astronaut Schirra, completed a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours 13 minutes.

December-The Relay I active communications satellite was launched into a low orbit to test its ability to transmit wideband TV and telephone signals. It successfully transmitted signals between the U.S. and European countries.

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1963

May-Astronaut Cooper completed 22 orbits in the Mercury spacecraft, Faith 7. The flight lasted 34 hours 20 minutes. The spacecraft was manually controlled during the last few orbits and retrofire was also manual.

July-Syncom II became the first operational satellite in a synchronous orbit. It demonstrated that a communications satellite can be controlled in a synchronous orbit and maneuvered to a preselected station.

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December-TIROS VIII, a meteorological satellite, carried automatic picture transmission equipment enabling inexpensive ground stations to read out in real time local cloud pictures for weather forecasting.

1964

January-Echo II, a large rigid reflecting sphere, was launched for use as a passive communications satellite.

March-Ariel II, the third international satellite, was launched by NASA for the United Kingdom. It transmitted data on radio frequency radiation from space, on ozone in the ionosphere, and on micrometeoroids.

July-Ranger VII was launched on a lunar trajectory and successfully accomplished its mission by transmitting over 4,000 TV pictures of the lunar surface in the 17 minutes before impact.

August-Syncom III was launched into a truly synchronous (stationary) orbit. It has been used experimentally and operationally, relaying TV coverage of the 1964 Olympic games from Japan to the U.S.

August-Nimbus I, a sophisticated meteorological satellite launched into a near polar orbit, carried a system which kept

its sensors pointed toward the earth at all times. It sent back the first night time cloud cover data.

November-Mariner IV was launched on an interplanetary exploration mission, including a Mars fly-by. On the way, it transmitted data on the interplanetary environment. It passed within about 6,000 miles of Mars, sending back 22 remarkably clear TV pictures of the surface of the planet.

December-A NASA-trained Italian team launched San Marco I an Italian designed atmospheric physics satellite.

1965

January-TIROS IX, the first of this series in the "cartwheel" configuration, was launched into an elliptical orbit. This meteorological satellite provided global daylight cloud cover data once a day.

March-Ranger IX, the final mission of this series, landed on the moon less than 3 miles from its target area. It sent back over 5,800 high resolution pictures of the lunar surface. Live pictures of the surface of the moon were televised to home viewers as the spacecraft approached the moon.

March-The Nation's first two-man mission, Gemini III, was a 3-orbit flight lasting 4 hours 53 minutes. Astronauts Grissom and John W. Young flew the first manned mission in the second phase of the manned space program.

April-NASA launched Early Bird I (INTELSTAT I) for the Communications Satellite Corporation, the first commercial communications satellite linking countries across the Atlantic.

June-Gemini IV, June 3-7, was the Nation's longest manned flight to date. Astronauts James A. McDivitt and Edward H. White completed 62 orbits, lasting 97 hours 56 minutes. Astronaut White carried out a 22-minute space walk in the first extravehicular activity by U.S. spacemen.

August-Gemini V, manned by Astronauts Cooper and Charles Conrad, Jr., remained in orbit for 8 days, demonstrating the physiological feasibility of the lunar mission.

December-Gemini VII, crewed by Astronauts Frank Borman

and James A. Lovell, Jr., travelled over 5 million miles in 330 hours, 35 minutes (Dec. 4-18), and served as target for rendevous with Gemini VI-A (Dec. 15-16) manned by Astronauts Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford. The two spacecraft accomplished the first successful rendezvous when Gemini VI-A maneuvered to within 120 feet of Gemini VII; station keeping was maintained for over 5 hours at distances varying from 1 foot to 300 feet.

February-The ESSA I and ESSA II meteorological satellites were launched to open the national operational weather satellite system. The two craft transmit hundreds of pictures daily which are received by local Automatic Picture Transmission stations.

March-Gemini VIII, manned by Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott, completed the second rendezvous and the first docking of the manned space flight program. Landing was the first in the Pacific.

1966

May-Nimbus II, the most sophisticated, completely instrumented weather satellite up to this time, was placed in a near polar orbit. It provided a vast amount of data for accurate weather forecasting.

