AF flight 20. Engine fire after launch forced jettisoning of propellants, completed as a glide flight. However Fitz-Gerald reached 12.1 km and reached Mach 1.10 before the engine was shut off, in the process becoming the second person to break the sound barrier.

Fully fueled round used and attained highest altitude to that date. In addition to testing equipment the flight was used to measure upper air temperatures. V-2 reached 102 km, 1170 m/s; WAC 400 km, 2300 m/s. Provided information on ion densities in the F-region of the ionosphere.

Wright Air Development Center and Air Force Missile Development Center recommended industrial sources and provided the money to study and design a life support system for manned spacecraft. WADC issued a purchase request valued at $445,954 for procurement of the study.

Mercury-Redstone-Jupiter Study Panel Number IV (choice of trajectory, aerodynamics, and flight loads) met at Redstone Arsenal. Subjects studied included pilot safety, simulation of entry from orbit, length of zero-g time, missile stability and aerodynamics, ascent accelerations, and range. This group reconvened on March 13, 1959.

Titan flight test missile G-4 was launched from Cape Canaveral and completed all test objectives in the first successful long-range flight, with the reentry vehicle impacting 4,335-NM downrange. This flight was the longest to date by a Titan and demonstrated the integrity of all basic design parameters as well as Bell Telephone Laboratories radio-inertial guidance systems.

RCA presented results of a weight and power tradeoff study on the LEM's radar systems, which were over Grumman's specification in varying amounts from 100 to 300 percent. RCA proposed that the accuracy requirements be relaxed to cope with this problem. MSC requested Grumman, on the basis of this report, to estimate a slippage in the schedule and the effects of additional weight and power.

NASA awarded a $2,740,000 fixed-price contract to the Collins Radio Company for S-band telemetry equipment. Collins would install the equipment at three antenna facilities that supported Apollo lunar missions (at Goldstone, Calif.; Canberra, Australia; and Madrid, Spain).

The Air Force Western Test Range (AFWTR) supported the first simultaneous ("salvo") launch of two SAC Minuteman I missiles - Flight Test Missiles 529 and 629. The launches were intended to evaluate multiple-firing techniques to be used in operational conditions.

The Air Force Western Test Range (AFWTR) supported the first simultaneous ("salvo") launch of two SAC Minuteman I missiles - Flight Test Missiles 529 and 629. The launches were intended to evaluate multiple-firing techniques to be used in operational conditions.

Kutakhov calls Smirnov to give the VVS position on DOS-7K flights. He is told that Mishin has not only Ustinov and Smirnov, but even Brezhnev behind him in support of 30, and then 60 day spaceflight durations aboard DOS. The VVS' position of limiting flights to 20 to 24 days has no chance.

Examined solar radiation, thermospheric structure. SRATS (Solar and Thermospheric Radiation Satellite) is the third Japanese scientific satellite, to study the intereffects of solar radiation and the thermosphere of the earth. National name: Taiyo. Launch time 0525 GMT.

Atlas booster 27F successfully launched Space Test Program Flight P78-1 from Space Launch Complex 3W, Vandenberg AFB, California. The primary payload on the spacecraft was a gamma spectrometer sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Ionosphere and magnetosphere studies; destroyed on 13 September 1985 (while still functioning) as part of an American ASAT test.

Radio traffic during VHF windows for our position in the morning of 24.02.1997 revealed that something serious had happened on board Mir. Somewhat earlier there was already an indication: a direct TV-link from Mir with Oberpfaffenhofen via Altair-1 for this morning did not take place. During the 3d pass for our position (orb. 62943, 1341-1348 UTC) the cloven hoof came out: in a conversation with his consultants on earth Ewald reported about a fire on board. This fire broke out last night. An oxygen cartridge caught fire and a grey smoke spread out in all parts of the complex. Korzun and Kaleri fought against the fire with extinguishers and the others tried to push back the smoke. All crew members had to wear gas-masks. This lasted two and a half hours the maximum endurance of those masks. The extinction water caused a high humidity and the temperature of the atmosphere was higher than normal. Ewald did not get smoke or just a little bit in his longs and to remain on the safe side he swallowed coal- and vitamin tablets and milk products. He was very tired but he did not think that this had been caused by something like pollution, but by the lack of sleep. He went asleep at 6 o'clock in the morning and woke up 4 hours later. Jerry Linenger was very busy collecting air samples for pollution tests. He also tried to determine the amount of formaldehyde. The crew of six was in the Base Block when the fire began in an adjacent room. Russian toxicologists are analysing telemetric data about Mir's on board atmosphere. The crew already collected urine- and saliva samples and later on they got instructions to collect blood samples and to do additional medical tests. In the course of the day a TV press conference was on schedule and a lot of journalist were waiting in Oberpfaffenhofen. Ewald told that the events had caused such a mess in the station that it was not convenient to have that TV session today. As a palliative Ewald answered some questions about the nightly occurrences and his statements almost fully confirmed the information gathered by me for this report.

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

The United States rejected a $450 million Hughes satellite deal with China over fears it could compromise U.S. national security. The APMT satellite was designed to provide mobile telephone links over much of Asia and was 51 percent owned by Chinese interests. This marked the end of Chinese-US commercial collaboration in space, with China thereafter concentrating on deals with European or other developing world partners.

Progress M1-1: This new freighter type was launched to Mir from Baykonur on 1.02.2000 at 0647UTC. The approach and docking in the automatic mode by the system Kurs was successfully accomplished on 3.02.2000 at 0802UTC. During this operation the tension in mission control (TsUP) in Korolyov was very great because if this operation would fail the crew of the 28th Main Expedition to Mir should start to Mir on 17.02.2000, so earlier than planned to control the docking of Progress M1-1 from inside Mir in the manual mode by the system TORU.

