NASA Explorer IX placed in orbit by four-stage Scout booster from Wallops Station, the first satellite launching from Wallops, and the first satellite boosted by a solid-fuel rocket. Explorer IX was a 12-foot diameter sphere after inflation at orbital altitude.

The group was selected to provide female astronauts for the Vostok manned spaceflight program.. Qualifications: Parachutists under 30 years of age; under 170 cm tall; under 70 kg in weight.. Cosmonaut commander Nikolai Kamanin obtained official approval to train a cadre of female cosmonauts in October 1961. The pool of Soviet female pilots being limited, potential candidates were also sought who were active sport parachutists. Five Soviet women were selected on 16 February 1962 and reported for training a month later. However the flight of a woman in space had little support from Chief Designer Korolev or Kamanin's military commanders.

In May 1962 a Soviet delegation, including cosmonaut Gherman Titov and Kamanin, visited Washington. On May 3 Kamanin and Titov were invited to a barbecue at the home of astronaut John Glenn. Glenn, already politically-connected, was an enthusiastic supporter of the 'Mercury 13' - female pilots who had passed the astronaut physical and were lobbying to be trained as Mercury astronauts. Kamanin understood from Glenn that the first American woman would make a three-orbit Mercury flight by the end of 1962. Armed with the threat that 'the Americans will beat us', Kamanin was able to obtain a decision to go ahead with the first flight of a Soviet woman within weeks of his return.

Meanwhile the five female cosmonaut were going through the complete course of cosmonaut training, including weightless flights, parachute jumps, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, and academic studies of rocket theory and spacecraft engineering. The women undertook 120 parachute jumps and received pilot training in MiG-15UTI jet trainers.

Even though NASA's female astronaut flight never materialised, Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963. Following her flight the women were enrolled in the arduous test pilot course at the Zhukovskiy Academy (except Ponomareva, who was a graduate engineer from the Moscow Aviation Institute). There were plans for all-female Vostok or Soyuz flights, but these never materialised. The female training group was disbanded in October 1969. The Soviet Union used only male cosmonauts until the 1980's, when women were again recruited, in order to again have a Soviet woman in space before the Americans finally began flying female astronauts on the space shuttle.

This engine was installed in the propulsion test vehicle assembly (PTVA), a unit to be used for a series of tests on the Agena primary and secondary propulsion systems at Lockheed's Santa Cruz Test Base. Bell delivered the two secondary propulsion system modules for the PTVA on March 6 and 14. Installation was completed and the PTVA delivered to Santa Cruz Test Base on March 26.

In a memorandum to ASPO, Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo Program Director, inquired about realigning the schedules of contractors to meet revised delivery and launch timetables for Apollo. Phillips tentatively set forth deliveries of six spacecraft (CSM/LEMs) during 1967 and eight during each succeeding year; he outlined eight manned launches per year also, starting in 1969.

MSC announced a realignment of specialty areas for the 13 astronauts not assigned to forthcoming Gemini missions (GT 3 through 5) or to strictly administrative positions:

Operations and Training

Edwin E. Aldrin, branch chief - mission planning

Charles A. Bassett - operations handbooks, training, and simulators

Alan L. Bean - recovery systems

Michael Collins - pressure suits and extravehicular activity

David R. Scott - mission planning and guidance and navigation

Clifton C. Williams - range operations, deep space instrumentation, and crew safety.

Project Apollo

Richard F. Gordon, branch chief - overall astronaut activities in Apollo area and liaison for CSM development

Donn F. Eisele - CSM and LEM

William A. Anders - environmental control system and radiation and thermal systems

Eugene A. Cernan - boosters, spacecraft propulsion, and the Agena stage

Roger B. Chaffee - communications, flight controls, and docking

R. Walter Cunningham - electrical and sequential systems and non-flight experiments

Russell L. Schweickart - in-flight experiments and future programs.

A Saturn I vehicle SA-9 launched a multiple payload into a high 744 by 496 km (462 by 308 mi) earth orbit. The rocket carried a boilerplate (BP) CSM (BP-16) and, fitted inside the SM, the Pegasus I meteoroid detection satellite. This was the eighth successful Saturn flight in a row, and the first to carry an active payload. BP-16's launch escape tower was jettisoned following second-stage S-IV ignition. After attaining orbit, the spacecraft were separated from the S-IV. Thereupon the Pegasus I's panels were deployed and were ready to perform their task, i.e., registering meteoroid impact and relaying the information to the ground.

