Battery 444 or Batt. 485, Wassenaar, Beukenhorst, A-4 rocket fired rises about 90-meters, then falls back onto launch site killing 12 German soldiers, damaging launch vehicles and equipment. This was the worst firing site accident that the Germans had during the the Hague/Wassenaar launch period. The Beukenhorst was cleared.

A special Committee on Life Sciences was established at Langley to determine qualifications and attributes required of personnel to be selected for America's first manned space flight and to give advice on other human aspects of the manned satellite program.

Space Task Group (STG), assisted by George M. Low, NASA Assistant Director for Space Flight Operations, and Warren J. North of Low's office, prepared a project summary presenting a program of manned spaceflight for 1963-1965. This was the final version of the Project Development Plan, work on which had been initiated August 14. Additional Details: here....

Secretary of Defense McNamara announced that progress of the Administration's accelerated defense buildup made unnecessary the use of additional defense funds appropriate by the Congress above the amount requested by the administration. The Congress had voted $514.5 million for additional long-range bombers; $180 million additional for the B-70; and $85.8 million additional for Dyna-Soar.

Largest known rocket launch to date, the Saturn I 1st stage booster, successful on first test flight from Atlantic Missile Range. With its eight clustered engines developing almost 1.3 million pounds of thrust at launch, the Saturn (SA-1) hurled waterfilled dummy upper stages to an altitude of 84.8 miles and 214.7 miles down range. In a postlaunch statement, Administrator Webb said: "The flight today was a splendid demonstration of the strength of our national space program and an important milestone in the buildup of our national capacity to launch heavy payloads necessary to carry out the program projected by President Kennedy on May 25.".

NASA announced the appointment of Major General Samuel C. Phillips as Director of the Apollo Program. Phillips thus assumed part of the duties of George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator of Manned Space Flight, who had been serving as Apollo Director as well. Phillips had been Deputy Director since January 15.

Russian physician cosmonaut 1996-2016. Russian Air Force; MD from Moscow Sergei M. Kirov Military Medicine Academy, 1980 . Worked in the TsPK, medical department. 526 cumulative days in space. 3 spaceflights, 526.2 days in space. Flew to orbit on Soyuz TMA-10 (2007), Soyuz TMA-17, Soyuz TMA-10M.

DF-2A launched with a 1290 kg, 12 kt warhead from Jiuquan flew over a range of 800 km to Lop Nor, where the warhead successfully exploded. The Ninth Academy was responsible for development of the nuclear package. Tsien protégé Guo Yonghuai was the liaison between the Fifth and Ninth Academies for the development.

Docked with Cosmos 188; first automated rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft. The dockings were timed to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution (in lieu of a succession of manned space feats that all had to be cancelled due to schedule delays). Achieved automatic rendezvous on second attempt. Capture achieved but hard docking and electric connections unsuccessful due to misallignment of spacecraft. Star tracker failed and had to make a high-G ballistic re-entry. Recovered October 31, 1967 08:20 GMT.

He can't understand why Beregovoi couldn't dock. Beregovoi seems garbled. The cabin atmosphere is all right. He is ordered to orient the spacecraft to the sun - which he accomplishes readily with minimum propellant expenditure. The Soyuz 2 45K star sensor is not functioning - 'as usual' notes Kamanin.

Kamanin assigns cosmonauts to upcoming foreign propaganda tours. Beregovoi and Feoktistov are to go to the United States, Tereshkova to Hungary, Popovich to France, Khrunov to Odessa. Titov will not be given this privilege because of his numerous automobile accidents, run-ins with the militia, and motorcycle habit.

Stationed at 24.5 deg E. At the time, the Intelsat 6 series were the largest commercial spacecraft ever built. The series were also the first commercial satellites to employ Satellite Switched/Time Division Multiple Access (SS/TDMA) techniques. Spacecraft: Based on Hughes 393 bus. Spin stabilised with despun antenna. Hydrazine propulsion system. Passive thermal control. Telescoping dual-cylinder structure with deployed antennas. Body mounted solar cells generate 2250 W (EOL). Solar drums are each about 6m tall. Payload: 38 (plus 12 backup) C-Band and 10 (plus 4 backup) Ku-Band transponders.120,000 telephone calls and 3 colour TV broadcasts simultaneously. SS/TDMA (Satellite-Switched Time Division Multiple Access) techniques used. Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 37 deg W in 1989-1990; 24 deg W in 1990-1991; 55 deg E in 1991; 60 deg E in 1992; 63 deg E in 1992-1997; 62 deg E in 1997-1999 As of 29 August 2001 located at 62.02 deg E drifting at 0.018 deg W per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 150.55E drifting at 0.004W degrees per day.

