The First Symposium on Space Flight was held at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Participants included Wernher von Braun, Joseph Kaplan, Heinz Haber, Willy Ley, Oscar Schachter, and Fred L. Whipple. Among the topics discussed were an orbiting astronomical observatory, problems of survival in space, circumlunar flight, a manned orbiting space station, and the question of sovereignty in outer space.

Design of the manned Mars flyby spacecraft had involved nearly all sections of Korolev's OKB-1. Those who worked on the TMK included A I Dylnev, A K Algypov, A A Kochkin, A A Dashkov, V N Kubasov, V E Bugrov, and N N Protacov. Kubasov would be selected as a cosmonaut in 1966.

The day before the overthrow of his patron, Chelomei obtained permission to begin development of a larger military space station, the Almaz. This 20 tonne station would take three cosmonauts to orbit in a single launch of his UR-500K Proton rocket. Therefore there were now two competing projects for the same mission - Almaz and Soyuz-R. First flight of the Almaz, with a one year operational period, was set for 1968.

The U.S.S.R. launched the world's first multi-manned spacecraft, Voskhod I, the first to carry a scientist and a physician into space. The crew were Col. Vladimir Komarov, pilot; Konstantin Feoktistov, scientist; and Boris Yegorov, physician. Potentially dangerous modification of Vostok to upstage American Gemini flights; no spacesuits, ejection seats, or escape tower. One concession was backup solid retrorocket package mounted on nose of spacecraft. Seats mounted perpendicular to Vostok ejection seat position, so crew had to crane their necks to read instruments, still mounted in their original orientation. Tested the new multi-seat space ship; investigated the in-flight work potential and co-operation of a group of cosmonauts consisting of specialists in different branches of science and technology; conducted scientific physico-technical and medico-biological research. The mission featured television pictures of the crew from space.

Coming before the two-man Gemini flights, Voskhod 1 had a significant worldwide impact. In the United States, the "space race" was again running under the green flag. NASA Administrator James E. Webb, commenting on the spectacular, called it a "significant space accomplishment." It was, he said, "a clear indication that the Russians are continuing a large space program for the achievement of national power and prestige." Additional Details: here....

On August 26, the attachments for the pilot parachute mortar had failed during static testing on CM 006. The fittings had been redesigned and the test was not repeated. This test, the final one in the limit load series for the earth landing system, certified the structural interface between the CM and the earth landing system for the 009 flight.

Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips told Mark E. Bradley, Vice President and Assistant to the President of The Garrett Corp., that "the environment control unit, developed and produced by Garrett's AiResearch Division under subcontract to North American Aviation for the Apollo spacecraft was again in serious trouble and threatened a major delay in the first flight of Apollo." Additional Details: here....

MSC Apollo Spacecraft Program Office Manager Joseph F. Shea reported that LM-1 would no longer be capable of both manned and unmanned flight and that it would be configured and checked out for unmanned flight only. In addition, LM-2 would no longer be capable of completely unmanned flight, but would be configured and checked out for partially manned flights, such as the planned AS-278A mission (with unmanned final depletion burn of the ascent stage) and AS-278B (with all main propulsions unmanned).

Ustinov calls Gagarin, Komarov, and Leonov to his office to discuss their long-unanswered letter to Brezhnev. He asks about cosmonaut training for Soyuz flights, and surprisingly, Voskhod 3 (long buried by Mishin, though no resolution or decision ever cancelled the mission). He urges the cosmonauts to stop quarrelling and work more closely with OKB-1. Kamanin judges from the report of this strange conversation that Ustinov has a completely distorted view of affairs, as a result of falsehoods fed to him by Mishin and Smirnov. Shortly after this debriefing General Kuznetsov calls with the surprising news that Mishin has issued orders for work to resume in preparing Voskhod 3 for flight. But this is the last that is ever heard of the Voskhod 3 mission...

Tested spacecraft systems and designs, manoeuvring of space craft with respect to each other in orbit, conducted scientific, technical and medico-biological experiments in group flight. Was to have docked with Soyuz 8 and transferred crew while Soyuz 6 took film from nearby. However failure of rendezvous electronics in all three craft due to a new helium pressurization integrity test prior to the mission did not permit successful rendezvous and dockings. Additional Details: here....

A Scout vehicle carrying a Transit Improvement Program payload was launched from SLC-5, Western Test Range. Launch was successful, but the solar panels of the satellite failed to deploy after the satellite had reached orbit. Prototype of improved Transit satellite. Tested pulsed plasma engine.

Stationed at 99 deg W. Spacecraft engaged in research and exploration of the upper atmosphere or outer space (US Cat B). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 97 deg W in 1990; 99 deg W in 1991-1994; 95 deg W in 1994-1995; 74 deg W in 1995-1999 As of 1 September 2001 located at 74.05 deg W drifting at 0.010 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 74.06W drifting at 0.011W degrees per day.

Geostationary at 99 deg W. Spacecraft engaged in research and exploration of the upper atmosphere or outer space (US Cat B). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 91 deg W in 1990-1991; 99 deg W in 1991-1993; 103 deg W in 1993-1994; 74 deg W in 1994-1998; 99 deg W in 1998-1999; 91 deg W in 2000.; 74 deg W in 2000. As of 5 September 2001 located at 73.96 deg W drifting at 0.015 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 14.62E drifting at 1.829W degrees per day.

Stationed at 33.5 deg E. Communication satellite. Longitude 33.5 deg E. Delta II flight no 212. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 31 deg E in 1992; 23 deg E in 1993-1999 As of 1 September 2001 located at 23.45 deg E drifting at 0.001 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 29.79E drifting at 1.955W degrees per day.

The launch of this freighter took place on 11.10.93 at 2133 UTC (for the Russians, using 'decree-time', already 12.10.93 0033 hrs). Progress-M20 reached the right initial orbit and the first corrections have been executed successfully. Progress-M20's transmissions in the 166, 165 and 922 bands could be monitored in the pass in the 2d orbit on 12.10.93 between 0035 and 0037 UTC. Progress-M20 has to deliver to the Mir-station spare parts, food, water, fuel and post. It contains also a package of experiments in the framework of Biokrist. These are protein-crystallisation experiments from several countries. One experiment is of Dr. Grip of the Faculty for Eye Surgery, University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands). A Biokrist container, including the same Dutch experiment, has been on board of the Mir-complex in the first 3 months of 1992. During the transport, after the skilful delivery on earth by the cosmonauts Volkov and Krikalyov, something went wrong due to extreme low temperatures and the results suffered damages. The present experiment will return to earth by the crew of this expedition in December 1993. In 2 days Progress-M20 will fly to Mir and if all goes well the freighter will dock to Mir on 13.10.93 at abt. 2316 UTC (so for the Russians already on 14.10.93, 0216 Msc decree-time).

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

The seven crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery spent their first full day in orbit today checking equipment in preparation for the major events to come: docking with the International Space Station on Friday and, in following days, attaching an exterior framework and additional Shuttle docking port to the orbiting outpost. Additional Details: here....

Moved up from October 13. Second Chinese manned space mission. The two-astronaut crew spent 5 days in space, and worked in the Shenzhou orbital module for the first time. Aside from biomedical experiments, the nature of their work was not divulged, and few images of the interior of the orbital module (with its probable military experiments) were released.