In a paper presented to the British Interplanetary Society, H. E. Ross described a manned satellite station in Earth orbit that would serve as an astronomical and zero-gravity and vacuum research laboratory. (Ross' bold suggestions also included schemes for a manned landing on the Moon and return to Earth through use of the rendezvous technique in Earth orbit and about the Moon.) Ross' suggested design comprised a circular structure that housed the crew of the space laboratory (numbering 24 specialists and support personnel) as well as telescopes and research equipment. The station, he suggested, could be resupplied with oxygen and other life-support essentials by supply ships launched every three months.

A paper read to the British Interplanetary Society by H. E. Ross described a manned lunar landing mission which would require a combination of the earth orbit and lunar orbit rendezvous techniques. Three spacecraft would be launched simultaneously into earth orbit, each carrying a pilot. After rendezvous, the crew would transfer to ship A, which would refuel from ships B and C. Ship C would be discarded completely, but ship B would be fueled with the surplus not needed by A. The spacecraft would then be fired into a translunar trajectory. Upon reaching the vicinity of the moon, the spacecraft would go into lunar orbit, detach fuel tanks, and descend to the lunar surface. To return to earth, the spacecraft would rendezvous with the fuel tanks, refuel, and fire into a transearth trajectory. On approaching the earth, the spacecraft would rendezvous with ship B, the crew would transfer to ship B, and descend to earth. The ability to rendezvous in space was seen to be the essential element of such a project. The total payload weight at launch would be 1,326 tons equally divided among the three ships as compared to 2.6 times this weight required for a direct ascent and return from the moon.

Major General B. A. Schriever, Commander of Air Force Ballistic Missile Division directed preparation of a plan for a 10 15 year program leading to development of man carrying vehicle systems for space exploration. A preliminary plan for an orderly space development effort and ultimate manned flight had, in fact, already been prepared and awaited presentation to General S. E. Anderson, Commander of Air Research and Development Command. The plan envisioned manned space flight with a minimum of new development through the use of existing knowledge, experimental programs, missile-boosters, and facilities available throughout the command. (Memo, Col L. D. Ely, Dir Tech Divs, Weapon Systems, AFBMD, to Col C. H. Terhune, Dep Cmdr, Weapon Systems, AFBMD, 13 Dec 57, subj: Manned Space Flight Program; Cmdrs Reference Book, Chronology of Man in Space Effort, 23 Mar 59, prep by AFBMD.)

The booster functioned well, and the cruise stage separated at 20.4 km altitude and Mach 3.24. The ramjets ignited, but before the ground knew that, the telemetry dropped out completely due to a faulty voltage regulator on the missile. Range safety ordered the missile's self destruction at T+75 seconds.

Space Systems Division accepted the first Titan III engine from Aerojet-General at its Sacramento facilities. The first and second stage liquid engines, 430,000 and 100,000 pounds of thrust respectively, were for the Titan IIIA vehicle that would test the basic center core configuration (Stages 1 and 2) of the eventual Titan IIIC vehicle.

A 250-ton, 120-inch diameter, solid-propellant rocket motor was static test fired for 110 seconds as part of the Air Force's Titan III standard launch vehicle research and development program. Two of the 120-inch motors were to be attached to a Titan II liquid-propellant core vehicle to form the Titan IIIC space booster (SLV-5C). This test firing was important because it was the first test of the booster's flight instrumentation and the newly designed ablative nozzle-throat that replaced the former carbon throat.

The first Saturn V and Surveyor 6 have been launched by the Americans. Kamanin catalogues why the Americans are beating them: bad organisation, on the parts of Ustinov, Smirnov, Pashkov, Malinovskiy, and Grechko; technical errors and an undisciplined approach to the fulfilment of government decrees concerning the Soyuz and N1 on the parts of Chief Designers Korolev and Mishin; lack of coordination between the institutes and design bureaux compared to the United States; and finally, the Americans are spending several times more money than has been dedicated to the Soviet space program.