Unmanned resupply vessel to Mir. Docked with Mir on 29 Oct 1992 19:05:51 GMT. Undocked on 4 Feb 1993 00:44:53 GMT. After completion of the Znamya and autonomous operation experiments, destroyed in reentry on 7 Feb 1993 06:43:20 GMT. Total free-flight time 5.32 days. Total docked time 97.24 days.

This freighter linked up with the Mir-space station on 27.10.1998 at 05.43.42 UTC. Approach and docking were executed in the automatic mode with the system Kurs. During the pass for my position (the Hague) could be heard how the cosmonauts observed the approaching Progress-M40. They also took images with the LIV camera. At the beginning of this pass (in orb. Mir.72476) from 0530-0537 UTC the distance to Mir's aft docking port was 152 Meters, at LOS this distance was approx. 113 Meters. A calm Padalka regularly reported that all was going well. During this pass the beacon transmitter of Progress-M40 on 922.755 mc could be heard, so obviously this transmitter does not interfere with the Kurs transponders.

During the next pass in orb. 72477, 0702-0712 UTC, it was clear that the docking had been a success and that the hatches to the Progress-M40 already were open. These had been opened between 0620 and 0630 UTC. The crew enjoyed a nice wintry smell of the air which reached them from the Progress-M40. The cosmonauts already had installed the protection caps and TsUP gave them permission to load some orientation commands in the control computer. They also loaded commands for the aiming of the ONA (the narrow beam antenna for contact with the geostationary satellite). This had something to do with the fact that communications via Luch-1/Gelios had not been satisfactory. The cosmonauts also started unloading the Progress-M40.

Communications:

During passes of Progress-M40 on 26.10.1998 the transmitters in the 166, 165 and 922.755 mc bands easily could be monitored.

Radio-amateur equipment:

TsUP reported that the mini-sputnik, almost the same as the Sputnik-40 and the promised gear for SSTV experiment could not be transported to Mir with this Progress-M. Other items, for instance the experiments for the French- and Slovak expeditions and a French device for the measurement of meteorite streams had a higher priority.

2nd Spacewalk (EVA), (the 1st one was an IVA, the internal spacewalk in the Spektr):

The French sensors for the detection of meteorites must be installed at the outer surface of the Mir-complex. This EVA was put forward to have this experiment operational during the Leonid meteorites around 17.11.1998. The EVA will be made in the night from 10 to 11.11.1998 and will last approx. 5 hours. A second task during this EVA will be the dismantling and retrieving of Russian experiments from outside.

Progress-M39:

This old freighter undocked from Mir on 25.10.1998 at 23.03.24 UTC. Indeed the Russians manoeuvred a lot with this ship after the undocking. The ship flawlessly responded on steering commands and the crew made video-images and measurements with spectrometers. On 29.10.1998 at about 0630 UTC deorbit impulses will be given for burning up over a designated area in the Pacific East of New Zealand.

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

JB-3 2 was nominally a Chinese (PRC) remote sensing satellite, although US intelligence sources indicated it had primarily an intelligence imaging mission. JB-3 2 was the name adopted by the USSPACECOM. Most news reports from China and elsewhere use different names: ZY-2B (acronym for ZiYuan-2B, translated as Resource-2B), and Zhong Guo Zi Yuan Er Hao, translated as China Resource 2. No information was available on the instruments onboard the JB-3 2, but officially it was intended 'for territorial survey, environment monitoring and protection, urban planning, crop yield assessment, disaster monitoring, and space scientific experiments'. The initial orbital parameters of this sun-synchronous satellite were period 94.1 min, apogee 483 km, perigee 470 km, and inclination 97.4°.

The Expedition 7 crew touched down in northern Kazakhstan in its Soyuz spacecraft about 8:41 p.m. CST, concluding a 183-day mission aboard the International Space Station and 185 days in space. Landing occurred on target, approximately 24 miles (38 kilometers) from Arkylyk in Kazakhstan. Additional Details: here....

Beijing-1 carried a 31-cm focal-length cartographic telescope with a resolution of 4 meters. It was to be part of the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation. Operated by Tsinghua University for Beijing Landview Mapping Information Technology Ltd.

First Iranian satellite, with an experimental surveillance camera payload. It may have used the Russian Polyot enterprise's Sterkh satellite bus. The same bus was to be used in future Nadezhda satellites. The Strekh bus was said to accomodate 80-100 kg satellites, and be 1.0 m high and 0.4 m in diameter, with a design life of 5 years. Sinah was 160 kg, and 0.8 x 1.3 x 1.6 m in dimensions. Or it may have been a version of the previously-announced satellite dubbed Mesbah-2.