The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics established a Special Committee on Space Technology to study and delineate problem areas that must be solved to make space flight a practical reality and to consider and recommend means for attacking these problems. Dr. H. Guyford Stever of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was named chairman.

The Rocket and Satellite Research Panel recommended the creation of a National Space Establishment in the Executive Branch of the Government. According to the proposal, activities of this agency would be under civilian leadership, and the organization would be charged with formulating and supervising a space research program. An annual budget of $1 billion for a period of 10 years was recommended.

This unmanned mission was unsuccessful because premature cut-off of the launch vehicle engines activated the emergency escape system when the vehicle was only about 1 inch off the pad. Engine cut-off was caused by premature loss of electrical ground power to the booster. The launch vehicle settled back on the pad with only slight damage. Since the spacecraft received a cut-off signal, the escape tower and recovery sequence was initiated. The undamaged spacecraft was recovered for reuse.

The cosmonauts are to depart on a Far East tour on 27 November, but scheduling is difficult because Sukarno calls to change the dates for Indonesia nearly daily. Kamanin develops four variant scenarios. The cosmonauts are to visit Sri Lanka, Burma, and Indonesia.

The first flight rocket (serial number 22701) began assembly on 21 November 1966, with mechanical assembly completed by 29 November. Electrical connections and tests were completed by 4 December 1966. Due to New Year's holidays work did not resume until 28 January 1967. By 28 February the fully assembled booster / spacecraft unit was completed in the MIK, including the 7K-L1P boilerplate spacecraft.

The previous launch date of 25 November has been pushed back to January 1969. The N1 has completed a good cycle of ground tests, but work on the L3 has not even begun. There is no news when it will be ready. The L3 plan called for the first article to be ready in March 1968. 20 cosmonauts from the L1 and Soyuz groups were to have trained on the spacecraft. But MOM never issued the implementation plan to the industrial enterprises to begin work on the spacecraft.

At 3:49 p.m. EST November 21, the crew fired the service propulsion system engine, injecting the CSM into a transearth trajectory after 89 hours 2 minutes in lunar orbit. During the transearth coast, views of the receding moon and the interior of the spacecraft were televised, and a question and answer session with scientists and the press was conducted. Additional Details: here....

Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Launch vehicle put payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit Positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Pacific Ocean at 174 deg E in 1974-1982; over the Pacific Ocean 179 deg E in 1982; over the Atlantic Ocean 1 deg W in 1983-1985 As of 1 September 2001 located at 139.80 deg W drifting at 1.762 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 61.11W drifting at 1.754W degrees per day.

The government decree 1006-323 set out the development plan. The flight test plan was for first launch of the booster in 1983, with the payload being an unmanned OK-ML-1 mock-up of the orbiter. This would not have a heat shield and remain attached to the booster. A second mock-up, OK-ML-2, would be used on the second launch, but be separated from the vehicle after burnout. However it would also be without heat shield, and be expended. The first flight Buran was to fly unpiloted in 1984. Manned flights were to be routine by the 1987 seventieth anniversary of the Soviet Union.

Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 12 deg W in 1980-1981; 131 deg W in 1981-1983; 179 deg W in 1983; 175 deg E in 1983-1989;179 deg W in 1989-1993 As of 3 September 2001 located at 21.08 deg E drifting at 16.828 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 37.50W drifting at 16.828W degrees per day.

Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 66 deg E in 1980-1981; 12 deg W in 1981-1986; 179 deg W in 1986-1990; 174 deg E in 1990; 65 deg E in 1991-1994 As of 31 August 2001 located at 27.01 deg W drifting at 6.916 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 50.79E drifting at 6.926W degrees per day.

West German communications; solar panel failed to deploy making spacecraft unusable. Because of a malfunction of the solar generator, the satellite is being used only for technical tests. Geostationary position 19 W. Launch by Ariane-2 flight no. 20. Due to a malfunction of the solar generator, TV-SAT 1 was taken out of commission and sen t to a so-called parking orbit beyond the geostationary orbit. Semi-major axis 42485.605 km. Eccentricity 0.00116. Inc 0.716, Arg of perigee 216.66, RA 76.77, Mean anomaly 47.1 Mean drift -4.071 deg/day, E long 350.617, latitude -0.713. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 18 deg W in 1988 As of 5 September 2001 located at 76.53 deg W drifting at 4.886 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 169.62W drifting at 4.874W degrees per day.

Orbit correction: On 17.11.93 during orbit 44300 the engines of Progress-M20 corrected the orbit of the Mir-complex: Ap/per now 395.3/388.2 KM.

Decay of Progress-M20 and safe landing return capsule on 21.11.93:

Undocking of Progress-M20 from Mir at 0236 UTC. Progress-M20 jettisoned the VBK (return capsule) at 0850 UTC. Progress-M20 entered dense layers of the atmosphere at 0851 UTC and decayed. The VBK safely landed not far from Orsk at 0903 UTC. Orsk is a town just north of the border with Kazakhstan. The VBK itself landed just inside Kazakhstans territory. So possibly Russia will have to pay Kazakhstan import duties for the VBK and the cargo.

