Preliminary studies were completed by C. E. Brown, W. J. O'Sullivan, Jr., and C. H. Zimmerman at the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory relative to the study of the problems of manned space flight and a suggested test vehicle to investigate these problems. One of the possibilities considered from the outset of the effort in mid-1952 was modification of the X-2 airplane to attain greater speeds and altitudes of the order of 200,000 feet. It was believed that such a vehicle could not only resolve some of the aerodynamic heating problems, but also that the altitude objective would provide an environment with a minimum atmospheric density, representing many problems of outer space flight. However, there was already a feeling among many NACA scientists that the speed and altitude exploratory area should be raised. In fact, a resolution to this effect, presented as early as July 1952, stated that '. . . the NACA devote . . . effort to problems of unmanned and manned flights at altitudes from 50 miles to infinity and at speeds from mach 10 to the velocity of escape from the earth's gravity.' The Executive Committee of NACA actually adopted this resolution as an objective on July 14, 1952.

By using the development model of the Mercury contour couch designed by Maxime A. Faget and associates, Carter C. Collins withstood a 20g load on the centrifuge at Johnsville, Pennsylvania. This test proved that the reentry accelerations of manned space flight could be withstood.

Obviously the military services no longer controlled development of space vehicles and programs. Through fiscal 1958 all space programs had been managed by the Department of Defense through the Advanced Research Projects Agency. The new fiscal year offered little hope for change and, on 29 July, the President ordered transfer to National Aeronautics and Space Administration of nonmilitary space programs such as lunar probes, scientific satellites, and the Vanguard project. (Bowen, The Threshold of Space, p. 28.)

Air Force headquarters forwarded the following instructions and request for information to the Air Research and Development Command:. the Man-InSpace Program was to be programmed at a fiscal 1959 level of $50 million. The 1evel of expenditures was to be scheduled so that acceleration would be possible on 1 December 1958 if additional funds were forthcoming or if they were not, the program could be funded in an orderly manner through the remainder of the year. The research and development command should also seek to answer the question: Why should the military furnish the first man in space ? (Msg, AFDAT 53918, Hq USAF to Cmdr ARDC, 30 Jul 58, cited in Chronological Space Hist, 1958.)

The Office of Systems under NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight summarized its conclusions on the selection of a lunar mission mode based on NASA and industry studies conducted in 1961 and 1962:

• There were no significant technical problems which would preclude the acceptance of any of the modes, if sufficient time and money were available. (The modes considered were the C-5 direct ascent, C-5 earth orbit rendezvous (EOR), C-5 lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR), Nova direct ascent, and solid-fuel Nova direct ascent.)
• The C-5 direct ascent technique was characterized by high development risk and the least flexibility for further development.
• The C-5 EOR mode had the lowest probability of mission success and the greatest development complexity.
• The Nova direct ascent method would require the development of larger launch vehicles than the C-5. However, it would be the least complex from an operational and subsystem standpoint and had greater crew safety and initial mission capabilities than did LOR.
• The solid-fuel Nova direct flight mode would necessitate a launch vehicle development parallel to the C-5. Such a development could not be financed under current budget allotments.
• Only the LOR and EOR modes would make full use of the development of the C-5 launch vehicle and the command and service modules. Based on technical considerations, the LOR mode was distinctly preferable.
• The Directors of MSC and Marshall Space Flight Center had both expressed strong preference for the LOR mode.

In response to a request from NASA Headquarters, Gemini Program Office (GPO) provided a study for Gemini missions beyond the 12 originally planned. 'The Advanced Gemini Missions Conceptual Study' described 16 further missions, including a space station experiment, a satellite chaser mission, a lifeboat rescue mission, and both a circumlunar and lunar orbiting mission. On February 28, 1965, GPO reported that a preliminary proposal for Gemini follow-on missions to test the land landing system had not been approved. Spare Gemini launch vehicles 13, 14, and 15 were canceled, and there were no current plans for Gemini missions beyond the approved 12-flight program.

The final report on a modular multipurpose space station was delivered to MSC by the Spacecraft Organization of Lockheed-California Company. The concept provided for a sequential evolution of space vehicles ranging from small Apollo-dependent laboratories, through larger, more versatile laboratories, to a semipermanent space station. Initial objectives of the study were to refine and optimize the design of the large orbital research laboratory. Additional Details: here....

NASA launched Pegasus 3, third of the meteoroid detection satellites, as scheduled at 8:00 a.m. EST, from Cape Kennedy. As earlier, an Apollo spacecraft (boilerplate 9) served as the payload's shroud. This flight (SA-10) marked the end of the Saturn I program, which during its seven-year lifetime had achieved 10 straight successful launches and had contributed immeasurably to American rocket technology.

Mishin, Rudenko, and others have met with Beregovoi and support his selection as commander for the first Soyuz mission. Kamanin does not believe he is fit for the assignment, due to his age, his height and weight (that are the limit of the acceptable for the Soyuz). Gagarin reports that during a visit to OKB-1 the day before, he discovered that they were still going all out to prepare their own crews and train their own cosmonauts for Soyuz flights. Kamanin reassures him that the full power of the VVS, the General Staff, and the Ministry of Defence is behind the position that only VVS pilots will command the missions. Mishin is gloating over the latest spacesuit tests. Khrunov tried exiting from the Soyuz hatch in the Tu-104 zero-G aircraft. Using his full dexterity and strength, he had more success than in earlier tests. But Kamanin notes that designing a spacecraft hatch only 10 mm wider than the cosmonaut is hardly the basis for practical spaceflight or training. Later Kamanin plays tennis with Volynov and Shonin. Their Voskhod 3 flight is still not officially cancelled. They have been fully trained for the flight for months now, but no go-ahead is given. On Saturday, Tsybin presents to the General Staff OKB-1's concept for training of engineer cosmonauts. Tyulin, Burnazyan, and Keldysh have approved the plan, except they have substituted VVS engineer cosmonauts for those from OKB-1 for the first Soyuz flights. So this is the result of months of controversy - a position that there is no fundamental opposition to cosmonaut candidates from OKB-1. Kamanin sees the absolute need for his draft letter to be sent from the four Marshals (Malinovskiy, Zakharov, Krylov, and Vershinin) to the Central Committee. Mishin continues to "assist" the situation - it has been two weeks since he promised to submit the names and documentation for his candidates to the VVS, and he has done nothing.

