Russian pilot cosmonaut 1960-1968. First person in space. Due to his fame, the Soviet leadership did not want to risk him on another flight, but later relented. Died in a 1968 MiG trainer crash while requalifying for flight status. 1 spaceflight, 1.8 hours in space. Flew to orbit on Vostok 1 (1961).

Carried dog Chernushka, mannequin Ivan Ivanovich, and other biological specimens. Ivanovich was ejected from the capsule and recovered by parachute, and Chernsuhka was successfully recovered with the capsule on March 9, 1961 8:10 GMT.
Officially: Development of the design of the space ship satellite and of the systems on board, which ensure necessary conditions for man's flight. Additional Details: here....

A Thor/Agena D booster was employed to launch eight military satellites into orbit from Vandenberg AFB. This was the largest number of individual payloads yet orbited by the United States with one launch vehicle. First launch of a quadruplet of Poppy naval signals intelligence satellites, which would lead to the NOSS production series. Official and secondary mission: Solar radiation data.

A Thor/Agena D booster was employed to launch eight military satellites into orbit from Vandenberg AFB. This was the largest number of individual payloads yet orbited by the United States with one launch vehicle. Surveillance calibration. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).

OSCAR III was launched piggyback with seven United States Air Force satellites. Weight 16.3 kg. It was the first amateur satellite to operate from solar power and relay signals from Earth. OSCAR III was the first true amateur satellite relaying voice contacts in the VHF 2 meter band through a 1 W 50 kHz wide linear transponder (146 MHz uplink and 144 MHz downlink). OSCAR III's transponder lasted 18 days. More than 1000 amateurs in 22 countries communicated through the linear transponder. The two beacon transmitters continued operating for several months.

Note: Designed, built, and tested, a predecssor, OSCAR* was never launched. Similar in design to OSCAR I and II, OSCAR* contained a 250 mW beacon with phase-coherent keying. OSCAR* was never launched as the workers decided to focus their efforts on the first relay satellite -- OSCAR III.

A team of engineers from Douglas Aircraft Company, headed by Jack Bromberg, presented a technical briefing and cost proposal to Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller on the company's design on the airlock for the AAP. Mueller observed that Douglas' idea for a 30-day capability seemed technically sound. He expressed strong interest in the AAP spent-stage experiment because it would establish a solid basis for space station requirements and definition. However, he cautioned that he had not received definite approval from either the Administrator, James E. Webb, or his deputy, Robert C. Seamans, Jr., on the spent-stage concept and admitted that he had 'some selling to do.'

The ATM Principal Investigators presented the status of their experiments at Ball Brothers Research Corporation in Boulder, Colorado. They reported good progress in the development of their instruments and presented material to support their assessment that delivery would be on schedule. They also stressed the importance of flying a mission as early as possible during a period of high solar activity.

A major training session is held with Shatalov, Yeliseyev, and Rukavishnikov. They make a 15 hour simulated 'flight' aboard the DOS trainer from 09:15 to 22:45. All operations expected in a thirty-day mission to the station are gone through. This includes simulation of emergencies to test the reactions of both the crew and ground controllers. Kamanin receives a letter from Anders, thanking him for the tour of Star City. Representatives from the Swedish firm are in town to negotiate the contract for the TsF-18 18-metre radius centrifuge. Both Korolev and Mishin fought against the VVS getting such a centrifuge.

Gagarin's birthday. Kamanin reflects that before Gagarin's death, everything seemed possible - they were planning manned expeditions to the Moon, Mars, Venus…now there are no plans for man to ever get beyond low earth orbit. Kamanin's life in retirement is full of small concerns. He spends time at the dacha, the apartment needs repairs but he has no savings to pay for it. He goes to Communist Party meetings and commemorations of various space anniversaries. He is consulted to provide advice for historical books and films.

The focus of attention for the two flight control teams is preparation for the launch of Atlantis next month on the STS-101 mission, the first Shuttle flight to the ISS in almost a year. Six American astronauts and a veteran Russian cosmonaut will spend six days docked to the Station to conduct maintenance work on the Unity and Zarya modules and to transfer a ton of logistical supplies for use by the first resident crew which will occupy the ISS later this year. Additional Details: here....

"Vashe Blagorodiye" a song from a movie entitled"White Sun of the Desert" that is traditionally watched by cosmonauts the night before a launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The song was played for Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev, who is spending his last day aboard Discovery before beginning a handover of station command with Expedition One crewmember Yuri Gidzenko.

The active satellite portion of DARPA's Orbital Express satellite servicing experiment. Following operational tests while still joined or grappled together, the first 10-m distance Nextsat free flight and redocking by Astro was conducted on 5 May. On the second free-flight test on 11 May a serious computer failure left the two spacecraft 6 km apart. The problem was solved, revised software was uploaded to Astro, and it redocked with Nextsat on 19 May.

MidSTAR-1 was flown under the DoD Space Test Program and carried the Internet Communications Satellite (ICSat) Experiment (SERB 2002-39) and the Configurable Fault Tolerant Processor (CFTP) Experiment for the Naval Postgraduate School (SERB 2002-34). Planned mission duration was two years.

The Cibola Flight Experiment satellites carried eight new technologies for space flight validation, including a new power supply, inflatable antennas, deployable booms, a new type of launch-vehicle separation system, and a high-density pack of AA lithium-ion batteries. Cibola's on-board field programmable gate array supercomputer processed data onboard, then beamed only the results rather than the raw data to the ground. The Cibola also had a science mission: the study of lightning, ionospheric disturbances, and other sources of radio frequency (RF) atmospheric noise.

First launch of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle, a logistics vehicle designed for ISS resupply. The Ariane model 5ES launch vehicle, vehicle L528, had the enhanced EAP solid boosters and EPC core stage of the Ariane 5ECA, but with the new EPS-V upper stage with restart capability and a vehicle equipment bay instrument unit strengthened to carry the heavier LEO payload. Jules Verne carried 1300 kg of dry cargo, 302 kg of water and oxygen, and 860 kg of propellant to the ISS. For this test mission it had a dry mass of 10075 kg and 6475 kg of maneuvering propellant (in later missions the propellant could be thousands of kilograms less, in order to deliver more cargo).

The EPS stage made its first burn and placed the stack into a 137 km x 260 km orbit at 04:20 GMT. The EPS restarted at 05:05, burned for 30-seconds, and released the ATV into a 254 km x 272 km orbit.

Following extensive checkouts and maneuvering near the ISS, ATV Jules Verne docked at the aft end of ISS Zvezda module at 14:52 GMT on 3 April. While docked to the station, it was used several times to boost the station's orbit and to shift it in debris avoidance maneuvers. The ATV undocked from the ISS on 5 September and used a fuel-conserving 23 days to position itself for a safe re-entry over the South Pacific. Final destructive re-entry began at 13:30 GMT on 29 September.

Ariane 5 vehicle L582, mission VA229 to a low inclination geotransfer with Eutelsat do Brasil's 65 West A payload, a Loral 1300 satellite. By Mar 14, 65 West A was in a 35729 x 35759 km x 0.0 deg near-GEO over the Atlantic. Placed in geosynchronous orbit at 44 deg W.