Series P section B was a series of tests by Goddard in development of a gas generator to run turbines. Through April 28 a series of eleven static tests (Pa-k) of a new gas generator was made near the shop. The best form developed ran steadily for 10 sec at 180 psi for 250-psi tank pressures, with the rate of flow of oxygen at 0.49 lb/sec.

Cosmic radiation, magnetic field research. Launched at 1514 GMT. A pressure valve defect resulted in the sustainer taking off without the booster; reached 6 km. Launched from vessel ACM1 Norton Sound at Atlantic Ocean Launch Site 1-3 - Latitude: 11.27 S, Longitude:82.13 W.

Myasishchev was tasked with building an intercontinental jet-powered bomber, something veteran aircraft designer Tupolev said was impossible. Myasishchev managed to complete the first prototype 103M (called M-4 Bear in the West) bomber ten months after go-ahead. Myasishchev would later play a key role in Soviet spaceplane development.

American test pilot astronaut 1992-2004. Grew up in Thousand Oaks, California. Left NASA for a position with ATK Thiokol, promoting shuttle-derived vehicles for use as the CEV launch vehicle. 4 spaceflights, 47.4 days in space. Flew to orbit on STS-75 (1996), STS-82, STS-101, STS-105.

After booster problems on the Mercury MR-2 chimp test flight, Von Braun insisted on a further unmanned booster test flight, against the wishes of Shepard and others at NASA. A Mercury boilerplate capsule was launched on a flawless test on 24 March. If NASA had overruled Von Braun, the manned Freedom 7 capsule would have flown instead. Shepard would have been the first man in space (though not in orbit), beating Gagarin's flight by three weeks.

After analyzing launch vehicle behavior in the Mercury-Redstone 1A (MR-1A) and Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2), officials at the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Space Task Group were of the opinion that there were a number of problems that needed to be corrected prior to the advent of manned flight. The problems to be resolved included jet-vane vibration, instrumentation compartment vibration, failure of the thrust-controller system, and several other areas that needed attention. Many of these problems were studied by the personnel of engineering activities and proposed solutions were formulated. It was felt, however, that flight was necessary to verify the corrections and the Mercury-Redstone Booster Development test was scheduled and flown. All test objectives were met; as a result of this test, the launch vehicle was man-rated for the planned suborbital flights.

An Air Force crew launched Atlas 134D during the visit of President John F. Kennedy to Cape Canaveral. This was the first time that a President had witnessed a live ICBM launch. President John F. Kennedy visited Vandenberg AFB and witnessed the launch of Atlas 134D.

VVS Chief of Staff Malinovskiy says that manned flights should be cut back due to safety considerations. Kamanin considers this a strange attitude - many die every day in auto or aircraft accidents, but not one death will be tolerated in the conquest of space. The whole plan for the next Vostok missions are thrown back for reconsideration. Many meetings occur over the next week - the basic question, was the MO / RVSN / VVS interested in manned space flight or not? Finally the decision was made to continue - a 180 degree reversal from the original position.

The second flight test of the ASSET reentry vehicle from Cape Canaveral failed when the second stage of the Thor/Delta failed to ignite. The test objectives were not met. Suborbital test of small scale spaceplane model to test materials for the X-20 Dynasoar. Aero-thermodynamic structural test vehicle (ASV) for heat shield tests. Good first stage burn, but the second stage fired, then shut down, repeating the sequence several times. The spacecraft separated, and began to maneuver in a 60 degree bank to recover course, when the self-destruct package blew it apart. The debris impacted the Atlantic 800 km downrange near San Salvador Island.

Kamanin reports that only nine of 16 cosmonaut-candidates that completed the arduous selection process have been cleared by the KGB and Communist Party for actual acceptance for cosmonaut training. He feels this makes the whole time-consuming selection process a waste of time. The VVS is reluctant to submit officers as cosmonaut candidates, fearing that if they fail the vestibular table tests they will not only be rejected as cosmonauts, but be unable to return to flight duty with the Air Force. The result is a final selection of dullards, who are not intellectual, or literary, or sports enthusiasts, who are poor readers and not really interested in spaceflight or cosmonautics. The final decree has been issued reorganising TsUKOS as GUKOS.

Continued operation of the long-range telephone and telegraph radio-communication system within the Soviet Union and transmission of USSR central television programmes to stations in the Orbita and participating international networks (international cooperation scheme). Uncertain if Molniya-1T model was Molniya-1 or Molniya-1T.

Replace Molniya 3-11. Continued operation of the long-range telephone and telegraph radio-communication system within the Soviet Union and transmission of USSR central television programmes to stations in the Orbita and participating international networks (international cooperation scheme).

Replaced Molniya 3-15. Operation of the long-range telephone and telegraph radio communications system in the USSR; transmission of USSR Central Television programmes to stations in the Orbita network and within the framework of international cooperation.

Manned seven crew. Carried ATLAS-1 experimental package. Payloads: Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS)-1, Shuttle Solar Backscat-ter Ultraviolet (SSBUV)-4, Getaway Special Experiment G-229, Space Tissue Loss (STL)-1, Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME)-lIl, Visual Function Tester (VFT)-lI, Cloud Logic To Opti-mize Use of Defense Systems (CLOUDS)-1A, Investigations Into Polymer Membrane Process-ing (IPMP), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX)-Il, Ultraviolet Plume Instrument (UVPl).

Developed by Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse for CNES, the satellite provided 10-m resolution images with a wide field of view. SPOT 4 also carried a wide field 'vegetation' imager and a laser communications experiment. Launch was by an Arianespace Ariane 40 rocket, the base Ariane 4 model with no strap-on boosters. The liquid hydrogen fuelled third stage of the Ariane 40 entered an 800 km sun-synchronous orbit together with SPOT 4.