The escape stage entered parking orbit but the main engine cut off just 0.8 s after ignition due to cavitation in the oxidiser pump and pump failure.. The payload attached together with escape stage remained in Earth orbit.

The booster launched into a beautiful clear sky, and it could be followed by the naked eye for four minutes after launch. The third stage reached earth parking orbit, but the fourth stage didn't ignite. It was at first believed a radio antenna did not deploy from the interior of the stage, and it did not receive the ignition commands. Therefore the Soviet Union has successfully orbited a record eight-tonne 'Big Zero' into orbit. The State Commission meets two hours after the launch, and argues whether to make the launch public or not, and how to announce it. Glushko proposes the following language for a public announcement: 'with the objective of developing larger spacecraft, a payload was successfully orbited which provided on the first revolution the necessary telemetry'. Korolev and the others want to minimize any statement, to prevent speculation that it was a reconnaissance satellite or a failed manned launch. Kamanin's conclusion - the rocket didn't reach Venus, but it did demonstrated a new rocket that could deliver an 8 tonne thermonuclear warhead anywhere on the planet. The commission heads back to Moscow.

The following is the schedule set be decree for the L1 and L3 projects:

Serial # Mission               Date
2P       Develop Block D stage Feb or Mar 67
3P       same                  Mar 67
4L       Unmanned lunar flyby  May 67
5L       Unmanned lunar flyby  Jun 67
6L       Manned lunar flyby    Jun or Jul 67
7L&8L    Manned lunar flybys   Aug 67
9L&10L   Manned lunar flybys   Sep 67
11L&12L  Manned lunar flybys   Oct 67
13L      Reserve spacecraft
 
N1-3L
Serial # Mission                  Date
3L       Develop LV & Blocks G&D  Sep 67
4L       Reserve
5L       LOK/LK unmanned          Dec 67
6L       LOK/LK unmanned          Feb 68
7L       Manned LOK/unmanned LK   Apr 68
8L       Manned LOK/unmanned LK   Jun 68
9L       Piloted LOK/unmanned LK 
         with LK landing on moon  Aug 68
10L      First men land on moon   Sep 68
11L      Reserve
12L      Reserve

At Area 81 a State Commission is held on failures of the UR-500K booster. A D Konopatov describes the analysis of the stage 2 and 3 failures on the 20 January launch attempt. The number 4 engine of stage 2 shut down 25 seconds into its burn due to high temperatures detected in the turbopump. The same thing occurred on the third stage. The couldn't pin down the source of the problem. Engines of this type had worked correctly 700 times on earlier flights. Despite the cause of the failure not being identified, approval is given at 14:30 for the launch of the Ye-8 to proceed. Babakin confirms the spacecraft is ready.

Space Electric Rocket Test; the ion engines aboard were operated until 1981. The SERT 2 development program started in 1966 and included thruster ground tests of 6742 hours and 5169 hours duration. A prototype version of the SERT 2 spacecraft was ground-tested for a period of 2400 hours with an operating ion engine. In addition to diagnostic equipment and related ion engine hardware, the spacecraft had two identical 15 cm diameter, mercury ion engines. Flight objectives included in-space operation for a period of 6 months, measurement of thrust, and demonstration of electromagnetic compatibility. The thruster maximum power level was 0.85 kW, and this provided operation at a 28 mN thrust level at 4200 s specific impulse. Flight data were obtained from 1970 to 1981 with an ion engine operating intermittently in one of three different modes, namely, HV ion extraction, discharge chamber operation only, or just neutralizer operation. Major results were that two mercury engines thrusted for periods of 3781 hours and 2011 hours. Test duration was limited due to shorts in the ion optical system. Thrust measured in space and on the ground agreed within the measurement uncertainties. Up to 300 thruster restarts were demonstrated. One power-processing unit accumulated nearly 17,900 hours during the course of the mission. Additionally, the ion propulsion system was electromagnetically compatible with all other spacecraft systems.

The first live demonstration flight of a Pedro Recruit sounding rocket occurred at Wallops Island, Virginia. It was a clear air launch of a carbon-phenolic nosetip from an F-4 aircraft. The launch, part of the Fighter Launched Advanced Materials Experiment (FLAME), was successful, but the payload was not recovered. Attempts on 20 September and 9 October to drop an inert Pedro Recruit rocket from an F-4 aircraft had failed. This was a DNA-sponsored experiment.

Auroral studies. Active life - two years. Function: 1) Observation of wide angle global auroral pictures using UV television camera. 2) Spectrophotometry of ultraviolet air glow. 3) Observation of the energy spectrum of photoelectrons and auroral electrons. 4) Mass spect rometry of the ionized atmospheric species in the thermosphere. 5) Measurements of density and temperature of ambient electrons in the thermosphere. 6) Observation of electromagnetic and plasma waves and the emission associated with auroral phenomena.

Business communications. Launch time 0837 GMT. Launching organization NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan). N launch vehicle No. 10(F) (N-II launch vehicle). Osaki launch site, NASDA Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima, Japan. Geostationary position 132 deg E. Estab lishment of domestic satellite telecommunications network mainly for natural disaster, emergency and for remote islands using submillimetre wavelength and microwavelength signals. Development of the technology of communications satellite. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 132 deg E in 1983-1988; 128 deg E in 1988-1990 As of 30 August 2001 located at 140.81 deg E drifting at 3.111 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 31.02W drifting at 3.113W degrees per day.

National operational communications satellite. Designation 1990-2. Operated in geosynchronous orbit at 98 deg E in 1990-1998. As of 4 September 2001 located at 52.36 deg E drifting at 0.045 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 96.88E drifting at 0.061W degrees per day.

The International Space Station lost attitude control on for several hours. After Zvezda computers developed communications problems and failed to transfer data to the US gyros on the Z1 module, the GNC MDM computer on the US side stopped stabilizing the station. The computer problems also prevented Z1 from handing over control to the backup thruster system on Zvezda.. At 1318 UTC the Station tumbled, in danger of losing electrical power, and experiments were shut down as systems were put in emergency mode. The crew were able to manually point the US solar arrays, preventing any loss of power. The station was restored to operation later in the day, with attitude control resuming at 1843 UTC on thrusters and 1920 UTC on gyros.

Technology qualification flight - maiden flight of H-2A booster. Launch delayed from January 31 and February 3. The second stage began its first burn at 0251 UTC and at 0257 UTC entered a 500 km circular parking orbit. After a 12 minute coast the second burn put stage 2 in geostationary transfer orbit. At 0315 UTC the small DASH vehicle was meant to separate from the upper adapter, but this apparently did not occur. At 0325 UTC VEP-3/upper adapter/DASH combination separated from the second stage, followed by two semi-cylindrical side panels, revealing the previously enclosed MDS-1 technology satellite which was ejected at 0331 UTC. At 0425 UTC the second stage was scheduled to make a third burn to test engine restart, completing the H-2A-2F mission.

The VEP-3 launch instrumentation package mounted on top of the DASH had a mass of 33 kg. The side adapter panels were halves of a 4.1m long 4.0m diameter cylinder. DASH (Demonstrator of Atmospheric Reentry System and Hypervelocity) was to test the reentry system for the MUSES-C asteroid probe. The plan was to fire the deorbit motor three days after launch, then separate the reentry capsule which would enter the Earth's atmosphere at 10 km/s and land in the Hodh el Gharbi region of Mauritania at about 8.5W 17.2N. Typical satellite reentries are at only 7.5 km/s, while hyperbolic (escape) velocity at the top of the atmosphere is over 11 km/s, so DASH would have been travelling much faster than typical reentry vehicles, but not quite at escape velocity.