Speer puts Dornberger in charge of an office within the Munitions Ministry to oversee further development of the A4 and other rockets, drawing on staff from Peenemuende. Everyone knew the war would be over in a few months -- nothing could be accomplished. Kammler still made sure that Dornberger was only responsible for technical aspects. All further developments of the A4 had been on hold for years, and any further work was now impossible. Only simple things could be worked on, such as converting 6 cm smoke rockets to use as an air-to-air weapon. In the short turnaround typical of the times, the team drove to Kummersdorf and built a 21-cm diameter pipe that could fire a barrage of four smoke rockets. Two days later, it was reported back that the device was used successfully in combat, and it was put into production. It was first used against allied bombers over Schweinfurt in January 1945.

Council of Ministers selects Tyuratam for ICBM test site. The first 30 construction workers arrive at Tyuratam. The town founded at the rail staion is called Zarya (Dawn). The name will be changed to Leninsk in January 1958, but Zarya will remain the call sign of Soviet ground control.

President Eisenhower, answering a December 10, 1957, letter from Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin regarding a summit conference on disarmament, proposed that Russia and the United States '. . . agree that outer space should be used for peaceful purposes.' This proposal was compared dedicate atomic energy to peaceful uses, an offer which The Soviets rejected.

The mock-up was installed in a KC-135 aircraft to provide astronauts with the opportunity to practice extravehicular activities under weightless conditions. The Gemini-Titan (GT) 3 flight crew participated in the opening exercises, which were duplicated the next day by the GT-4 flight crew.

Grumman and Hamilton Standard were exploring various designs for the extravehicular mobility unit. On the basis of some early conclusions, the MSC Crew Systems Division (CSD) recommended that meteoroid and thermal protection be provided by a single garment. Preliminary hypervelocity tests placed the garment's reliability at 0.999. Each would weigh about 7.7 kg (17 lbs), about 2.3 kg (5 lbs) less than the two-garment design. CSD further recommended that the unit be stored either in the LEM's descent stage or in a jettisonable container in the ascent portion.

A $9.5 million contract was awarded to Peter Kiewit Sons Company for Project Yard Fence, Titan II Facilities Update. The project was to utilize improved technology of minimize maintenance activities and to improve Titan II support equipment of the squadrons at Davis-Monthan, Little Rock, McConnell, and Vandenberg.

The NASA Western Support Office, Santa Monica, Calif., reported two accidents at North American plants, with no personal injuries:

• Apollo CM 2S-1 - being hoisted into a cradled position at North American Aviation's Space and Information Systems Division, Downey, Calif. - was dropped 1.8 meters onto a concrete floor Jan. 12. The first report was that the CM apparently suffered considerable damage.
• The S-II-5 interstage received possible structural damage when the protective metal roof covering of a handling fixture was struck during the swing opening of the six-story east door of Station 9 at the Seal Beach plant. The structural connections of the handling fixture to the interstage indicated damage. The S-II-5 interstage had been improperly parked within the swing opening of the east door.

At Baikonur, Ustinov and Afanasyev get into an argument with Mishin. They want Soyuz 4 and 5 to accomplish a completely automatic docking, as was done successfully by Cosmos 186/188 and Cosmos 212/213. Mishin categorically rejects this. He wants a manual docking, which was unsuccessful when attempted by Beregovoi on Soyuz 2/3. Meanwhile the Soyuz 4/5 crews hold a news conference.

Dale D. Myers' appointment as NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight was announced effective January 12, to succeed Dr. George E. Mueller, who had joined General Dynamics Corp. in New York City as a Vice President. Before this appointment, Myers was Vice President and General Manager of the Space Shuttle Program, North American Rockwell Corp.

Manned seven crew. Launched Satcom K1. Payloads: Deploy SATCOM (RCA-Satellite Communi-cations) Ku-1 with Payload Assist Module (PAM)-D II. Materials Science Laboratory, Comet Halley Active Monitoring Experiment (CHAMP), Hitchhiker (HH) Goddard (G)-1, thirteen getaway specials (GAS), student experiment, Initial Blood Storage Equipment (lBSE), Characterization of Space Motion Sickness (SMS).

The Material Science Laboratory was a carrier system designed to utilize the residual space of the Shuttle cargo bay. Based on the multi-purpose experiment support structure (MPESS) carrier, it offered a full complement of power, data, and thermal control services to payloads mounted on it.

Investigation of the natural resources of the earth in the interests of the national economy of the USSR and international cooperation; survey of seismically active regions of the country, including the Armenian SSR, in the interests of industrial and non -industrial construction.

After a night launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, the Shuttle docked with Mir at 03:55 GMT on January 14. STS-81 transferred 2,715 kg of equipment to and from the Mir, the largest transfer of items to that date. During the docked phase, 640 kg of water, 515 kg of U.S. science equipment, 1,000 kg of Russian logistics, and 120 kg of miscellaneous material were transferred to Mir. Returned to Earth aboard Atlantis were 570 kg of U.S. science material, 405 kg of Russian logistics and 98 kg of miscellaneous material. At 02:16 GMT January 19, Atlantis separated from Mir after picking up John Blaha, who had arrived aboard STS-79 on September 19, 1996, and dropping off Jerry Linenger, who was to stay aboard Mir for over four months. The Shuttle backed off along the -RBAR (i.e. toward the Earth) to a distance of 140 m before beginning a flyaround at 02:31 GMT. Most of the flyaround was at a distance from Mir of 170 m. The first 'orbit' around Mir was complete at 03:15, and the second was completed at 04:02 GMT. Then the Orbiter fired its jets to drift away from the orbit of Mir. NASA's first Shuttle mission of 1997 came to a close with a landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 14:22 GMT on January 22 (after the first opportunity was waved off due to cloud cover at the Cape).

With the help of Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri, flight controllers traced the apparent cause of a tiny pressure decay on the International Space Station Sunday to a braided flex hose that is part of the window system in the U.S. Destiny Laboratory. Additional Details: here....

Launched into a 0.981 AU x 1.628 AU solar orbit inclined 0.6 deg to the ecliptic. Deep Impact was to fly by Comet 9P/Tempel-1 on 3 July 2005. An impacter it released was to hit the comet on 4 July at 10.2 km/s, producing a crater and ejecta plume that would allow the flyby spacecraft to determine the composition and structure of the comet's nucleus.

After a three-day holiday to celebrate the Russian Orthodox Christmas, astronauts on the International Space Station spent the week packing trash into the ISS Progress 22 cargo craft and unpacking items delivered by ISS Progress 23 as they prepared for the arrival of new supplies. Additional Details: here....