Khrushchev, Molotov, Bulganin, and other leaders are given a tour of Korolev's OKB-1 in Kaliningrad. They are shown the R-1, R-2 and R-5 missiles as well as a mock-up of the R-7 and are awed. Ustinov reports that only five warheads would be needed to destroy Britain, and seven to nine for France. The need for the R-12 was discussed - the longer range was essential so that the missiles could be based farther from NATO's borders (the experience of the German invasion and quick destruction of forward-based units and equipment was on everyone's minds).

With the Navaho stuck on the pad, and the Atlas ICBM nearing first flight, the Air Force began cutting back funds to the Navaho. Advertising for construction of G-38 production missile support facilities at the Cape was pulled, and the program was rescheduled to accommodate a 32% funding cutback in 1958, with construction limited to 16 G-26 missiles and the first G-38 flight delayed from June 1958 to February 1959.

Experience with the X-15 design indicated that many of the weight figures advanced by the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory for the drag or lift configurations of the reentry vehicle (later to become the Mercury spacecraft) were too low, according to Walter C. Williams, Chief of the NACA High-Speed Flight Station. Weights of auxiliary-power fuel, research instrumentation, and cockpit equipment as set by Langley were too low in terms of X-15 experience. Williams stated the total weight should be 2,300 pounds for the drag configuration and 2,500 pounds for the lifting configuration.

Successfully fired at 1459 hours EST from the AMR. The flight was successful in that all missions were accomplished. Impact was 461 meters over end 64 meters to the left of the predicted impact point, a radial miss distance of 466 meters. Missed aimpoint by 245 m.

Fired from AMR at 1850 hours EST. The primary mission of impacting the nose cone in a pre-calculated target (MILS Network) was successfully accomplished, The nose cone impacted in the 1,302 nm target area, 2.8 nm over, with no lateral deviations. Again, the vernier engine ran to cut-off rather than the commanded 14 seconds -- a near perfect flight. For the first rime, missile roll was controlled by a turbine exhaust nozzle designed to eliminate problems experienced on previous flights.

Boilerplate (BP) 19 was drop tested at El Centro, Calif., simulating flight conditions and recovery of BP-12. A second BP-19 drop, on April 8, removed all constraints on the BP-12 configuration and earth landing system. Another aim, to obtain information on vehicle dynamics, was not accomplished because of the early firing of a backup drogue parachute.

The final conclusion is as before, that simultaneous transmission of the air release command from IP-6 and IP-7 started the chain of events leading to the self-destruction of the spacecraft. It is decided that a Zenit planned for 4-8 March will fly with the Vykhod airlock ring, followed by the E-6 launch on 12 March, and the Voskhod-2 launch with a crew aboard for 15-20 March.

The Thiokol Chemical Corporation (Brunswick Division) static-fired a two-segment, 156-inch diameter, 100-foot long solid-propellant rocket motor (156-2-T). This 900,000-pound motor, the largest solid-propellant motor yet fired, generated over three million pounds of thrust for one minute, more than twice as much as any previous motor. This test firing was intended to validate design criteria for the 260-inch motor program that was officially transferred from Space Systems Division management to that of NASA's Lewis Research Center (LeRC) on 1 March.

Keldysh heads a Soviet on plans through 1975 for automated probes and space research of the moon and planets. Barmin attends, his interest being the relation of this work to his lunar base. Kamanin finds the plan not well thought out... Tereshkova sees Kamanin and tells him she cannot handle the stress of both political demands on her time and cosmonaut training. She wants Kamanin's assistance to get her out of political tasks.

A meeting is held on the DOS project. The Central Committee and Soviet Ministers have directed that two DOS space stations be completed by the end of 1970. TsNIIMASH thinks this is impossible - the task can be accomplished in no less than 18 to 24 months. Mishin insists it can be done in ten months, as directed. Kamanin believes he won't even have it ready by the second half of 1971. It took five to seven years to just bring the Almaz, Soyuz VI, and L1 to flight status. This DOS will stop work on all other projects. Mishin still wants to fly two Soyuz spacecraft to test Bogomolov's Kontakt docking system for the L3.

Kamanin has a meeting scheduled with Chelomei, but this is cancelled and he is called to another meeting with Mishin -- all to advance Mishin's agenda. Mishin complains that he doesn't know what the Almaz project is about. He claims Chelomei has spent half a billion roubles so far, and has nothing to show for it. Mishin, on the other hand, has two DOS stations ready to fly, done at a cost of only 80 million roubles. But Kamanin knows very well who has really wasted hundreds of millions of roubles - Mishin. Mishin produces his plans for DOS#3 and DOS#4 follow-on stations. These are to be copies of Almaz, delivered in 18 months. Mishin says he is building ten 7K-S for the spacecraft, despite the fact that Karas at GUKOS is not interested in manned spaceflight. Afterwards Kamanin tells Kutakhov to warn Chelomei that he must support the VVS' 7K-S and Spiral projects, if he wants VVS support for Almaz.

