"Soyuz" 11A511U2 booster abandoned due to Sintin production stoppage. "Soyuz" 11A511U2 used synthetic kerosene ('Sintin') in the first stage for launch of premium reconnaissance satellite and manned payloads requiring just a bit more payload than the standard 11A511. January 16. "Kosmos 2327" Military navigation satellite "Parus" Positioned in plane 1 of constellation. Perigee: 949 km. Apogee: 1,023 km. Inclination: 83.0 deg. Period: 104.8 min.  February 14, Xichang American communication satellite "Intelsat 708" failure. Guidance failure resulted in launch vehicle crashing 22 seconds after launch, killing or injuring 59 people. First attempted launch of a new version in the Chinese "Long March" boosters family. Began to experience an anomaly in attitude about 2 seconds after launch, pitching down and yawing to the right. It augured in nose down at T+22 seconds and exploded violently, utterly destroying the launcher and its payload. The Chief-Designer of the launch vehicle organized an analysis team on the same day of the accident. Interpretation and analysis of the telemetric data indicated that the crash was caused by a change in the inertial reference. The explosion killed six and injured 57. Two of the killed were senior engineers with CASC. February 19. "Kosmos 2328" - "Kosmos 2330" Military Store-dump "Strela-3" satellites.   March 14. "Kosmos 2331", High resolution photo reconnaissance; returned film in two small SpK capsules during the mission and with the main capsule at completion of the mission "Yantar-4K1" satellite.  April 24. "Kosmos 2332" radar calibration mission. Perigee: 294 km. Apogee: 1,548 km. Inclination: 82.9 deg. Period: 102.7 min. June 20. "Yantar-4K1" high resolution photo reconnaissance mission. July 31. "Progress M-32" unmanned resupply vessel to Mir. This was the first successful launch of a Soyuz-U after two failures. Docked with "Mir" at the forward docking port on 2 Aug 1996 22:03:40 GMT. Undocked on 18 Aug 1996 09:33:45 GMT in order to free up the docking port. By 29 August 1994 "Mir" was in a 375 x 390 km x 51.6 deg orbit; the "Progress M-32" cargo ship, flying separately, was in a 375 x 392 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Redocked with "Mir" on 3 Sep 1996 09:35:00 GMT at the rear port of the "Kvant" module. Finally undocked from "Mir" on 20 Nov 1996 19:51:20 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 20 Nov 1996 22:42:25 GMT. Total free-flight time 2.20 days. Total docked time 93.91 days. August 4. Cosmonaut Mikhail Vladimirovich Sologub dies at age of 59. August 14. "Molniya-1T" communication satellite. Perigee: 645 km. Apogee: 39,701 km. Inclination: 62.9 deg. Period: 717.8 min.  August 29. "Microsat" (Argentina), "Magion-5"(Czech Republic), "Interbol-2" (Russia) satellites was deployed by "Molniya 8K78M / 2BL" booster.  September 5. "Kosmos 2334" military navigation satellite. Positioned in plane 1 of constellation. Signals at 150.03 MHz and 400.08 MHz. "Oscar 30" (Mexico) amateur radio satellite.  October 24. "Molniya-3-48" communication satellite. Perigee: 648 km. Apogee: 39,709 km. Inclination: 62.9 deg. Period: 717.9 min. November 10. ICBM RS-12M "Topol" was successfully tested  from the Plesetsk test site. The ITAR-TASS news agency reported  quoted Russia's Strategic Missile Forces Commander General Igor Sergeyev, as saying that the launch had "demonstrated irreproachable training and professionalism" of Russia's missile forces. "The launch showed again the high combat training of the troops and the reliability and technical readiness of the interballistic missiles of this class."   December 20. "Kosmos 2336" military navigation satellite. Positioned in plane 4 of constellation. Signals at 149.97 and 399.92 MHz. December 24. "Bion 11" Biological research satellite. Carried monkeys Lalik and Multik. Perigee: 216 km. Apogee: 375 km. Inclination: 62.8 deg. Period: 90.4 min.