Mishin notes: "9. Refine Lunar Expedition using LK, LK-R and E-8". This is the last mention; by mid-1971 a new five-year plan has been approved. Under this the N1-L3 was dropped and OKB-1 was pursuing the N1 with the giant MOK military earth orbit space station and L3M two-launch lunar expedition using new lunar spacecraft (with a podsadka approach to deliver the crew to earth orbit by the new 7K-S!). (Mishin Diaries 2-301)

The next five year plan emphasized the use of the N1 for MKBS and robot soil return missions to Mars by the mid-1970's. But an N1M and improved lunar spacecraft would be developed for establishment of a moon base late in the decade. This was all laid out in a review of the proposed five-year plan on 16 February 1970 (Mishin Diaries 2-302):
25. Budget Review - 5 Year Plan (presumed in thousands of rubles)
Experimental design work - 8734
R&D - 680
Projected over 5 yrs
Experimental Base - 3314
N1-L3 - 2665 (Capital investments)
DOS - 170
Almaz - 645
Topaz - 750 (unknown code name).
Apparatus for military use - 825 350
National economy. others - 928 150
Launch Vehicles - 255 116
Launch complexes - 476 91
Skh.A. - 830 293
EYaRD - 380
Launch work - 780 760
N1-L3 71 72 73 74 75 +ú
(11A52) 3 4 4 4 2 17
11A52 for Mars-75 - - - - 2 2
Grand total 19
26. On the draft resolution for the MKBS.
1. Use the same cooperation established in the design and manufacture of DOS.
2. Expand the cooperation of developers in various departments (especially on power, life support systems, equipment for national economic and scientific purposes).
2. Create the necessary experimental and industrial base (with the planned cooperation of developers).
3. Select TsKBEM factory for serial instrument production with MOM.
4. Determine the organization within MOM (former Nikitin) for the development of simulators and control panels.
5. Organize mass production 7K-S at the plant in Omsk (or in the factory "Progress").
6. Hydrogen blocks Sr and S - TSKBEM factory and plant "Progress".
7. Instruct Affiliate TsKBM (T. Bugajski) development of MKA (shuttle) according to TsKBEM's requirements (an interesting allusion to development of the LKS space shuttle by Chelomei's organization).
8. Determine the parent organization for the production of "Almaz" - organization of Chelomei (Reutov).
9. Immediately begin design work on the technical positions for MKBS ... see paragraph 21 (to establish a single NTS Scientific and Technical Council)

Ionospheric sounding. Ionosphere Sounding Satellite-b . Launch time 0400 UT. Launch vehicle: N number 4. Spin-stabilized; Ionospheric Sounder, Radio Noise Receiver, Plasma Measuring Equipment, Ion Mass Spectrometer, and so on. The satellite is intended for regular observation of global distribution of critical frequencies of the ionosphere by means of radio waves. Weight about 141 kg. Shape: cylindrical, 3.9m diameter and 0.8m height. Expected life: probability of survival in 1.5 years is more than 70 percent.

High resolution photo surveillance; film capsule; maneuverable; also performed earth resource tasks. Investigation of the natural resources of the earth in the interests of various branches of the national economy of the USSR and international cooperation.

JCSAT-6 carried a Ku-band relay system. It was operated by Japan Satellite Systems, Inc., Tokyo, provided communications and data relay for Japan and the Pacific Rim. Two burns of the Centaur upper stage placed it into a supersynchronous transfer orbit of 258 km x 96736 km x 24.1 degrees. JCSAT-6's on-board R-4D engine would maneuver it into its final geostationary location. Dry mass of the spacecraft was 1230 kg. Stationed at 124 deg E Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 123 deg E in 1999. As of 5 September 2001 located at 124.00 deg E drifting at 0.014 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 124.01E drifting at 0.011W degrees per day.

With growing confidence that fuel-saving measures onboard Endeavour will permit the radar mapping mission to run its full duration, flight controllers and crew members today marked the mission's mid-way point. "We're almost there," stated Milt Heflin, NASA's Deputy Chief Flight Director. Additional Details: here....

Following Sunday's unexpected circuit breaker trip and subsequent reset and repowering of affected equipment, the International Space Station had no further incidents. The Expedition 14 crew continued to focus on preparation for its final planned spacewalk ahead of Space Shuttle Atlantis' arrival in March. Additional Details: here....

Eurockot/Krunichev Rokot's Briz-KM upper stage entered a 153 x 785 km transfer orbit followed by an 802 x 806 km target orbit, deploying the Sentinel-3A satellite. It then lowered perigee to 411 x 744 km to reduce orbital lifetime. ESA's Sentinel-3A was part of the European Union's Copernicus remote sensing program, and carried an ocean color imaging payload and an ocean-topography radar altimeter payload.