German manager. Member of the German Rocket Team in the Soviet Union after WW2. Secretary who worked on rocket engine development in Glushko's design bureau from 1947 to 1952. Worked as Secretary in Dept. 61/Shop 55. Returned to Germany and passed away at the age of 97 in Berlin-Weissensee.

Tsien is director of the institute. It is equipped with mechanical desk calculators and only one telephone. Deputy Director is a Tsien protege, Dr Guo Yonghuai, who graduated with a doctorate in aeronatuical engineering from Caltech in 1946. The Director of Operations is Xu Guozhi, a systems analyst that Tsien met on the ship from America to China.

Qualifications were established for pilot selection in a meeting at the NASA Headquarters. These qualifications were as follows: age, less than 40; height, less than 5 feet 11 inches; excellent physical condition; bachelor's degree or equivalent; graduate of test pilot school; 1,500 hours flight time; and a qualified jet pilot.

Rudnev chaired the meeting, which first heard the failure analysis for the failed Mars launches on 10 and 14 October and the R-16 catastrophe on 24 October. All of these had been accelerated to coincide with Khrushchev's visit to the United Nations in New York, in Kamanin's view a criminal rush that led to the death of 74 officers and men in the R-16 explosion. Future plans were then reviewed. Launches of probes toward Venus were planned for 20-23 January, 28-30 January, and 8-10 February. Four Vostok manned spacecraft were completed, with first launch scheduled for 5 February and the second for 15-20 February.

NASA Headquarters provided Flight Operations Division with preliminary data for revising the Gemini-Titan (GT) 3 flight plan to cover the possibility of retrorocket failure. The problem was to ensure the safe reentry of the astronauts even should it become impossible to fire the retrorockets effectively. The Headquarters proposal incorporated three orbit attitude and maneuver system maneuvers to establish a fail-safe orbit from which the spacecraft would reenter the atmosphere whether the retrorockets fired or not. This proposal, as refined by Mission Planning and Analysis Division, became part of the flight plans for GT-3 and GT-4.

Crews are in training for Voskhod, Soyuz, Lunar L-1, Almaz, and 7K-VI missions. There will be 100 cosmonauts in training by February. Meanwhile the Americans have conducted 10 manned flights since the last Soviet manned flight in March 1965. The cosmonauts want Kamanin to be training 8 crews for L-1 translunar flights, but he only has 4 in training. He doesn't think it is worth to train more, since if one successful L-1 flight is conducted before the 50th Anniversary of the Soviet Union in November 1957, all subsequent flights will be cancelled. Additional Details: here....

Bellcomm engineers presented to NASA a proposed plan for lunar exploration during the period from the first lunar landing through the mid-1970s. The proposed program - based upon what the company termed "reasonable" assumptions concerning hardware capabilities, scientific objectives, launch rates, and relationships to other programs - was divided into four distinct phases:

1. an Apollo phase using existing vehicles,
2. a lunar exploration phase employing an extended LM with increased payload and longer staytime,
3. a lunar orbital survey and exploration phase using remote sensors and photographic equipment on a polar orbit flight, and
4. a lunar surface rendezvous and exploration phase using an unmanned LM to deposit the increased scientific equipment and expendables necessary to extend Apollo's manned lunar capability to two-week duration.

NASA lunar exploration program developed for the period from the first lunar landing to the mid-1970s. A lunar exploration program had been developed which would cover the period from the first lunar landing to the mid-1970s. The program would be divided into four phases: (1) An Apollo phase employing Apollo hardware. (2) A lunar exploration phase untilizing an extended LM with increased landed payload weight and staytime capability. (3) A lunar orbital survey and exploration phase using the AAP-1A carrier or the LM/ATM to mount remote sensors and photographic equipment on a manned polar orbit mission. (4) A lunar surface rendezvous and exploration phase which would use a modified LM in an unmanned landing to provide increased scientific payload and expendables necessary to extend an accompanying manned LM mission to two weeks duration.

Venera 5 is launched at 9:26 Moscow time from LC-31 in -23 deg C temperatures. All proceeds according to plan. Afterwards Kamanin meets Babakin. Venera 6 is planned for launch in 10 January. He also plans two moon landings in 1969 and two in 1970 of soil sample return spacecraft. Kamanin does not believe America can achieve a manned moon landing in 1969, and therefore that Babakin has a very good chance of stealing their thunder.

Meanwhile Venera 5 was launched from its parking orbit towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data. The spacecraft was very similar to Venera 4 although it was of a stronger design. When the atmosphere of Venus was approached, a capsule weighing 405 kg and containing scientific instruments was jettisoned from the main spacecraft. During satellite descent towards the surface of Venus, a parachute opened to slow the rate of descent. For 53 min on May 16, 1969, while the capsule was suspended from the parachute, data from the Venusian atmosphere were returned. The spacecraft also carried a medallion bearing the coat of arms of the U.S.S.R. and a bas-relief of V.I. Lenin to the night side of Venus.

Two hour meeting between the VVS leadership and Mishin at TsKBEM. Mishin claims he will fly the N1 to orbit this year, and that it will have a payload of 95 to 100 tonnes to low earth orbit. He wants to make 4 to 5 unmanned launches in 1971-1972, followed by one unmanned lunar flyby, culminating in the first Soviet cosmonaut landing on the moon in March 1973. Afterwards the VVS leaders tour the L3 and DOS-7K mock-ups. Mishin asks - Why won't the VVS support his plan for an Indian Ocean landing for the L3? Why is the VVS against a 30-day duration for the first DOS flight? Why isn't the VVS training engineer-cosmonauts as pilots? Kutakhov replies that these are decisions that have to be made by aviation specialists, not by engineers or chief designers. The General Staff supports the VVS position.

New gear helped the astronauts on the International Space Station kick off a new year as they prepared a second oxygen-generating system, upgraded soundproofing in the living quarters and unpacked supplies delivered just before Christmas by the space shuttle. Additional Details: here....

Carried C and Ku band communications payloads, and Ka-band beacons for a propagation study. The launch vehicle put the satellite in an initial 182 km x 35,755 km x 19.4 deg geostationary transfer orbit. By January 7 its onboard apogee engine had placed it in a 32,543 x 35,741 km x 0.7 deg subsynchronous orbit on the way to GEO. By February 4 it was on station at 73.9 deg E.

See TJS 2 (Huoyan-1 ?). Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing 2 (Communications Technology Experiment Satellite 2) was developed by the Shanghai team. The lack of public information about the TJSW satellites has led to the suspicion that they may really be for defense purposes, possibly for non-communications purposes such as signals intelligence or missile early warning. TJSW 2 made the burn to circularize its orbit on Jan 6 at 0730 UTC over 114E.