Request For Proposals were issued to 17 contractors by the US Army Air Force for studies of a 10-year R&D program of four missile types. The missiles were to be air-, rail-, road-, or ship- transportable, and fit in three range categories: 280 to 800 km; 800 to 2400 km; and 2400 to 8000 km. Minimum speed was 970 kph, requiring turbojet, ramjet, or rocket propulsion.

RS-25 was launched at 2104 hours EST from AMR. The flight was not successful. The behaviour of the missile appeared normal for the first 13 seconds, an early roll disturbance having been smoothly eliminated. Starting at 13 seconds after range zero, the gyro yaw signal indicated increasing yaw for a few seconds and the tracking devices at the same time showed increased displacement to the left of the standard trajectory. The malfunction apparently occurred between the yaw gyro potentiometer output and the outputs of the yaw amplifier of the mixing computer. The primary test objective was to test power plant performance. Missed aimpoint by 264,900 m.

Launched at 2352 hours EST from AMR. The flight was unsuccessful. Actual range was 48 nm, whereas the predicted range wee 130.588 nm. At 68 seconds, a disturbance occurred in the lateral accelerometer and computer systems. Erroneous guidance instructions were transmitted to the control systems, causing a sharp yaw at 70 seconds. Cut-off was initiated at 98.1 seconds. One of the objectives was to indoctrinate troops for participation in the tactical portions of the countdown. Missed aimpoint by 151,000 m.

The highest leadership of the Soviet Union is busy making the Nikolayev/Tereshkova wedding arrangements. The highest leadership of the Soviet Union is busy making the Nikolayev/Tereshkova wedding arrangements. Tereshkova disappears for four hours during the day and doesn't show up for important meetings.

Astronaut Theodore C. Freeman died in an aircraft accident at Ellington Air Force Base, near Houston. Freeman, an Air Force captain and a member of NASA's third group of spacemen, was preparing to land his T-38 training jet when it struck a goose and lost power. He ejected from his aircraft, but did not have sufficient altitude for his parachute to open. Freeman thus became the first American astronaut to lose his life in the quest for the moon.

Following the August decree that gave the circumlunar project to Chelomei and the lunar landing project to Korolev, further work on development of the UR-700 by Chelomei was cancelled. However development of the RD-270 engine was continued and Chelomei continued to do UR-700 design studies.

Due to failure of a star tracker a guided lifting re-entry of 3-4 G was not accomplished. A ballistic re-entry of 7-8 G however resulted in a successful soft landing in the target zone. Rudenko's recovery crews demonstrated a lack of training. Ustinov and Mishin were anxious to release a proclamation of total mission success, but they needed confirmation that the soft landing rockets had functioned correctly. It was only after 2.5 hours that the recovery teams arrived aboard an Mi-6 helicopter that the correct function of the landing system is verified and the leadership notified.

The post-flight debriefing of Beregovoi reveals that the automated docking sequence from 11,000 to 200 m range from the Soyuz 2 target was normal. At 200 m Beregovoi took over manual control of the spacecraft. At a range of 30 to 40 m he observed the running lights on Soyuz 2 were inverted. He stopped his approach and waited until the spacecraft moved into daylight. By that time the spacecraft were still 30 to 40 m away, but had drifted so that he was 30 degrees off-angle from Soyuz 2. It was in attempting to bring the spacecraft back on axis that he used 30 kg of propellant. He then gave up and hand-flew the spacecraft around Soyuz 2 to take photographs. On the first day of his flight he constantly felt like he was hanging upside-down. This feeling only disappeared on the last day of the flight.

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 at 171 deg E from 1981. Last known longitude (25 July 1999) 172.61 deg E drifting at 0.001 deg W per day.

Stationed at 76.61 deg E. Elektro 1 was finally launched on 31 October 1994, 15 years after its original public schedule. Malfunction of the local vertical sensor and the attitude control system delayed the positioning of the spacecraft at its intended location of 76 degrees E, but by early December Elektro 1 was on station. However problems with the local vertical sensor continued to plague the spacecraft, and useful images were not available. Stayed in geosynchronous orbit at 76 deg E in 1995-1998 before being shut down. As of 4 September 2001 located at 71.89 deg E drifting at 0.069 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 67.89E drifting at 0.000W degrees per day.

On 24.10.97 the cables from the vacuum plate to the solar panel interface in the Kristall module had been deployed and after some tests 2 of the 3 still living panels on the Spektr could be turned to the most effective angle towards the sun. Already on 25.10 Solovyov got the first series of instructions for the next 2 spacewalks, EVA's this time, on 3 and 6.11.97. From this day on practically all activities were related to those operations.

On 26.10 Solovyov reported enormous forest fires in the area of Barnaul (Siberia). The crew had discovered the fire already the day before, but now these fires had considerably increased. Along a front of 100 KM the fire moved to the North-West. Solovyov wondered why the media did not give any information about these fires. As of Monday, 27.10, the preparations for the 1st EVA on 3.11.97 began. The crew got comprehensive instructions, i.e. a video-simulation of the operation and a huge amount of documentation.

