The Air Force Atlas Scientific Advisory Committee (the former von Neumann Committee as reconstituted in April) met at the Western Development Division to discuss the reorientation of the Atlas program. The Committee expressed its dissatisfaction with Convair's lack of progress and noted some serious flaws in the company's technical and managerial approaches. After examining the project management structure proposed by WDD, the Committee unanimously concluded that it was weak and confused and that Convair was not strong enough to be given systems responsibility over the Atlas project. It was recommended that the project management structure, and especially Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation's role therein, be reevaluated and that a new, stronger approach be worked out. In addition, the Committee recommended that a second propulsion system contractor be introduced into the program as a back-up for North American.

NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced that the Mission Control Center for future manned space flights would be located at MSC. The Center would be operational in time for Gemini rendezvous flights in 1964 and later Apollo lunar missions. The overriding factor in the choice of MSC was the existing location of the Apollo Spacecraft Project Office, the astronauts, and Flight Operations Division at Houston.

Keldysh issues a letter listing the scientific objectives for spaceflights in 1964:

• Photograph on marked film the earth and its atmosphere, the surfaces of the moon and planets,
• Observe the zodiacal light via photometer
• Conduct spectrographic analysis of the earth's atmosphere in the 3000 to 3600 Angstrom range
• Conduct ultraviolet spectroscopy of the sky at 304 and 60 Angstroms
• Map the infrared radiation of the earth from space, especially of the polar regions

The first full-scale, five-segment solid-propellant booster motor for the Titan III, the world's largest solid-rocket motor (SRM), was test fired at the United Technology Center's test facility. The motor produced over 1,000,000 pounds of thrust during its 110-second firing.

NASA launched a Scout rocket with a nose cone of experimental heatshield material from Wallops Island, Va. The rocket was intentionally destroyed when it deviated from its course a few seconds after liftoff. The nose cone had been expected to reenter the atmosphere at 27,934 kilometers (18,600 miles) per hour to test the material's thermal performance under heating loads near those of a lunar reentry.

Suborbital 30 minute test of NASA SERT ion engine. The early part of the flight was dedicated to attempts to operate the cesium engine. The cesium engine could not be started because of a high-voltage electrical short circuit. The mercury engine was started about 14 minutes into the flight. This engine was successfully operated for 31 minutes with 53 high-voltage recycle vents which were handled by the fault protection system. Each of the recycle events was only a few seconds duration. Major results from the test were the first demonstration of an ion engine in space, demonstration of effective ion beam neutralization, no EMI effects on other spacecraft systems, and effective recovery from electrical breakdowns. Thrust was measured using three independent measuring systems, and there were no major differences between in-space and ground test performance.

Kamanin and VVS officers spend more than two hours in a heated exchange with Mishin and his staff at OKB-1. Mishin is attacked for delays in completion of Soyuz; his demand that OKB-1 cosmonauts be trained in VVS zero-G aircraft without any agreement on this having been reached; the lack of work on spacesuits for the Soyuz flights by Severin; and above all his "illegal" training of his own cosmonauts. Mishin responds with wild attacks against the competence of Kamanin's cosmonauts, saying that his engineers could better guide a spacecraft to a docking than Kamanin's pilots. Finally things cool down, and Mishin agrees to submit to Kamanin a list of OKB-1 candidates for cosmonaut training within two to three days. Kamanin agrees to consider how they may be prepared for flight on a two-month schedule.

Later Kamanin's group visits Darevskiy at MAP and reviews the status of Soyuz trainer completion. He promises to have them completed by the end of August. Finally Kamanin confronts Komarov over statements he made in Japan. Komarov admits telling the world press that the Soviet Union will, at the scheduled time, fly an automated spacecraft around the moon and return it to earth, to be followed by a dog flight, then a manned circumlunar flight. Kamanin has already had the Central Committee and Soviet Ministers calling him about this unauthorised disclosure.

Major General John L. McCoy became Commander of Ballistic Systems Division replacing Major General Harry J. Sands, Jr., who was reassigned as Commandant, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Brigadier General Arthur W. Cruikshank replaced General McCoy as Deputy for Minuteman.

At 8:50 a.m. July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin reentered the LM and checked out all systems. They performed a maneuver at 1:11 p.m. to separate the LM from the CSM and began the descent to the moon. The LM touched down on the moon at 4:18 p.m. EDT July 20. Armstrong reported to mission control at MSC, "Houston, Tranquillity Base here - the Eagle has landed." Additional Details: here....

Death of Boris Chimp 504. Reportedly died on the lunar surface aboard Luna 15, surviving for a time after the landing. Russian phantom cosmonaut. Fictional lunar landing chimpanzee, subject of Dwayne Allen Day satire of Soviet space history research articles.

