Air Force Ballistic Missile Division received its first specific request from the civilian space agency to support a "preliminary research program leading to manned space flight." The division was requested to procure one Atlas C ballistic missile booster with its associated control and guidance equipment." '... This request was a forerunner of a support effort for a program "requiring approximately thirteen (13) ballistic missile boosters of the Thor and Atlas class."' The space agency would procure the payload, scheduled for May 1959 delivery. The missile division was to furnish detailed plans, subject to the approval of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for the design, construction and launching of this vehicle. One million dollars was immediately transferred to the Air Force with more money to be supplied as it was requested. (Msg, no cite number, Hq NASA, to Cmds. AFBMD, 25 Nov 58.)

Kamanin meets with Korolev at OKB-1. Korolev is opposed to the VVS getting out of manned space flight. The Air Force already has a good laboratory infrastructure to support such space flights. More to the point Korolev feels more at home working with pilots and is sick and tired of dealing with the artillery officers that run the rocket forces. He's been stuck with them for twenty years and its a constant stress. A resolution was issued for development of the Soyuz on 1 December. However Korolev needs 80 million roubles to build and fly four Soyuz spacecraft in 1964, but has only been allocated 30 million.

MSC was requested by NASA Hq. to take the following actions:

1. Delete all experiments assigned to AS-205.
2. Assign experiment M005 (Bioassays Body Fluid, modified version) to AS-205/208.
3. Assign experiment M006 (Bone Demineralization) to AS-205/208.
4. Assign experiment M011 (Cytogenic Blood Studies) to AS-205/208.
5. Assign experiment M023 (Lower-Body Negative Pressure) to AS-205/208.
6. Redesignate experiments assigned to AS-207/208 to AS-205/208.

George M. Low, Acting NASA Administrator, discussed the significance of unmanned lunar probes Luna XVI and XVII launched by the U.S.S.R. September 12 and November 10. Luna XVI had brought lunar samples back to earth and Luna XVII had landed an unmanned Lunokhod roving vehicle on the moon's surface. Low stated in a letter to Chairman Clinton P. Anderson of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences that while the two launches were impressive their contributions to science and technology were relatively minor. Low suggested that the main lesson to be learned from the two launches specifically and the U.S. and U.S.S.R. space programs in general was that while the Soviet launch rate was increasing that of the United States was decreasing. These trends in the two countries' space programs should be a cause of concern if the United States was interested in maintaining a position of leadership in space.

Biological research. Continued investigation of the effects of space flight on living organisms. Capsule recovered 52 deg 17 min N, 64 deg 11 min E. The Cosmos 782 mission marked the first time that the United States participated in the Soviet Cosmos Program. Scientists from France, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. participated in these investigations. Additional Details: here....

Investigation of the corpuscular and electromagnetic radiation of the sun and of solar plasma fluxes, study of the magnetic fields in circumterrestrial space in order to determine the effects of solar activity on the interplanetary medium and in the magne tosphere of the earth.

"Space - the final frontier" .

"This is the voyage of the Space Shuttle Atlantis - Its ten-day mission: To explore new methods of remote sensing and observation of the planet Earth - To seek out new data on radiation in space, and a new understanding of the effects of microgravity on the human body - To boldly go where two hundred and fifty-five men and women have gone before. Hello - Fred, Tom, Story, Jim, Tom, and especially Mario - This is Patrick Stewart, choosing not to outrank you as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, saying that we are confident of a productive and successful mission. Make it so". All this to the theme music of"Star Trek - the Next Generation" Capcom Marsha Ivins contacted actor Patrick Stewart to request the special wakeup call for Mario Runco, a big"Star Trek" fan.

Russian engineer cosmonaut 1965-1980. Graduated from Moscow Aviation Institute Soviet Air Force, liaising with aircraft industrial enterprises. Cosmonaut training November 1965 - December 1967. Worked at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Killed in an auto crash.

Flight controllers in Moscow continued to monitor the health of systems aboard the first component of the International Space Station as it passed within range of ground stations in Russia today, performing a standard check of two command relay electronics boxes and of the fire detection and suppression system. Additional Details: here....

Delayed from December 2001 and July 15, August 16 and 25. Astra 1K was to be a European (Luxembourg-based) geostationary communications spacecraft. The 5.0-ton, 13-kW spacecraft was the most massive of civilian communications spacecraft ever launched. Its 52 Ku-band and two Ka-band transponders could cover 1,100 channels and were to replace three earlier Astra satellites. However the DM-3 upper stage, after operating successfully to place itself and the satellite in parking orbit, failed to ignite for transfer orbit injection, leaving the spacecraft stranded in parking orbit. In an effort to prevent imminent re-entry, the spacecraft was raised to a circular orbit at an altitude of 290 km. Three options were considered: force re-entry over the Pacific Ocean; retrieval by a US shuttle; or use of all the fuel aboard the satellite to attempt to move it to a geostationary orbit at 19.2° E longitude. The decision was taken in December to deorbit the spacecraft, resulting in a huge insurance loss and bringing into question both continued use of the Block D series of upper stages and the 'bigger is better' comsat philosophy.

It made a 1.5 km flyby of ISS at 21:50 GMT on November 27 to test the new Kurs-NA rendezvous system, and then a re-rendezvous on November 29. A glitch forced a switch to manual TORU control for the last 60 m to docking with the Zvezda module at 22:30 GMT. Undocked from Zvezda on June 9 at 13:30 GMT and was deorbited the same day, with debris falling in the South Pacific around 17:23 GMT.