Tracking of the L1 shows it will hit the earth on return, but without a further midcourse correction the perigee will be 200 km instead of the 45 km required. Therefore another correction will be needed on the way back from the moon. Ustinov calls a meeting and asks 'How do we answer Apollo 8?'. The reply of Mishin and Tyulin is that 'we are not ready to answer Apollo 8. Apollo 8 is a high-risk adventure. The Americans have not accomplished any unmanned lunar flybys to demonstrate that their systems will function correctly; and of only two Saturn V flight tests to date, the second was a failure. We need to make the L1 program public to show the seriousness and completeness of Soviet readiness'. Ustinov orders the following plan be carried out in the next two months: in December, one unmanned L1 flight, and the first launch of the N1 with an L3 mock-up. In January 1969, a lunar flyby with two cosmonauts; a Lunokhod robot rover will be placed on the lunar surface; and a dual Soyuz manned flight with 1+3 crewmembers. Kamanin notes that the problem with the technical approach of Korolev and Mishin is that cosmonauts are seen only as observers and back-ups to automated systems. Therefore the whole manned space program is based on a false assumption. Because of this the Soviets have lost 2-3 years in the space race, which would have been saved if they had followed the Gemini/Apollo 'pilot in the loop' approach. Afterwards Mishin meets with the L1 cosmonaut group. He wants to get rid of the on-board flight plan and reduce the manual for operation of the spacecraft to one page. 'Don't want to bring bureaucracy aboard the spacecraft' he says. This completely absurd idea again demonstrates his belief in total reliance on automated systems.

Russian physician cosmonaut, 2003-2018. Worked at IMBP, in the post of senior scientific researcher at the "Sensomotornoy, Fiziology i Profilaktiky" department. Cosmonaut training 16 June 2003 - 27 June 2005. 2 spaceflights, 305.0 days in space. Flew to orbit on Soyuz TMA-10M (2013), Soyuz MS-05.

The freighter P-M25 docked at Mir's aft (Kvant-1) docking port on 13.11.94 at 0904 UTC (during orb. 49926). The approach and docking took place in the automatic mode by the system Kurs. On board Soyuz-TM20 Viktorenko was standby with the system TORU, but manual interference was not necessary. The operation could be monitored via Altair between 0822 and 0904 UTC. During the next pass (orb. 49927, 1027 UTC) the gentlemen on board left the honour to give the first post-docking report to Yelena Kondakova. Enthusiastically she reported the airseal, the opening of the hatch, the fact that Progress-M25 was clean and that they enjoyed the nice smell of apples and lemons. Polyakov said that the Progress-M25 was an ideal freighter.

Progress-M25 delivered to the Mir-station new supplies of water, fuel, food, spare parts for repair (among which parts for the furnace to be used for the conclusion of the Euromir94 materials processing experiments) and post. Progress-M25 has not been equipped by a VBK (Ballistic Return Capsule).

Jubilees: In the early morning of 18.11.94 Mir -that is to say the first part, the base block, launched on 19.02.1986- will make her 50000th orbit around the Earth. From that early beginning I tried to monitor as much as possible all passes within range. If I was a robot and had been able to monitor all passes this number would be 12500. But not being a robot I needed holidays etc. Nevertheless at a rough estimation I must have been monitoring Mir's radio traffic during 10000 passes. Homage to my poor ear-drums!

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

Provided C and Ku-band communications services for GE Americom, replacing Spacenet 4. Stationed at 101 deg W. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 74 deg W in 1999. As of 5 September 2001 located at 101.12 deg W drifting at 0.008 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 101.02W drifting at 0.004W degrees per day.

The test vehicle, dubbed Goddard, lifted off and landed vertically, and reached 90 m altitude. The launch, delayed twice for winds, came at the end of a three-day FAA-approved window. Video and pictures issued indicated that the test vehicle was a subscale (about 84%) version of the final manned vehicle; and that it used a hydrogen peroxide monopropellant rocket engines in place of the hydrogen peroxide/kerosene engines planned for the production vehicle.