Viking 1 reached Mars orbit June 19, 1976. Landing was planned for the US Bicentennial on July 4, but was delayed until a suitable landing site was located. The lander separated from the orbiter and touched down on the western slope of Chryse Planitia (the Plains of Gold) at 22.3 deg N latitude, 48 deg longitude.

Unmanned resupply vessel to Mir. Docked with Mir's front port on 22 Jul 1995 04:39:37 GMT. Undocked on 4 Sep 1995 05:09:53 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 4 Sep 1995 08:58:55 GMT. Total free-flight time 2.22 days. Total docked time 44.02 days. Two Icons of Saint Anastasia were taken into space aboard the craft and transferred to the Mir station where they remained for about seven months. They were returned to earth, apparently aboard Soyuz TM-22, and later shown in diffent shrines around the world.

By accident one member of the Mir crew disconnected a cable connection between a rate-sensor in Module Kristall and the SUD (attitude control computer), which caused a troublesome chain reaction of system failures. Among the systems which did not work anymore were also transmitters in the base block, the UKW-1 transceiver and Telemetry transceivers. So for communications, but also for an alternative attitude control the crew had to use the systems of the fully autonomous Soyuz-TM25.

During the night hours I use to record transmissions using a time switch. In the morning I did not find anything on my tape and during the pass in orbit 65171, 0548-0559 UTC, the 143.625, 145.985 and the 166/165 mc telemetry transmitters did not show any sign of life. I checked whether they used Altair-2 or not: again negative. A few minutes after the pass Geoff Perry told me that he had heard them on 121.750 mc.

During the next pass they still used the 121.750 mc during which Geoff Perry heard them laughing in reaction on that what TsUP had said. The first pass in which the 143.625 mc was in use again was during orbit 65173 at 0900 UTC. Tsibliyev reported that there has been some recharging of the accumulators again and consequently they had switched on some systems, i.e. the UKW-1 transmitter and Telemetry transceivers.

In the early morning of 18.07 I was on duty during the nightly passes. During 2 of them (in orb. 65184 and 65185) all service frequencies remained silent, but I had a hope that conditions had improved for on 145.985 mc there were Packet Radio bursts again. During the pass in orb. 65186 Tsibliyev kept watch in the Base Block and he confirmed that the situation was better than the day before. His 2 colleagues still slept which they badly needed because of the fact, as Tsibliyev stated, they had to endure so much during the last days. During the passes still to follow he also slept and the only sign of life was the continuous rattle of Packet Radio. My oscilloscope did not give any indication that Altair-2's downlink was active.

VHF:

The first windows in which VHF-traffic could be monitored here before the early morning hours of 19.07 and as my body was longing for a good night's rest I adjusted my time switch so that during all windows a recorder was active. And of course this time not only for the 143.625 , but also for the 121.750 mc. After a night in which I slept like a log I found a recording of the transmissions on 143.625 mc during the first pass in orb. 65199 (0045 UTC). Lazutkin had the middle watch in the Base Block and he reported good results of the recharging of accumulators and the fact that there was GSO-1 (gyro stabilised orientation), a very slow rotation and the complex flew on one side. Later on Lazutkin was in his couch and only the Packet Radio and Telemetry transmitters were active.

Altair-2:

During orbit 65203 Altair-2 showed up again. A signal on 10.825 GHz and on the monitor images of floating cosmonauts, the interior of the Base Block and now and then a glimpse of the damaged Spektr. Also phone in which Foale told that he has to use a list with things he needs for the IVA and components for the Orlan-DMA suit. This list in Russian and he asks for an English translation to make it easier for him in contacts with American experts during training for the IVA and the IVA itself. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

Examination of the capsule indicated that the explosive hatch had not blown, exonerating Grissom of inadvertently setting it off. It was theorized that impact with the ocean may have sprung the bolts loose. After restoration the capsule was exhibited at the Cosmosphere space museum in Kansas.

Molniya-3K military communications satellite and booster fourth stage entered a 214 x 420 km x 62.8 deg parking orbit at 0026 GMT. About half an orbit later, over the southeast Pacific, the NPO Lavochkin Block-ML fourth stage fired to put the payload into a 407 x 40831 km x 62.9 deg orbit. The Molniya-3K was an improved version of the Molniya-3 military satellite.

Launch delayed from April 26 and July 19 failure. The Russian Navy launched a three-stage R-29R Volna from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea on a suborbital flight. The payload was a joint project between the Planetary Society and NPO Lavochkin's Babakin center, and consisted of a solar sail deployment test with an inflatable reentry shield. The payload failed to separate from the final stage.