March 1983:milestones

November 1982

18 The Salyut 7 cosmonauts, Lebedev and Berezevoi, eject the small Iskra 3 amateur communications satellite into space. It will be controlled by students from centres in Moscow and Kaluga.

22 Shuttle Orbiter Columbia is returned to the Kennedy Space Center atop its 747 transport aircraft.

23 Shuttle Orbiter Challenger is transferred to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in preparation for mating with its Boosters and Tank for the STS-6 mission currently scheduled for 24 January.

30 Shuttle Orbiter Challenger is transported to the launch pad for the STS-6 mission.

December 1982

2 A NASA board of enquiry reports its findings on the failure of the two spacesuits that should have been used for space walks during the Shuttle STS-5 mission. Astronaut Lenoir's suit failed to fully pressurise) had two small parts missing from its pressure regulator, not having been installed during construction. The oxygen circulation fan in Allen's suit failed because of a faulty magnetic sensor.

6 Moscow reports that the Venera 13 and 14 main craft, launched in October and November 1981, continue to return information from their orbits around the Sun. Included among their instruments are solar gamma and X-ray detectors. Two probes from these craft landed on Venus in March 1982 and returned the first colour pictures of the surface.

10 Cosmonauts Berezevoi and Lebedev return to Earth, landing in darkness and during a snowstorm, in the Soyuz T-7 craft after a record-breaking 211 days aboard the Salyut 7 space station. They were launched on 12 May 1982.

20 A £34 million contract is signed in Bristol, England between the European Space Agency and British Aerospace for the construction of the Giotto Halley's comet probe.

22 It is reported that NASA is considering equipping Space Shuttle Boosters (which fly up to 46 km before returning to Earth for recovery) with small payloads to conduct upper atmosphere experiments.