Details: here....

Apollo 8 is on its way back to earth, but re-entry into the earth's atmosphere from lunar distances is risky, as the Soviet experience with the L1 has shown. The State Commission meets at 16:00 and sets the launch dates for Soyuz 4 and 5. Meanwhile Beregovoi and Yurasov are in the Soyuz spacecraft in the assembly building, running communications checks.

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).

Examined solar wind interaction with magnetosphere. Investigation of the corpuscular and electromagnetic radiation of the sun and of solar plasma fluxes, study of the magnetic fields in circumterrestrial space in order to determine the effects of solar activity on the interplanetary medium and in the magne tosphere of the earth. In addition to Soviet apparatus, carried scientific apparatus produced in the USSR, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Polish People's Republic, and Sweden.

Unmanned resupply vessel to Mir. Made second test of Buran ejection seat during ascent to orbit. The K-36M.11F35 seat was installed in an 'experimental droppable compartment' installed in place of the Launch Escape Tower engine on top of the shroud. Rendezvous orbits 187 X 237 km, 51.63 deg; 236 X 338 km; 325 X 353 km at Mir. Delivered 1,300 kg cargo. Docked with Mir on 27 Dec 1988 05:35:10 GMT. Undocked on 7 Feb 1989 06:45:34 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 7 Feb 1989 13:49:00 GMT. Total free-flight time 2.35 days. Total docked time 42.05 days.

Death of Igor Fedrov. Forced to attempt manual return to earth in December 1991 when left stranded in space by fall of the Soviet Union. Russian phantom cosmonaut. 1998 urban legend held that during the fall of Soviet Union, their cosmonauts were stranded on the Mir space station. Embodied on film by character Fedrov in short Norwegian film 'Kosmonaut'.

China formed a military space research center at the People Liberation Army's Arms and Command Technologies College. The center would study military space technologies including space launch operations and space war. It was equipped with various space simulation facilities.

The Block D upper stage delivered three GLONASS navigation satellites into their planned orbits at 08:39 GMT. These satellites were placed in GLONASS orbit plane 3. The satellites had an extended seven-year service life compared to earlier models. This was the sixth end-of-year replenishment launch since 2000. When operational they brought the total of operational GLONASS SVs in orbit to 16. The launch was part of a Russian government-funded program to replenish and expand the Glonass constellation to at least 18 operating satellites satellites by 2007 (compared to 14 satellites at the end of 2005). In 2006 launch of a new Glonass satellite design with a ten-year service was planned.

Russian military satellite that initially entered a 240 km x 899 km x 67.1 deg orbit. Russian press reports and official announcements did not give any name for the satellite, not even a Cosmos cover name, the first time this had happened since 1963. Believed to be the second Lotos-S signals intelligence satellite. The Lotos-S satellites had a payload similar to the Tselina-2, but used a Russian Yantar-type spacecraft bus from TsSKB-Progress instead of the Tselina-2's Okean class bus from the Ukranian Yuzhnoye organization. The spacecraft circularized its orbit to 899 km x 909 km on December 26, joining Lotos-S No. 801 which was in a 903 km x 907 km x 67 deg orbit.