The President's Science Advisory Committee affirmed that development of space technology was required by, human curiosity, scientific knowledge, the maintenance of national prestige, and defense. This was the first official declaration by the government that space was of military significance, but there was still no evaluation of space as a realm of military operations.

The Langley Research Center received approval for funds to conduct hypersonic flight tests for the Mercury spacecraft. Langley's Pilotless Aircraft Research Division would conduct tests on heat transfer rates at a velocity of mach 17, and dynamic behavior tests from a velocity of mach 10 to a subsonic speed.

MSC announced the beginning of CM environmental control system tests at the AiResearch Manufacturing Company simulating prelaunch, ascent, orbital, and reentry pressure effects. Earlier in the month, analysis had indicated that the CM interior temperature could be maintained between 294 K (70 degrees F) and 300 K (80 degrees F) during all flight operations, although prelaunch temperatures might rise to a maximum of 302 K (84 degrees F).

North American began a series of water impact tests with boilerplate 1 to obtain pressure data on the upper portions of the CM. Data on the side walls and tunnel agreed fairly well with those obtained from 1/10 scale model drops; this was not the case with pressures on the top deck, however.

Hours are spent arguing over flying Feoktistov as a cosmonaut. Finally the matter is referred to the VPK. Kamanin briefs Ustinov's deputy on his position against Feoktistov. The L1 is reviewed. The star sensor only operated on Zond-4 on the fourth day of flight. However when it worked, it provided a 2 km positional accuracy at re-entry versus the 10 km required. The next L1 is to be launched on 23 April. If that date cannot be met, it will be launched on 25-30 April on a deep-space trajectory (not aimed at the moon).

The Joint Pacific Area Scheduling Office (JPASO) was established at Vandenberg AFB to centralize coordination and scheduling for all Department of Defense offensive/defensive ballistic missile tests.This was without regard to point of origin. Representatives from the Air Force Western Test Range, the Army's Kwajalein Missile Range (KMR), and the Navy's Pacific Missile Range (PMR) were the primary participants in the scheduling meetings.

Taking into account NASA and USAF comments on the draft proposals, and specification revisions, the teams of McDonnell Douglas/Martin Marrietta and North American Rockwell/General Dynamics made their final proposals under shuttle Phase B contracts. Based on the strict specifications of NASA, the low cross-range and high-cross range versions of the orbiter stages were similar. The associate contractors provided considerably different winged booster stage designs. One common feature was the use of aluminium structures and non-metallic thermal protection systems. In late 1969 the USAF had indicated a preference for all-aluminium structures in the shuttle due to a titanium shortage. This requirement forced a move to non-metallic thermal protection systems, which at the time it was thought would weigh 15% less but cost 300% more. Thermal protection shingles for a titanium structure would weigh 2300 to 4500 kg less, but an aluminium structure would weight about 1800 kg more - meaning there was no essential weight difference between the two approaches. Therefore at the aluminium structure was accepted as a specification requirement. In retrospect it could hardly have been necessary to apply this requirement on a project where only a few flight vehicles were be built. It made the shuttle much more vulnerable to any breach of heat shield integrity and would lead to the death of the Columbia crew 35 years later. The resulting need for a non-metallic thermal protection system would also have enormous cost and schedule consequences for the actual program.

The launch of DOS#1 is set for 15-20 April. The first crew will launch three days later on a thirty-day mission. 25 days after they return to earth the second crew will be launched. That crew will stay aboard for 30 to 45 days. The spaceships and crews are declared ready for both missions.

Test of Block D stage in geosynchronous satellite delivery role. Placed dummy Raduga satellite in geosynchronous orbit. As of 4 September 2001 located at 44.61 deg E drifting at 1.835 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 119.66E drifting at 1.819E degrees per day.

Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Americas at 119 deg W in 1976-1984 over the Pacific Ocean 139 deg W in 1984-1985 As of 5 September 2001 located at 72.03 deg W drifting at 5.939 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 127.82W drifting at 5.942W degrees per day.

As of 30.01.94 this freighter occupied the aft (Kvant-1) docking port of the complex. To enable the new freighter, Progress-M22, to dock to that port Progress-M21 had to disappear. On 23.03.94 at 0118 UTC Progress-M21 undocked and flew its last flight as an independent satellite until 0432 UTC. At 0432 UTC Progress-M21's engine gave an impulse to bring her back in the atmosphere. Consequently she burnt up and decayed over the Pacific a few minutes later. Progress-M21 had no ballistic return capsule on board.

Progress-M22 docked to the Mir-space station:

Progress-M22 docked to the aft (Kvant-1) docking port of the complex on 24.03.94 at 0639 UTC. The docking took place just after LOS of Mir and Progress-M22 for my position. During the pass before the docking Mir's radio traffic on 143.625mc and Progress-M22's beacon on 922.755mc could be heard. Afanasyev reported data about the approach: the final approach, distance 59 M, approach speed 0.3M/sec, etc. Already during the next pass (orb. 46281, 0803 UTC) the hatch to Progress-M22 had been opened. Inside Progress-M22 all was clean and the crew -as always- enjoyed the nice smell of apples. Progress-M22 delivered to the complex food, water, fuel, post, spare parts and equipment for the maintenance of Mir's systems and additional equipment to be used by Dr. Polyakov for his medical experiments. If the Russians stick to the original schedule Progress-M22 will have to leave the aft docking port on 19.05.94 to enable her successor Progress-M23 to dock on 20.05.94. Progress-M22 does not have a VBK on board; Progress-M23 will carry a VBK.

Baykonur: As of 22.03.94 Russian and Kazakhstan politicians and experts are gathered in Moscow for negotiations on a draft agreement about the right of Russia to use the cosmodrome Baykonur. Thus far it was impossible to reach consonance about the amount of money for the rent and the compensation for ecological damages caused by soviet space-activities over some decades. Russians are considering the possibility to reconstruct the base for ICBM's near Svobodnyy (East Siberiya, 51degr24min N, 128degr07min E.) into a cosmodrome to replace Baykonur. Yuriy Semyonov, Head of NPO 'Energiya', is against this idea: in his opinion Russia will loose its place as a leading space-power if Russia abandons Baykonur. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202

A mysterious signal hit one of the transmitters aboard the Apstar-1 telecommunications satellite on March 14, disrupting more than 400 securities companies' communications, cutting off service to more than 10 million pager users in China, and affecting China's earthquake monitoring systems. Technicians ruled out a problem with the satellite and tests showed the interference was earth-based. Service was restored to most users of the satellite by switching them to other channels. Apstar-1, the first comsat of Hong Kong based APT Satellite Holdings, was launched in 1994 by a Long March 3.

Meteorology / Ionosphere Mission. Failed and landed near a village in an unplanned area of western Kazakhstan; launches within Kazakhstan have been suspended pending the accident investigation. The MN-300/MR-30 sounding rocket system had a nominal apogee of 300 km, and given the range achieved probably attained a comparable height this time despite the failure.