January. The Chinese press reported a visit with the Chinese astronaut trainees at the Chinese manned spaceflight training centre. Photographs appeared of the astronauts in training. Pressure suited astronauts were shown in pressure chamber tests. Other trainees were shown at the controls of a space shuttle-like space plane cockpit. January 23. "Kosmos 1151" test mission of "Okean" satellite without the radar. Testing of methods for obtaining operational information on the oceans.  March 18. Booster exploded on pad during servicing. Severe pad damage, 48 people killed. Cause found to be change in solder with tin to that with lead in H2O2 filters, causing decomposition and explosion.  

On March 18, 1980, during fueling process of "Vostok-2M" launcher with the intelligence "Tselina" satellite, while dozens of military technicians worked on the pad, the devastating explosion incinerated the rocket, killing 48 technicians. The official conclusion on the cause of the disaster, essentially blaming the ground personel for breaking fire safety rules, was doubted by some people familiar with the matter. According to the post-Cold War Russian source,   these conlusions were proved wrong, when on June 23, 1981, a similar disaster was miraclously averted at the last second in Plesetsk. The new investigation pinpointed a valve, made of materials, which on contact with hydrgen peroxide could cause explosive chain reaction. The victims of the tragedy were buried within limits of the town of Mirny, at the same memorial where nine technicians, who died in a 1973 "Kosmos-3M" explosion were put to rest.

April 29. "Kosmos - 1177". Second flight test of "Yantar-4K1" satellite. Demonstrated full spacecraft design duration of 45 days. High resolution photo reconnaissance; returned film in two small SpK capsules during the mission and with the main capsule at completion of the mission.  May, China. The first capsule - perhaps a prototype of a manned spacecraft design - was recovered from the South Pacific after a suborbital launch. / May 18, Jiuquan China. First full range DF-5 test. From Jiuquan to Pacific ocean, 10,000 km away. RV recovered.  May 21, Jiuquan China. Second full range DF-5 test. RV impacted 1300 km short of recovery fleet.   August 15, Jingyu China. First DF-4 test launch from Jingyu test site.  September 8. Cosmonaut Oleg Grigoryevich Kononenko dies at age of 42 - Crash of Yak-38 VTOL fighter during takeoff from aircraft carrier Minsk in the South China Sea.  September 19, USA. An Air Force repairman doing routine maintenance in a "Titan II" ICBM silo dropped a wrench socket, which rolled off a work platform and fell to the bottom of the silo. The socket struck the missile, causing a leak from a pressurized fuel tank. The missile complex and surrounding areas were evacuated. Eight and a half hours later, the fuel vapors ignited, causing an explosion which killed an Air Force specialist and injured 21 others. The explosion also blew off the 670-tonne reinforced concrete-and-steel silo door and catapulted the warhead 200 m into the air. The silo was later filled in with gravel.  October 2. Cosmonaut Valentin Stepanovich Varlamov dies at age of 46 -- Natural causes.   December. Wang Zhuanshan, the Secretary General of the New China Space Research Society and Chief Engineer of the Space Centre of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced that Chinese manned flight was being postponed because of its cost. Fundamental economic development was given priority.