Progress-M42: This old freighter had to free the docking port for the Progress M1-1 and when it was clear that all systems on board of the new ship were working well, the Progress -M42 could get away. On 2.02.2000 at 06.10.40UTC the ship undocked from Mir and the return in the atmosphere and the decay over a designated area east of New-Zealand took place that day at 06.57.20UTC.

Orbit corrections Mir-complex:

1st correction: The engines of the Progress-M42 gave the impulses for that orbit correction on 25.01.2000. In this way the altitude of the complex was lifted by a few dozens of kilometers. This was not enough and 2 more corrections were planned. 2nd and 3rd correction: On 7 and 9.02.2000 the engines of Progress M1-1 executed this operation and lifted the complex from approx. 320 KM to a per/apogee of 352/367 KM.

The use of the Progress M1-1 for this purpose (so increasing the altitude) is an indication that the Russians seriously work on plans to continue the operation of Mir in the manned mode for a while or at least put back the decay of the complex. Originally the Progress M1-1 had to lower the altitude of Mir.

Tests of the on board computers and gyrodynes:

Both around 25.01 as on 8.02.2000 the computers (the analogue BUPO for the control of steering rockets and the Main Computer, the digital TsVM-1 for the attitude control by gyrodynes, have been tested. All systems, the gyrodynes included, functioned flawlessly.

The Progress M1-1 delivered to Mir extra oxygen and nitrogen to increase the pressure in the complex, which had decreased dramatically during the last months, and bring this again on a level of approx. 750 MM mercury. Experts will try to open the necessary valves by telecommands. If these attempts would fail the cosmonauts of the 28th M.E. have to do this manually. Then they will have to take special measures to enter the complex.

I was not able to follow the operations in the last 2 months on by base. In that period I made a tourist and space trip to Texas, Alabama and Florida.

Plans for the near future:

So Mir will stay in space for the time being. However we have to be realistic. So to begin with the solid plans:

For a long time the schedule foresaw in the launch of the Soyuz-TM30 with the 28th ME crew consisting of Zalyotin and Kaleri on 31.03.2000. (So this had nothing to do with the founding of the Mircorp). This crew has to stay in Mir for 30 or 45 days for the execution of repairs and modifications aimed at the safe decay of the complex in the atmosphere.

Already for a long period RKK Energiya tried to find investors or customers to be able to continue the exploitation of Mir self-supporting. This endeavour conflicted with the position of Rosaviakosmos (the Russian NASA), as Russia promised to concentrate all means for the Russian contribution in the ISS, the decay of Mir as soon and as safe as possible included. RKK Energiya got permission from the Russian Government and the DUMA to go on with Mir if RKK Energiya the company succeeded in commercial activities from investments by private organisations. The succeeded to get a small amount of money and a lot has been promised. To continue the exploitation of Mir in that way an extensive plan has to be drafted and realised.

Some American millionaires want to invest a lot of money in Mir for the use of the station for several purposes, i.e. as a space hotel for tourists, a platform for the repair of satellites, a kind of node for Internet services and for the execution of experiments by scientific institutes and enterprises.

Gradually the name of Steklov, a Russian actor who should play in film on board Mir, is mentioned as a future visitor of Mir. Fact is that he is still in training for a spaceflight.

A Mr. Manber in England and the director of RKK Energiya, Yuriy Semyonov, signed documents for the founding of a company named Mircorp. At the moment this company has a reference point at a lawyers office in the Dutch city Utrecht, but they are trying to find a location for an office in Amsterdam.

My provisional conclusion: Gradually money is coming in and this makes it possible for RKK Energiya to extend the manned status of Mir, but only with trained cosmonauts and certainly not for tourists. The modules of Mir complex are absolutely unsuitable to be converted into hotel rooms. Mir will never be able to serve as platform for the maintenance of satellites. Due to the fixed orbit and inclination only a very few satellites will be able to come in the neighbourhood of Mir. For limited repair missions only space shuttles are flexible enough.

The representatives who gave statements about Mir Corporation's plans with Mir do not have the necessary background knowledge and need an extensive briefing by their partner RKK Energiya (or even me) to able to give adequate answers on technical and operational questions.

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202

Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev took a short flight around the International Space Station (ISS) today, repositioning their Soyuz capsule from the aft docking port of the Station's Zvezda module to the nadir, or downward facing docking port of the Zarya module. Additional Details: here....

Flight Time: 2.8 hours Pilot: Binnie Copilot: Melvill. Objectives: Evaluate performance of updated engines. Measure effect of new canted wingtips. Test new landing gear doors and upgraded INS hardware. Results: New and different engine irregularities at highest altitudes. Further mods are needed for adequate ECS humidity control. Canted wingtips solved the dihedral effect problem. No flying qualities issues remain.

Optical-3 Verification Satellite, an experimental satellite on a six-month mission to test payloads planned for the Optical-3 second-generation Japanese military optical surveillance satellite. The production-type Optical-3 satellite was expected to launch in 2009.

Final flight of the space shuttle Discovery. The spaceplane docked with the International Space Station at 19:14 GMT on 26 February. The ELC-4 Express Logistics Carrier 4 was transferred from the Shuttle to the S3 station truss on 27 February. The station's SSRMS robot arm moved the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module from the shuttle to the nadir port of the Unity module between 13:46 and 15:05 UTC on 1 March. Following cargo unloading and three spacewalks devoted to station repair and assembly, Discovery undocked from the station for the last time at 12:00 GMT on 7 March, landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 16:57 GMT on 9 March.