NASA announced the appointment of Joseph F. Shea as ASPO Manager effective October 22. He had been Deputy Director (Systems) in OMSF. George M. Low, OMSF Deputy Director (Programs), would direct the Systems office as well as his own. Robert O. Piland, Acting Manager of ASPO since April 3, resumed his former duties as Deputy Manager.
A test model of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, designed to simulate lunar landings, was flown by former NASA X-15 pilot Joseph Walker to an altitude of 91 m (300 ft). Built by Bell Aerosystems Company under contract to NASA, the research craft had a jet engine that supported five-sixths of its weight. The pilot manipulated solid-fuel lift rockets that supported the remaining one-sixth, and the craft's attitude was controlled with jets of hydrogen peroxide.
A drop in the boilerplate 6A series, using flight-qualifiable earth landing system (ELS) components, failed because the braking parachute (not a part of the ELS) did not adequately stabilize the vehicle. MSC invited North American and Northrop-Ventura to Houston to explain the failure and to recommend corrective measures.
Because of wind conditions, an abort of the Apollo spacecraft from a Saturn V in the near-pad region would result in land impact. To ensure the maximum potential safe recovery of the crew during a near-pad abort, certain forms of preparation within the abort area were being considered. Tests were being prepared at MSC and KSC to determine the most favorable soil condition for spacecraft landing. The capability of the spacecraft to sustain a land impact was also being investigated by MSC.
Kamanin takes General Efimov to see the roll-out of the Soyuz 6 booster. Mishin calls during the tour to ask that Volkov be switched with TsKBEM engineer Grechko on the Soyuz 7 crew. Kamanin refuses at this late date, noting in disgust Mishin is always pushing his staff for flight regardless of how it might affect the mission. Efimov is then taken to see the N1 MIK assembly building, the largest building in Europe. They view the construction of the 104-m-long booster's three stages. Next they go out to the pad, surveying the facility from 120 m up in one of the gantries. Kamanin muses that unless the N1 can be made reliable, the Russians will be 7 to 8 years behind the Americans in planetary and lunar exploration. Later the State Commission meets and fixes the launch schedule for the upcoming flights. Mishin does not raise the issue of Grechko flying to the commission. Shatalov is named commander of the entire three-spacecraft group flight.
First launch of a prototype for a new geosynchronous ballistic missile early warning satellite. Exploded in orbit. The next launch did not come until nine years later, so this may have been a version of the Oko elliptical orbit early warning satellite. As of 29 August 2001 located at 113.71 deg E drifting at 0.044 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 54.82E drifting at 0.255W degrees per day.
The only FSW-1 mission conducted during 1993-1994 was launched into an orbit of 209 km by 300 km at an inclination of 57.0 deg. In addition to an Earth observation Payload, FSW-1 5 carried microgravity research equipment and a diamond-studded medallion commemorating the 100th anniversary of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung's birth. The spacecraft operated normally until 16 October when an attempt to recover the satellite failed. An attitude control system failure aligned the spacecraft 90 deg from its desired position, causing the re-entry capsule to be pushed into a higher elliptical orbit (179 km by 3031 km) instead of returning to Earth. Natural decay did not bring the capsule back until March 12, 1996.
18 C-Band transponders. Stationed at 113.06 deg W. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 113 deg W in 1994-1999 As of 5 September 2001 located at 112.96 deg W drifting at 0.003 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 114.89W drifting at 0.001W degrees per day.
10 C-band, 2 Ku-band transponders. Stationed at 78.42 deg E. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 78 deg E in 1994-1999 As of 4 September 2001 located at 78.46 deg E drifting at 0.008 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 78.52E drifting at 0.005W degrees per day.
Unmanned resupply vessel to Mir. Launched into an initial 194 x 242 km x 51.7 deg orbit. Docked with Mir's rear of the Kvant module port on 10 Oct 1995 20:32:40 GMT (Soyuz TM-22 was docked to the front port). Undocked on 19 Dec 1995 09:15:05 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 19 Dec 1995 16:15:00 GMT. Total free-flight time 2.36 days. Total docked time 69.53 days.
As the end of its mission approaches, the Expedition 9 crew aboard the International Space Station prepared for the trip home by wrapping up science experiments and continuing maintenance operations of the vehicle. After spending six months onboard, the crew will greet its first visitors one week from today. Additional Details: here....
One first stage engine had an anomaly at max Q (T+1:20) with some debris observed falling away; the engine was shut down but the remaining engines and the second stage compensated to reach the initial orbit. However, extra propellant was used and stage two did not restart as planned. Nevertheless Dragon reached the ISS on 10 October and was captured by the station's SSRMS arm at 10:56 GMT and berthed to the Harmony module at 13:03 GMT. Following unloading of the cargo delivered to the ISS and loading of experimental results and failed equipment for return to earth, the SSRMS unberthed Dragon at 11:19 GMT on 28 October and released it at 13:29 GMT. At 14:22 GMT the Dragon made a burn to lower its orbit and at 18:28 GMT came the 10 minute 40 second long deorbit burn. The Dragon trunk was jettisoned at 18:41 GMT and the capsule reached entry interface at 19:02 GMT. Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean was at around 123 deg W 28 deg N at 19:22
The mission's secondary payload, the first Orbcomm Second Generation communications satellite, was sacrificed in order to allow the Dragon cargo ship to reach the ISS after a rocket engine failure in the booster during ascent to orbit. The OG2 was ejected at 01:37 GMT into a 203 km x 323 km orbit instead of its planned 350 km x 750 km insertion orbit. Orbcomm was not be able to get to the operational 750 km x 750 km orbit. Instead the satellite reentered at 06:19 GMT on 10 October after two days in space, probably over the Pacific west of Vancouver, Canada. An Orbcomm press release stated that they were able to test out the satellite's systems before the reentry.
The Atlas deployed two NRO satellites and a cluster of cubesats in orbit. Items listed as USA 264 and USA 264 'debris', thought to be a clandestine active payload, were deployed in a 1014 km x 1201 km x 63.4 deg orbit. The satellites were believed to be NRO/Navy signals intelligence satellites, the latest successors to the GRAB/POPPY series, and probably codenamed INTRUDER. Following deployment of the main payloads, the Centaur upper stage made two further burns to a 496 km x 800 km x 64.8 deg orbit and deployed the cubesats from GRACE, the fourth NPS Cubesat Launcher flown on an Atlas Aft Bulkhead Carrier.