Batt. SS Abt. 500, Hellendoorn, Eelerburg, rocket fired. Having been dormant since March 20, this battery resumed operations for this one final launch. Impacted west of the Scheldt on Visserstraat, Burcht. One house demolished, seven others badly damaged. One person injured.

President Eisenhower gave his approval to the plans for outer space exploration announced by Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was to undertake several space projects including the launching of certain earth satellites and five space probes as a part of this country's contribution to the IGY program. The Air Force Ballistic Missile Division was authorized by ARPA to carry out three lunar probes with a Thor-Vanguard system, and lunar probes utilizing the Jupiter-C rocket were assigned to the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.

Cosmonauts Nelyubov, Anikeyev and Filatyev were arrested drunk and disorderly by the militia at Chkalovskiy station. This was not the first time. The VVS hierarchy wants them all dismissed from the cosmonaut corps. Gagarin says that only Filatyev should be fired. Kamanin would prefer to see all three go, but cannot afford to lose 25% of his flight-ready cosmonauts. He would hope to at least keep Nelyubov, who was a candidate for the third or fourth Vostok flights, but did not perform well on the centrifuge.

Test Series I on spacecraft 001 was completed at WSTF Propulsion Systems Development Facility. Vehicle and facility updating in progress consisted of activating the gimbal subsystem and installing a baffled injector and pneumatic engine propellant valve. The individual test operations were conducted satisfactorily, and data indicated that all subsystems operated normally. Total engine firing time was 765 seconds.

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 MiG trainer crash while requalifying for flight status. 1 spaceflight, 1.8 hours in space. Flew to orbit on Vostok 1 (1961). Gagarin was flying together with instructor pilot Sergin on a flight in a UTI MiG-15 trainer. Gagarin was being requalified as a jet pilot after being denied flight status by the leadership for a long time. At that time the mean flight hours between fatal accidents hours for Soviet jet fighters were: MiG-15, 18,440 hours; MiG-17, 11,460 hours; MiG-19, 4,475 hours; MiG-21, 4,422 hours; Su-7, 2,245 hours; Su-11, 2,100 hours. Gagarin's UTI MiG-15 s/n 612739 was built at the Vodokhod factory in Czechoslovakia and delivered on 19 March 1956. It had a 2100 hour airframe life, and had flown 1113 hours. It had two overhauls to date: one on 13 July 1962, after 13,834 'mil' hours, and the second on 30 March 1967, after 36,986 'mil' hours. It should have had a 500 hour life after the second overhaul, had flown only 62 hours since then, and had 438 hours left.

Mars flyby 5 August 1969; returned 126 images of Martian surface. Mariner 7 was launched on a direct-ascent trajectory to Mars 31 days after Mariner 6. On 8 April 1969 a midcourse correction was made by firing the hydrazine moter for 7.6 seconds. On 8 May Mariner 7 was put on gyro control to avoid attitude control problems which were affecting Mariner 6. On 31 July telemetry from Mariner 7 was suddenly lost and the spacecraft was commanded to switch to the low-gain antenna. It was later successfully switched back to the high-gain antenna. It was thought that leaking gases, perhaps from the battery which later failed a few days before encounter, had caused the anomaly.

At 09:32:33 GMT on 2 August 1969 Mariner 7 bagan the far-encounter sequence involving imaging of Mars with the narrow angle camera. Over the next 57 hours, ending about 5 hours before closest approach, 93 images of Mars were taken and transmitted. The spacecraft was reprogrammed as a result of analysis of Mariner 6 images. The new sequence called for the spacecraft to go further south than originally planned, take more near-encounter pictures, and collect more scientific data on the lighted side of Mars. Data from the dark side of Mars were to be transmitted directly back to Earth but there would be no room on the digital recorder for backup due to the added dayside data. At closest approach, 05:00:49 GMT on 5 August, Mariner 7 was 3430 km above the martian surface. Over this period, 33 near-encounter images were taken. About 19 minutes after the flyby, the spacecraft went behind Mars and emerged roughly 30 minutes later. X-band occultation data were taken during the entrance and exit phases. Science and imaging data were played back and transmitted over the next few days. The spacecraft was then returned to cruise mode which included engineering and communications tests, star photography TV tests, and UV scans of the Milky Way and an area containing comet 1969-B. Periodic tracking of the spacecraft in its heliocentric orbit was also done.

Science Results

The total data return for Mariners 6 and 7 was 800 million bits. Mariner 7 returned 93 far and 33 near encounter images. Close-ups from the near encounter phases covered 20% of the surface. The spacecraft instruments measured UV and IR emissions and radio refractivity of the Martian atmosphere. Images showed the surface of Mars to be very different from that of the Moon, in some contrast to the results from Mariner 4. The south polar cap was identified as being composed predominantly of carbon dioxide. Atmospheric surface pressure was estimated at between 6 and 7 mb. Radio science refined estimates of the mass, radius and shape of Mars.