During the following days they collected and took stock off the equipment needed for the spacewalk and they replaced goods from the airlock and the scientific- and instrument compartment of the Kvant-2 module to other locations in the complex. The crew checked the 2 Orlan M suits and the communication systems during the EVA. On Friday, 31.10, these preparations were concluded during a long communications session via Altair-2 in which TsUP transmitted video images of the areas in which the cosmonauts have to work during the EVA. These areas cannot be fully seen via the portholes of the complex.

During this video session the cosmonauts asked a lot of questions and got additional instructions. The crew also downlinked images of one of the solar panels which did not regularly turn. It sometimes stopped and went on stuttering (Thus far I do not know which panel.)

During radio traffic in orb. 66833 (0918-0926 UTC) the crew spoke with Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, grandson of the famous rocket pioneer Tsiolkovskiy, about the minisputnik PS-2 (also named Sputnik 40 and RS-17), which will be launched by Vinogradov during the EVA on 3.11. The cosmonauts had already checked the transmitters and heard the Blieb Blieb signals. Samburov, the radio-amateur mentor of all cosmonauts, urged them not to forget to switch on the transmitters before deploying the satellite. They have to do that after donning of the spacesuits.

The EVA's:

On 3.11.97, from 0130 UTC (opening hatch) until appr. 0700 UTC. On 6.11.97, from 0030 UTC until appr. 0600 UTC. Don't forget to monitor 145.820 and 145.840 mc for the Sputnik ' Bliebs' during Mir's passes in the morning of 3.11.97.

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

Soyuz TM-31 delivered the Expedition One crew to the International Space Station with Gidzenko as the Soyuz crew commander with the call-sign 'Uran'. The spacecraft docked at Zvezda's rear port at 0921 GMT on November 2. The hatch to Zvezda was opened at 1023 GMT. Once aboard ISS, Shepherd became the ISS Commander, with 'Station Alpha' as the ISS callsign. Soyuz TM-31, with Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalyov aboard, undocked from the -Y port on Zvezda on February 24, 2001 at 1006 GMT and redocked with the -Z port on Zarya at 1037 GMT. This freed the Zvezda port for a Progress resupply ship. After the departure of the Progress, Soyuz TM-31 undocked from the Zarya nadir port April 18 2001 at 1240 GMT and redocked with the Zvezda aft port at 1301 GMT, leaving clearance for the Raffaello MPLM module to be berthed at the Unity nadir during the STS-100 mission.

The EP-2 crew - Afanasyev, Kozeyev and Andre-Deshays - undocked Soyuz TM-32 from the Pirs module at 01:38:30 GMT on October 31. The deorbit burn was at 04:04 GMT, with landing 180 km southeast of Dzhezkazgan at 04:59:26 GMT. This left the Expedition-3 crew of Culbertston, Dezhurov and Tyurin with Soyuz TM-33, docked with the Zarya module, as the station lifeboat.

International Space Station Expedition 8 Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri wound up their first full workweek in space Friday. Science activities, Station maintenance, exercise and more familiarization with their new home were their focus. Additional Details: here....

Unmanned test of Shenzhou manned spacecraft. Automatically docked with Tiangong 1 space laboratory at 17:28 GMT on 2 November. Undocked on 14 November at 11:27 GMT, backed off 140 m, and conducted a second successful automatic docking at 11:53 GMT. Undocked the final time at 10:30 GMT on 16 November and landed in China at 11:32 GMT on 17 November.

Docked with the Zvezda module of the ISS after a quick-rendezvous 5 hour 52 min flight. Undocked from Zvezda at 12:02 GMT on 15 April for independent flight to conduct Radar-Progress ionospheric tests. Retrofire on 21 April on 14:07 GMT lasted 173 seconds, producing a delta-V of 90 m/s. Impacted in the Pacific at 15:02 GMT.

The Spaceship Two S/N 01 'VSS Enterprise' rocket-powered glider was dropped from the White Knight 2 carrier aircraft, based at Mojave Spaceport in California, and was intended for passenger suborbital flights to be operated by Virgin Galactic. The vehicle had made 12 captive flights, 32 glide flights, and 3 rocket-powered flights prior to the accident. The glide flights had been piloted by a mixture of Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic test pilots. Only short rocket burns had been made and the highest apogee was only 22 km. On October 31, flight PF04 made a short rocket burn of 9 seconds, at which point the co-pilot unlocked the rotating tail booms, apparently by mistake; these were not intended to be deployed at the then speed of around Mach 1.0 during rocket-powered flight. The unlocked booms then accidentally deployed ('feathered'), followed by disintegration of the vehicle. The debris fell near Koehn Lake in California, about 40 km NE of the takeoff airport at Mojave. Pilot Pete Siebold parachuted to safety and was hospitalized with serious injuries; co-pilot Mike Alsbury was killed in the crash. The second SS Two, S/N 02 'VSS Voyager', was still under construction at Mojave.