NASA Administrator James E. Webb and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara signed a new agreement on Department of Defense (DOD) and NASA management responsibilities in the Cape Canaveral area. The Air Force would continue as single manager of the Atlantic Missile Range and host agency at the 15,000-acre Cape Canaveral launch area. NASA's Launch Operations Center would manage and serve as host agency at the Merritt Island Launch Area, north and west of existing DOD installations. DOD and NASA would each be responsible for their own logistics and administration in their respective areas. Specific mission functions - e.g., preparation, checkout, launch, test evaluation - would be performed by each agency in its own behalf, regardless of location. DOD retained certain fundamental range functions, including scheduling, flight safety, search and rescue operations, and downrange airlift and station operation.
Asked by a Congressional committee if NASA planned another Mercury flight after MA-9, Dr Robert C. Seamans stated, in effect, that schedules for the original Mercury program and the 1-day orbital effort were presumed to be completed in fiscal year 1963. If sufficient test data were not accumulated in the MA-9 flight, backup launch vehicles and spacecraft were available to fulfill requirements.
He is shown the Volga and L1 trainers, takes a seat in the trainer, and is given a simulated space flight. At the air base he reviews the aircraft and the TBK-60 altitude chamber. Throughout the tour, Mishin constantly wore a soft expression and used coarse language. Afanasyev was briefed on and recognised problems with development and delivery of the Salyut digital computer needed for the L1 guidance system. But he was not told that cooperation had broken down totally on the L3 simulator development and crew selection.
The last scheduled Air Force Thrust Augmented Thor/Agena (SLV-2A //498/SS-01B #2733) to be launched from Vandenberg AFB was the 150th Thor/ Agena vehicle fired from there since Discoverer I was launched on 28 February 1959. From now on, the Air Force would use the more advanced Long Tank Thrust Augmented Thor (SLV-2G) - Thorad - and the newer SLV-2H.
Soyuz 4 landed at 06:51 GMT 48 km south-west of Karaganda, 40 km from the planned point, with the crew of Khrunov, Shatalov and Yeliseyev aboard. Shatalov's performance has been outstanding -- all manoeuvres were made correctly with minimal expenditure of propellant. The soft landing system performed well, in temperatures of -30 deg C and in 60 to 80 cm of snow. The first recovery helicopter reached the capsule only five minutes after touchdown. 25 minutes later the crew is on a helicopter, on their way to the airfield at Karaganda. The crew is given a medical examination at the Hotel Chaika and then taken downstairs for a press conference. At 16:45 they board an An-24, bound for Tyuratam.
Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Americas at 116 deg W in 1976-79; over the Pacific Ocean 142 deg W in 1979 As of 5 September 2001 located at 135.36 deg W drifting at 0.161 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 131.55W drifting at 0.190W degrees per day.
Stationed at 335 deg. E. Provision of telephone and telegraph radiocommunications and television broadcasting. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 25 deg W in 1986-1989; 170 deg W in 1989-1991 As of 28 August 2001 located at 163.25 deg W drifting at 5.255 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 22.49E drifting at 5.257W degrees per day.
The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.
Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Reported to the Johnson Space Center in late July 1990 to begin their year long training. Chosen from 1945 qualified applicants, then 106 finalists screened between September and November 1989.
CDR Whitson and FE-2 Tani started out with the daily reading of SLEEP (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy and Light Exposure during Spaceflight) experiment data accumulated during the night, for logging and filling in questionnaire entries in the SLEEP session file on the HRF-1 laptop for downlink. Additional Details: here....
Falcon 9 F9-019 was the last version 1.1 core. It took off soutbound from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg AFB at 1842 UTC, entered a 175 x 1321 km x 66 deg transfer orbit at 1851 UTC, and circularized the orbit at apogee with spacecraft separation at 1938 UTC. The second stage was then deorbited with a burn at around 1945 UTC lowering perigee into the atmosphere, leading to a reentry around 2030 UTC over the northeastern Pacific. Meanwhile the first stage completed a boostback burn and flew down to the center of the target on the ASDS ship "Just Read The Instructions" in the Pacific at about 1852 UTC. However, on landing one of the deployed legs failed to lock in place and the vehicle toppled and was destroyed. Jason-3 was the fourth in a series of French/US satellites carrying the Poseidon altimeter to measure sea surface height across the world, an important parameter in climate change studies. The satellites also carry microwave radiometers. The first Poseidon satellite was the TOPEX/Poseidon research experiment which operated from 1992 to 2006. This was followed on by the progressively more operational Jason series; Jason-1 in 2001-2013, and the still operational Jason-2 launched in 2008. The 550 kg satellite was built by Thales Alenia (Cannes) using the Proteus bus and owned by the French space agency CNES. Lead agencies for the overall Jason-3 program are the US weather agency NOAA and the European weather satellite group EUMETSAT, taking over from CNES and JPL who led the earlier missions.