Venus atmospheric probe. The spacecraft took 117 days to reach Venus, entering the atmosphere on 22 July 1972. Descent speed was reduced from 41,696 km/hr to about 900 km/hr by aerobraking. The 2.5 meter diameter parachute opened at an altitude of 60 km, and a refrigeration system was used to cool the interior components. Venera 8 transmitted data during the descent and continued to send back data for 50 minutes after landing. The probe confirmed the earlier data on the high Venus surface temperature and pressure returned by Venera 7, and also measured the light level as being suitable for surface photography, finding it to be similar to the amount of light on Earth on an overcast day.

Unmanned supply vessel for Salyut 6. Delivery of various cargoes to the Salyut-6 orbital station. Docked with Salyut 6 on 29 Mar 1980 20:01:00 GMT. Undocked on 25 Apr 1980 08:04:00 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 26 Apr 1980 06:54:00 GMT. Total free-flight time 3.0 days. Total docked time 26.50 days.

Phobos 2 operated nominally throughout its cruise and entered Mars orbit on January 29, 1989. Contact with the vehicle was lost on March 27, 1989 shortly before the final phase of the mission during which the spacecraft was to approach within 50 meters of Phobos' surface and release its two landers. The cause of the failure was determined to be a malfunction of the on-board computer.

Progress-M38 has been regularly used to support the attitude control of the Mir-complex. The crew had to cope with problems with the a.c. (BKV-3) and a cooling loop. The Elektron oxygen generator in the Kvant-1 module could not be used continuously due to a power supply problem. The crew accomplished the repair of the BMP (trace contaminants removal unit).

The crew asked TsUP to reduce the number of communication sessions via VHF channels, for instance those via the tracking stations in the USA. They regularly had to interrupt their activities in other modules and had to go to the Central Post. They preferred to have not more than 1 session every 3 hours. The head of TsUP, Solovyov, who was about to go on leave, had another opinion. Possibly there is a compromise: the facilities in the USA (Wallops, White Sands and Dryden) might mainly be used by Andy Thomas.

During a lot of long TV-sessions via Altair-2 much attention was dedicated to the 2nd anniversary of the permanent presence of an American astronaut on board Mir. There also was a session with Spain in which the crew congratulated BMW. Musabayev said that he would be very pleased to take a seat behind the steering wheel of one of their new models.

There have been a lot of extensive medical checks, for instance E.C.G.-s during physical exercises. Musabayev told TsUP where he and Budarin use to sleep: Budarin near the porthole at the end of module Priroda, which also was the sleeping place of Vinogradov. M. himself sleeps in his cabin in the Base Block, but when it is too hot over there he moves to the SO (docking compartment) of module Kristall.

Musabayev now and then presses TsUP to review the work planning. In a conversation with TsUP Budarin said the complex is used below its value. This is irritating for the crew: things have not been completed in time.

Forthcoming spacewalks (EVA's):

The first EVA will take place on 1.04.1998 between 1320 and 1910 UTC. To be sure that the hatch can be opened without problems Musabayev and Budarin will have to accomplish repair works on the locks of the hatch. If all went according to plan they did this today (Friday, 27.03.1998). The 2nd and 3rd EVA are provisionally planned for 6 and 11.04.1998.

Some remarks:

1. The present bad health of my wife might have a negative effect on my monitoring and reporting of Mir-operations in the near future.

2. A number of my E-mail relations still use my old E-mail address. Thus far E-mails with the old address seem to reach me, but this will not last for ever. So please, if you still use that old address correct this in: cmvdberg@wxs.nl

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

The second X-43 launch incorporated modifications to the first flight vehicle, including an upgraded control system, redesigned autopilot, off-loaded rocket motor, and improved analytical models. The second flight was launched at 12,200 m instead of the 7600 m altitude of the failed first launch to reduce transonic aerodynamic loads and improve structural and control system margins. An offloaded Orion 50S solid rocket motor reduced maximum dynamic pressure during the flight. Air dropped in Point Arguello WADZ.

Docked with the Poisk module of the ISS at 5 hours 50 minutes after launch. Padalka was the commander, and Kelly and Kornienko were part of a long-duration crew that would spend nearly a year aboard the space station. On 28 August Padalka, Kelly and Kornienko flew Soyuz TMA-16M from the Poisk to Zvezda docking ports. Undocking from Poisk was at 07:12 GMT and docking with Zvezda was at 07:30 GMT. This freed the Poisk port for the TMA-18M arrival, and freed Zvezda for a refuelling spacecraft once TMA-16M returned to Earth. ISS EO- 44 concluded when Soyuz TMA-16M undocked from the Zvezda aft port at 21:29 GMT on 11 September, carrying Expedition 44 commander Padalka and EP-18 visiting crew members Mogensen and Aimbetov. Soyuz TMA-16M landed in Kazakhstan at 00:51:36 GMT on 12 September.