VBK's cargo:

The cargo mainly consisted of 2 American containers with experiments: The first one is the experiment TREK, which had been installed outside Mir from 4.04.91. This experiment registered particles of super-heavy elements in the cosmic radiation. The 2d American experiment was the grow of biological crystals delivered by the firm Boeing. The VBK brought back to earth some Russian experiments: 2 videocassettes with images made during the survey experiment Panorama, an experiment with Ultraviolet in the earth's atmosphere, a sample of thermo-insulation material exposed to open space and a lot of negative-films.

Progress-M21: It is still unknown when this freighter will be launched for a flight to Mir. This freighter is badly needed, especially for a supply of fresh oxygen. The last days the crew is complaining about problems with the air pressure and oxygen, which cause respiration problems (dry nostrils and throat).

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

Geostationary at 13.0E. Launch vehicle put payload into supersynchronous earth orbit with IFR/MRS trajectory option. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 13 deg E in 1997-1999 As of 3 September 2001 located at 12.95 deg E drifting at 0.024 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 4 located at 13.07E drifting at 0.011E degrees per day.

The International Space Station's Zarya module completed a first day in orbit early this morning as flight controllers at Mission Control in Korolev, Russia, continued checks of the module's systems and fired an engine to begin raising its orbit to the planned altitude for a rendezvous by the Space Shuttle Endeavour on Dec. 6. Additional Details: here....

First use of a Delta dual payload attach fitting. The Earth Orbiter 1 satellite was part of NASA's New Millenium Program. Complementing the New Millenium's Deep Space series, EO-1 was a NASA-Goddard satellite which demonstrated technology for the next generation Landsat. It flew in formation with Landsat-7 for comparison purposes, using a hydrazine thruster to adjust its orbit. The satellite used a MIDEX-derived bus built by Swales Aerospace; dry mass was 566 kg. The main instruments were ALI (Advanced Land Imager) and the Hyperion 220-band imaging spectrometer. At 1835 GMT the Delta second stage completed its first burn and entered a 185 x 713 km x 98.2 deg transfer orbit. At 1920 GMT the orbit was circularised and EO-1 separated at 1925 GMT into a 682 x 729 km x 98.2 deg orbit.

Heaviest Ariane 4 payload ever. Anik F1 was a Telesat Canada communications satellite. The Boeing model 702 satellite had a launch mass of 4852 kg and a dry mass of 2950 kg. It carried 36 C-band and 48 Ku-band transponders. As of 3 September 2001 located at 107.30 deg W drifting at 0.006 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 107.29W drifting at 0.000W degrees per day.

The small 6 kg Munin nanosatellite was built by Swedish students in collaboration with the Swedish Insitute for Space Physics (IRF) and carried a particle detector, a spectrometer, and an auroral camera. After deployment of EO-1 and SAC-C a fourth burn put the Delta second stage in a 697 x 1800 km x 95.4 deg orbit, after which Munin was ejected from the stage.

The SAC-C Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas C was developed by the Argentine space agency CONAE and built by the Argentine company INVAP. The 467 kg satellite carried a battery of earth observing instruments for Argentine forestry and agriculture studies. SAC-C also carried a NASA experiment which used the distortion of GPS signals observed near the horizon to derive atmospheric conditions. The DPAF dual payload support structure, derived from Ariane's SPELDA, was ejected after deployment of the EO-1 satellite from the Delta stage to reveal SAC-C. After a further Delta burn SAC-C was ejected at 1955 GMT into a 687 x 707 km x 98.3 deg orbit.

During their 103rd day aboard the International Space Station, Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin Wednesday began activation of the Progress unpiloted supply vehicle in preparation for its undocking. Additional Details: here....

FE-1 Yuri Malenchenko started his workday with Part 1 of a software test of the Russian data telemetry system's MKO multiplex exchange channel, via BSR-TM payload data telemetry and the 4PrNP-6 data gathering application of the BITS2-12 Onboard Telemetry Measurement System. Additional Details: here....

Communications satellites for SpaceQuest; part of a constellation of small LEO satellites for global fixed and mobile asset tracking. Also carried an AIS (Automatic Identification System) receiver monitor naval vessel locations. Dnepr rocket launched from an ICBM silo at Yasniy in Russia placed a cluster of 24 satellites in orbit on on a single launch. Although this was fewer than the ORS-3 launch the day before, if nanosats ejected later are counted, the single launch put 33 payloads in orbit.

Technology satellite for the University of Rome. It carried a further eight tiny satellites within it, and one of those (PUCP-Sat) carried a further nested satellite, Pocket-PUCP. Most of the subsatellites were ejected from Unisat-5 between 08:10 and 08:25 GMT on November 21.

Satellite built by KAIST of South Korea, with the MIRIS infrared astronomy experiment (an 8 cm telescope operating at 0.9-2 microns with a 4 degree field of view for spectroscopy of diffuse extended emission), as well as earth imaging and technology payloads.

Second launch of the Chinese 2nd Artillery's operationally responsive Kuaizhou (Swift Boat) launch vehicle with a military payload. Kuaizhou 1 was launched to a similar sun synchronous orbit with 11:00 local time of the descending node in September 2013; after regular maintenance burns for a year, during October 2014 Kuaizhou 1's orbit was raised to 365 x 390 km. Kuaizhou-2 was in a sun synchronous orbit; 1300 GMT local time of the descending node.