German-American radio systems engineer, first worked with early rocketeers in 1934. Member of the Rocket Team at Peenemuende and the United States until 1950; thereafter working in radio technology for North American Aviation and his own firm, Magnetic Research Corporation. Died a grapefruit rancher in Temecula, California.

Funded by a Mr Hueckel, Winkler flies the first European liquid propellant rocket at Dessau, Germany. It is 60 cm high, weighs 5 kg, including 1.7 kg of liquid oxygen and methane propellants. The rocket consists of three tanks - one for the fuel, one for the oxygen, and one for the nitrogen gas that pressure-feeds the motor. The motor is a simple 18-inch long cylinder, housed at the centre of the prismatic rocket. The rocket reaches only 3 m in the first test due to a malfunction.

Some reports say that one of the four launches this day carried the dogs Palma and Pushok. The dogs were said to have died due to cabin decompression. Rumors of the death of a 'cosmonaut Shiborin' can perhaps be attributed to this incident, if indeed it did occur.

Mercury-Atlas 2 (MA-2) was launched from Cape Canaveral in a test to check maximum heating and its effects during the worst reentry design conditions. The flight closely matched the desired trajectory and attained a maximum altitude of 114.04 statute miles and a range of 1,431.6 statute miles. Inspection of the spacecraft aboard the recovery ship some 55 minutes after launch (actual flight time was 17.56 minutes) indicated that test objectives were met, since the structure and heat protection elements appeared to be in excellent condition. The flight control team obtained satisfactory data; and the complete launch computing and display system, operating for the first time in a flight, performed satisfactorily.

The booster failure on the previous launch was found to be due to premature fuel injection during engine start, causing initial chamber temperatures to rise 200 degrees above normal. Glushko and Konopatov both guarantee their engines for the next launch. The next L1 flight will use the 'Kruga' landing predictor. This will predict the landing point to within a 150 x 150 km area two to three hours before re-entry. Landing points on the three previous flights would have been 2000 km from Madagascar and India, Novosibirsk, and the North Pole... Mishin plans the next dual Soyuz flight for 5-10 April. Kamanin protests that the parachute and sea trials of the redesigned capsule are not yet complete. Mishin, as usual, dismisses his concerns.

N-1 serial number 3L was the first N-1 launched. The vehicle ran into trouble immediately at lift-off. A fire developed in the tail compartment. The engine monitoring system detected the fire, but then gave an incorrect signal, shutting down all engines at 68.7 seconds into the flight. British intelligence detected the launch attempt, but the CIA's technical means for some reason missed it and they denied for years that it had ever occurred. In retrospect the launch team at Baikonur pointed to a grave mistake - at the christening of the first N1, the champagne bottle broke against the crawler-transporter rather than the hull of the rocket. After the 3L failure everyone knew there was no chance at all of beating the Americans to the moon. Additional Details: here....

Soft X-ray telescope. Launching organization: Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, University of Tokyo. Function: Observation of X-ray radiation of celestial bodies with good time resolution over a wide spectrum range. Characterstics: weight 96 kg, configuration regula r octagonal prism, height 0.66 m, diameter 0.76m, spin stabilized. Expected life 2 years.

Transmission of color and black-and-white USSR central television programmes to a network of receivers for collective use. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Indian Ocean at 99 deg E in 1979-1981 As of 3 September 2001 located at 51.81 deg E drifting at 0.088 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 98.64E drifting at 0.060E degrees per day.

Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Launch vehicle put payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 142 deg W in 1981; 127 deg W in 1981-1985; 76 deg W in 1985-on. As of 31 August 2001 located at 25.65 deg W drifting at 1.067 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 78.95E drifting at 0.039W degrees per day.

Transport of various cargoes to the Salyut-7 orbital station. Docked with Salyut 7 on 23 Feb 1984 08:21:00 GMT. Undocked on 31 Mar 1984 09:40:00 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 1 Apr 1984 18:18:00 GMT. Total free-flight time 3.43 days. Total docked time 37.05 days.

Geosynchronous ballistic missile early warning satellite. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 35 deg E in 1985; 24 deg W in 1985-1986 As of 5 September 2001 located at 151.95 deg W drifting at 0.251 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 3 located at 24.42W drifting at 0.038E degrees per day.

Unmanned resupply vessel to Mir. Docked with Mir on 23 Feb 1993 20:17:57 GMT. Undocked on 26 Mar 1993 06:50:00 GMT. Redocked with Mir on 1993-03-26 07:06:03 GMT. Final undocking on 1993-03-27 04:21:00 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 27 Mar 1993 10:25:00 GMT. Total free-flight time 2.33 days. Total docked time 31.32 days.

Kakehashi, meaning 'Bridge', was called Communuications and Broadcasting Experimental Test Satellite (COMETS) before launch. It contained Ka-band communications and inter-satellite data relay payloads. Premature shutdown 44 seconds into the H-II second stage second burn put the satellite into a much lower than planned orbit. The on-board Unified Propulsion System was used to raise it to a more useful orbit.

Direct Broasdcasting satellite. The first launch of the Atlas 3B, with the Common Centaur stretched two-engine upper stage. Launch delayed from December 19, 2001 and January 22. The Echostar 7 communications satellite was placed into geostationary transfer orbit. The first burn of the Centaur put the stack into a 185 x 193 km x 28.1 deg parking orbit. At 1305 UTC the Centaur burned again to achieve the final 245 x 57060 km x 22.6 deg transfer orbit and separated from Echostar. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 118.92W drifting at 0.006W degrees per day.

The classifed NRO USA 193 spacecraft, launched in 2006, suffered a complete failure of its on-board propulsion system, putting the satellite in a rapidly-decaying orbit. The Pentagon said that the hydrazine propellant aboard consituted a risk and announced they would shoot the satellite down. The real objective may have been to demonstrated US antisatellite capability after a Chinese test in 2007. In any case, on 21 February 2008 the satellite was down to a 242 km x 257 km orbit. At 03:26 GMT an SM-3 missile was fired from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie stationed west of Hawaii, to intercept the satellite. The hit-to-kill warhead successfully rammed the satellite, breaking it up into 153 catalogued items of debris with perigees of 170-250 km and apogees of up to 2700 km.

The crew lock was depressurized by 12:40 GMT and the hatch opened at 12:42. The astronauts took the two IDA Cable Bags, A and B, and installed them on the end of the Harmony module. Each bag contained four IPIM (IDA Preparation ISS Mod) cables which would route power and data to the IDA-1 and IDA-2 international docking adapters. The IDAs were to be installed on the PMA-2 and PMA-3 Shuttle docking ports later in the year to allow direct docking of Dragon and CST-100 ships to the Station. Cables W2254, W2256, W2258, and W2262 from Bag A and W2252, W2272 from Bag B were installed and routed between PMA-2, Harmony and Destiny. Bag A was returned to the airlock at the end of the spacewalk. Cables W2264 and W2253 remain in Bag B and would be installed on the next EVA. The astronauts closed the Quest hatch at around 19:18 GMT and began airlock repressurization at 19:26 GMT.