As a result of the VPK meeting of 29 May, a decree was issued, instructing Chelomei to complete a draft project within the year for a Mars manned space mission, using as the booster his UR-700M (or UR-900) design, and his MK-700M spacecraft. It was not until August 1997 that Igor Gansvindt revealed that during the 1960's he had developed a system for navigation and guidance for a piloted landing on Mars and its return to earth. This work preceded Aleksei Tolstoy's Aelita project of 1975.

SAC's First Strategic Aerospace Division (1STRAD) turned over to SAMSO a Minuteman launch facility at Vandenberg for use in support of the Army's Safeguard System Test Targets Program (SSTTP). This was to evaluate the Army anti-ballistic missile (ABM) missile systems then under development.

Nikolayev and Sevastyanov fly to Sochi to write out their post-flight debriefing. Mishin won't accept that there are problems with sustained zero-G flight, since that would wreck the assumptions on which he has based his DOS station plans. Kamanin believes a series of 30, 50, then 50-plus day flights are needed to investigate and prove human adaptation to space.

Apollo 15 entered lunar orbit at 4:06 p.m. EDT July 29.

The LM-10 Falcon, with astronauts Scott and Irwin aboard, undocked and separated from the Endeavor (CSM 112) with astronaut Worden aboard. At 6:16 p.m. EDT July 30, the Falcon landed in the Hadley-Apennine region of the moon 600 meters north-northwest of the proposed target. Additional Details: here....

Military-Industrial Commission (VPK) Decree 'On separation of TsSKB from NPO Energia and creation of the Volzhkiy Branch' was issued. After the fall of Mishin, Kozlov was offered the Chief Designer job. He rejected it and Glushko was made head of a reorganised NPO Energia. KB Kozlov itself was made a separate entity with the name of Central Specialised Construction Bureau.

Provision of uninterrupted round the clock telephone and telegraph radiocommunication in the USSR and simultaneous transmission of colour and black-and-white USSR central television programmes to stations in the Orbita network. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 35 deg E in 1981-1986 As of 30 August 2001 located at 112.14 deg E drifting at 0.090 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 76.83E drifting at 0.307W degrees per day.

Glonass. Testing of components and apparatus of the Glonass global space navigation system being set up to determine the position of civil aircraft and vessels of the merchant marine and fishing fleet. Constellation 3. Put into service on 30 July 1992 and taken out of service on 4 August 1997.

Austrian-American engineer and rocket technician in World War II; later worked in France in the engine group at LRBA from 1947 to 1955. He returned briefly to Graz, Austria, and then went to work with von Braun's team at Huntsville, Alabama. During his tenure at NASA, he was US representative to the Paris Air Show for a number of years and lectured at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. He was on the faculty of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Info for Radio-amateurs trying to make QSO's with Mir:

On 30 July 1994 during pass in orbit nr. 48273 Musabayev asked TsUp to inform Sergey Samburov that the power unit of the transceiver for Radio-amateurism is out of order. The last time I monitored traffic on 145.550 Mc from Mir was on 27 July 1994 during the passes in orbits 48226 and 48227 when Polyakov (U3Mir) tried to make a QSO with Francis in France and with OE1AKB.

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

The launch of this freighter is now on schedule for 31.07.1996 at 20.00.04 UTC (For Moscow summertime 4 seconds after midnight on 1.08.96). The decision to give the green light for this launch has been taken on 29.07.1996 during a meeting of the state committee. The first attempt to launch the Progress-M32 failed due to a tank pressurisation problem. During the inspection afterwards a problem was revealed in one of the engines of a booster. The possibility to change that engine has been considered but finally the decision was taken to replace the whole booster. If all goes according to plan we might be able to hear the signals of the beacon- and telemetry transmitters of Progress-M32 at abt. 3 hrs after launch in the 922, 166 and 165 mc bands.

The estimated docking time of Progress-M32 at Mir: 2.08.1996 at abt. 2159 UTC.

Soyuz-TM24: The launch of this ship with the relief crew and the French spacionaute is now on schedule for 20.08.1996. We hope to get an eventual confirmation or additional information by CNES during this week.

Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.

In the second launch of the HyShot program, the Terrier-Orion Mk70 rocket boosted the payload, which remain attached to the second stage Orion motor, toward a planned apogee of 330 km. After peaking at 314 km, the trajectory was designed so that the payload was moving at Mach 7.6 between 35 km and 23 km on the way down, at which point the measurements of supersonic combustion were made. This was claimed to be the first successful test of a scramjet in flight.

Robinson and Noguchi demonstrated Shuttle thermal protection repair techniques in the Shuttle bay. They also installed a stowage platform and rerouted power to ISS Control Moment Gyroscope-2 (CMG-2). They also brought into the station two materials exposure experiments.