A joint DOD/NASA study was carried out on the consolidation of expendable launch vehicles during transition to the space shuttle. The study recommended that the Interim Upper Stage, being developed for the space shuttle, be used with the Titan III during the transition period.

The advanced nosetip test vehicle (A.N.T.)-l was successfully launched from Vandenberg AFB. The purpose of the flight was to test the performance of four nosetips of various materials and shapes with fine-weave carbon-carbon nosetips in high stagnation pressure and clean air.

Comprehensive investigations of the structure of the earth's ionosphere, the characteristics of wave processes and the propagation of radio waves in the ionospheric plasma. Launched under the Intercosmos programme by the USSR in cooperation with the Peopl e's Republic of Bulgaria, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Hungarian People's Republic and the Polish People's Republic. Additional Details: here....

Civilian navigation satellite. Positioned in plane 14 of constellation. Maritime navigation. Signals at 150,00 MHz and 400.00 MHz. Carried COSPAR/SARSAT search and rescue package. Location of vessels in the Soviet merchant marine and fishing fleet; work within the international space search and rescue system for locating vessels and aircraft in distress (COSPAS-SARSAT).

YELSTIN SIGNED DECREE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE R.K.A.:

R.K.A. stands for Rossiyskoe Kosmicheskoye Agentsvo, so Russian Space Agency. For a long time the Russian parliament discussed about the need to establish such an organisation. Its tasks and possibilities, but also the relation to parliament and government, are almost equal to that of the American NASA. Projects for space-operations have to be submitted to that R.K.A. The R.K.A. investigates the project and evaluates the need, necessity, costs and eventual contribution from state-funds. Projects aimed to achieve political- or chauvinistic prestige will not have any chance. After analysing a project this will be send to the parliament for consent about eventual funding. The president can put his veto on it. After consent the project will be send back to R.K.A. R.K.A. asks for offers of firms, scientific institutes, enterprises, national as well as international ones, on the basis of free enterprise and free market and selects those who will get the order(-s). After that R.K.A. has to keep control on the execution of the orders. It will take some time before such an organisation is operational and in fact it is already a little bit late.

RIDICULOUS AND EXAGGERATED INFORMATION ABOUT BAD HEALTH AND MOOD OF Mir CREW:

For a long time, more or less caused by 'glasnost' and the bad economic situation in the CIS-states, the (ex-) Soviet press critically and even with denigration reported about their national space exploration. For a few weeks that same press gradually seem to be inclined to change this policy a little bit due to a moderate positive attitude towards 'space' of Yeltsin. A lot of Russian journalists still entertain grievances about the fact, that not a Russian, but a Japanese journalist flew in a Russian space-station. Average reports about space-station Mir are still below zero and a lot these reports find their way to the West. Regretfully the spokesmen and public relations officers of space-organisations in the CIS are still very passive and miss the skill and willingness of their western colleagues to fight for their cause. Negative reports, for instance articles in Komsomolskaye Pravda, Izvestiya and others, are extra exaggerated while proceeding along western press-channels. The cosmonauts hear a lot from western news-agencies and from radio-amateurs around the world and sometimes do not believe their ears. On Febr. 17th Moscow-TV relayed a direct TV-session with Mir and the viewers could see how healthy and active the cosmonauts were. I myself know by day to day observations that the crew has a very good health and a high morale. Of course they meet problems, technical failures, even serious ones, but they always keep good hearth and in co-operation with experts on TsUP they resolve problems by repairing or replacing equipment or systems. Radio-amateurs, who have the possibility to communicate with the crew or to exchange information via Packet Radio, certainly will share my opinion. I will advise you all: take all press-reports about Mir, not with a pinch, but with some pounds of salt.

C.M. van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

Military Communications satellite. Launch delayed from October 30, December 14, 2000, and February 2 and February 24, 2001. The Milstar DFS 4 satellite (the second Milstar Block 2) provided secure communications for the US Department of Defense, with UHF, EHF and SHF band transmitters. Titan 4B-41 with core stage K-30 took off from Cape Canaveral and placed Milstar and the Centaur TC-22 upper stage in a suborbital trajectory. TC-22 then ignited to enter a 200 km parking orbit, and after two more burns delivered Milstar to geosynchronous drift orbit. Small engines on board the Milstar placed it at its targeted geostationary position. USA 157, a 4.5 tonne spacecraft, was the first in the Milstar 2 series which was capable of higher data rates and was more secure against disabling efforts.

The astronauts retrieved and replaced and replaced science instruments on the ISS Pirs and Zvezda modules. These included sample materials that had been exposed to space for two years and a radiation phantom that measured doses a human would have received. The spacewalk, planned for 5 hours 45 minutes duration, was cut short when the cooling circuit in Kaleri's suit malfunctioned and he reported seeing drops of water on his helmet visor. This was the first time NASA had dared to send the entire crew of the station out on an EVA in the ISS program (though common Russian practice during their Mir project).

Joint US-Japanese Global Precipitation Measurement satellite; carried the JAXA/NICT/NEC Toshiba Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar and the GSFC/Ball GPM Microwave Imager. The satellite was built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and registered as a US satellite.