May-Surveyor I achieved a soft lunar landing on this first engineering test flight. The craft transmitted thousands of highresolution television pictures of the lunar surface and of parts of the spacecraft.

June-Gemini IX-A, with Astronauts Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan aboard, made rendezvous with an unmanned target vehicle three times, but did not dock. During the 72-hour flight, Astronaut Cernan carried out 2 hours and 5 minutes of extravehicular activity.

June-PAGEOS I, a 100-foot, plastic sphere was placed in a 2,600-mile polar orbit for use in precision mapping of the earth's surface. The non-instrumented satellite reflects sunlight and is photographed as an orbiting point of light by ground stations around the world.

July-Gemini X, manned by Astronauts Young and Michael Collins, was another rendezvous mission. During the near-71hour flight, the astronauts made a dual rendezvous, maneuvered

the docked spacecraft, carried on extravehicular activity, and retrieved a micrometeoroid experiment from the Gemini VIII target vehicle.

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August-Lunar Orbiter I was placed in a close orbit of the moon and sent back pictures of potential landing sites for Apollo. It also took pictures of the earth from the vicinity of the moon.

September-Gemini XI (Astronauts Conrad and Richard F. Gordon, Jr.) made rendezvous and docked with the target vehicle during its first revolution. Astronaut Gordon completed almost three hours of extravehicular activity, the docked spacecraft were propelled to an 853-mile altitude, and the tethered spacecraft were undocked and rotated. The flight ended in the first computer controlled reentry.

November-Lunar Orbiter II photographed additional landing sites for the Apollo mission as well as areas on the far side of the moon not covered by the first Orbiter.

November-Gemini XII, the final mission of the series, was manned by Astronauts Lovell and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. Primary mission objectives-rendezvous and docking and extravehicular activity evaluation-were accomplished. Aldrin spent over 5 hours in EVA; including this flight, Lovell logged a total of over 425 hours in space.

December-ATS-1 was placed in a synchronous circular equatorial orbit at an altitude of about 22,000 miles. Its spin-scan cloud camera photographs almost the entire disc of the earth, providing views of a large area for use in studying weather systems.

1967

February-Lunar Orbiter III obtained additional photographs of landing sites for Surveyor spacecraft and Apollo astronauts. It also transmitted data on meteoroid flux, high energy radiation near the moon, and the moon's gravitational field.

April Surveyor III made a soft landing on the moon and transmitted over 6,300 pictures (some in color) during a 14-day period. A surface sampler dug a 6-inch trench and otherwise manipulated the soil. Data from it and strain gages enabled the surface bearing strength to be calculated at 3 to 8 pounds per square inch.

May-Lunar Orbiter IV provided detailed pictures of 99 percent of the front surface of the moon as well as photographs of its hidden side.

June-Mariner V was launched on a mission to Venus, which it encountered in October, approaching within 2,600 miles of the surface. It sent back valuable data on the Venusian atmosphere and on the interplanetary environment during increasing solar activity.

August-Lunar Orbiter V, the last in this series of spacecraft, provided detailed photographic coverage of 36 sites of scientific interest and 5 Apollo sites. It also sent back a full view of the earth, as well as scientific data.

September-Surveyor V landed on the moon in the Sea of Tranquillity, then sent back over 18,000 photographs. It also made an analysis of the chemical composition of the surface, finding it to be basaltic in character.

November-Surveyor VI landed in the Central Bay area of the moon. It transmited many thousands of pictures of the surface, photographed stars and the planets Jupiter and Earth, and confirmed the basaltic character of the lunar soil. It also moved to a new location on command from the Earth.

November-Apollo IV was the first unmanned test of the Apollo-Saturn V space vehicle under the "all-up" concept. The 812-hour earth orbital mission tested the launch vehicle, the spacecraft, and the ground support and control facilities.

1968

January-Surveyor VII, last in the series of soft lunar landers, sent TV pictures, collected data on the chemical composition of the lunar soil, photographed the earth, and carried out star surveys.

January-Apollo V, a lunar module development mission, verified the propulsion system of the lunar module ascent and descent stages, including the ability to restart in space. It was the first flight of the lunar module.

April-Apollo VI was the second mission in the launch vehicle and spacecraft development flight phase. The flight, which lasted