First captive Atlas first test firing. The 'battleship' missile was installed at test stand 1-4, Edwards Air Force Base. The test was a failure due to inadvertant closure of the fuel prevalve, leading to duct collapse, and a turbine overspeed cutoff. No damage was sustained and the first successful firing came the next day. Atlas, First successful captive test firing, June 22, 1956, Edwards Rocket Base, duration - 4 seconds. Successful.

Decree 'On adoption of the R-5M into armaments' was issued. Deployment of the missile began in 1956 in brigades of six launchers. Initially it took 30 hours to prepare the rocket for launch, but this was reduced to 5 to 6 hours after several years of service.

Robert O. Piland, Head of the STG Advanced Vehicle Team, and Stanley C. White of STG attended a meeting in Washington, D. C., sponsored by the NASA Office of Life Sciences Programs, to discuss radiation and its effect on manned space flight. Their research showed that it would be impracticable to shield against the inner Van Allen belt radiation but possible to shield against the outer belt with a moderate amount of protection. Additional Details: here....

Tomorrow morning the entire entourage would depart for Moscow. But on this day at the house on the Volga the cosmonauts were subjected to the attentions of seventy doctors, 100 correspondents, and a large additional number of KGB supervisors, military officers, and engineers. Tereshkova looked fresh and her first press conference with sixty correspondents went well - she made no big errors.

Chinese pilot taikonaut 1998-2006. First Chinese man in space. Retired thereafter, becoming Vice-Director of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center; by 2010 was Deputy Director of the Project 921 Office. 1 spaceflight, 21.4 hours in space. Flew to orbit on Shenzhou 5 (2003).

Military-Industrial Commission (VPK) Decree 'On approval of the Almaz draft project' was issued. Chelomei's draft project showed the 11F71 Almaz station to consist of an 11F75 orbital block and an 11F74 VA landing apparatus (derived from the Apollo-type capsule he had designed for his LK-1 circumlunar spacecraft). Launch of the re-entry capsule with the cosmonauts would eliminate the need for the Soyuz 7K-TK ferry under development by Kozlov.

"Lonely Bull" by Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass; preceded by Boatswain's Call; the boatswain's pipe was directed to Pete Conrad by Paul Hand, probably because Conrad was Navy. "You should have started doing that on about day 2" Conrad quipped. "And the crew down here couldn't find a song for three bulls, it was only one" replied Capcom. Conrad countered with,"Here's a little old song, love" And then PAO filled in the background:"That last song coming down from Skylab was out of Pete Conrad's repertoire of country-western music he has aboard"

Military-Industrial Commission (VPK) Decree 'On establishment of the State Commission for testing the Soyuz-T' was issued. A State Commission was formed to oversee the flight tests of the solo mission 7K-S. The draft design for 7K-ST space station transport version was completed in August 1974.

Delivery to the Salyut-7 orbital station of a mixed cargo with a total mass of 2,000 kg. Docked with Salyut 7 on 23 Jun 1985 02:54:00 GMT. Undocked on 15 Jul 1985 12:28:00 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 15 Jul 1985 22:33:31 GMT. Total free-flight time 2.51 days. Total docked time 22.40 days.

High resolution photo surveillance; film capsule; maneuverable; also performed earth resource tasks. Investigation of the natural resources of the earth in the interests of various branches of the national economy of the USSR and international cooperation.

Stationed at 49 deg E; first launch of alternate Raduga design. Maintenance of telephone and telegraph radio communications. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 49 deg E in 1989-1992; 70 deg E in 1992-1996 As of 2 September 2001 located at 18.58 deg E drifting at 5.633 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 167.42W drifting at 5.632W degrees per day.

Manned six crew. Carried Spacehab 1; retrieved Eureca-1 spacecraft. Payloads: Spacehab 01, retrieval of European Retriev-able Carrier (EURECA) Satellite, Superfluid Helium On-Orbit Transfer (SHOOT), Consortium for Materials Development in Space Complex Autonomous Payload (CONCAP)-IV, Fluid Acquisition and Resupply Experiment (FARE), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II, Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS), GAS bridge assembly with 12 getaway special payloads.

White Knight/SpaceShipOne Flight 60L / 15P. First private manned spaceflight. A control system failure during ascent caused 90 degree rolls to left and right. This led to spacecraft not reaching the planned altitude and re-entering 35 km away from the intended point. Nevertheless pilot Melvill took SpaceShipOne just over 100 km, thereby becoming the first private citizen, third person born in Africa, second person born in South Africa, and oldest pilot in command to reach outer space.

Launched from SSBN Borisoglebsk. First orbital flight attempt of converted SLBM. Payload was solar sail demonstrator. Delayed from late 2001; March 20 and October 2002; late March, August 28 and October, 2003; February, March, April 6, May 20 and 31, 2005.

The Microsatellite Technology Experiment was a classified mission, believed to be a test of prototype inspect-and-disable satellites that would control the constellation of geostationary satellites on which the world depends for television reception and communications. Each microsatellite, one built by Orbital Sciences, and the other by Lockheed Martin, had a mass of about 250 kg. They were believed to be solar-powered and equipped with propulsion systems that would allow them to rendezvous with geosynchronous satellites. Once they had reached the satellite, they would presumably be capable of destroying, disabling, or jamming them. To deliver the two satellites to near-synchronous orbit, a Naval Research Laboratory liquid propellant bus equipped with a 400 N main engine and solar panels was used.

ISS resupply. Also carried the 40 kg Chibis satellite. Docked with the Zvezda module of the ISS on 23 June at 16:37 GMT. Undocked from Zvezda at 09:38 GMT on 23 August. After several maneuvers to carry out the Radar-4 experiment, deorbited over the Pacific at 09:34 GMT on 1 September.

Mounted on the Cygnus service module, the first NRCSD-E external cubesat deployer carried 5 Lemur-2 satellites. On Jun 21 two pairs of Lemur-2 cubesats were ejected. A third deployer silo with a single Lemur-2 failed to open, and the cubesat remained inside when then following day Cygnus made its deorbit burn