1976 in spaceflight
 | This timeline of spaceflight may require cleanup to ensure consistency with other timeline of spaceflight articles. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Timeline of spaceflight working group for guidelines on how to improve the article. Details Concerns have been raised that:
|  |
 | |
| Orbital launches | |
|---|---|
| First | 6 January |
| Last | 28 December |
| Total | 131 |
| Catalogued | 128 |
| National firsts | |
| Satellite |  Indonesia |
| Rockets | |
| Maiden flights | Thor DSV-2U |
| Retirements | Voskhod Scout B-1 Soyuz Soyuz-M Thor-Burner |
| Crewed flights | |
| Orbital | 3 |
| Total travellers | 6 |
The following is an outline of 1976 in spaceflight.
Launches[edit]
| Date and time (UTC) | Rocket | Flight number | Launch site | LSP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payload (⚀ = CubeSat) |
Operator | Orbit | Function | Decay (UTC) | Outcome | ||
| Remarks | |||||||
| 15 January 05:34:00 |
 Titan IIIE/Star-37
|
Cape Canaveral SLC-41
|
NASA
| ||||
 Helios-B
|
NASA / DFVLR | Heliocentric | Solar probe | In orbit | Successful | ||
| Achieved a closest approach to the Sun of 43.432 million km (0.29 AU) on 17 April 1976, the closest approach achieved by an artificial satellite; it was succeeded by the Parker Solar Probe in 2018. | |||||||
| 29 February 03:30:00 |
 N-I
|
Tanegashima LA-N
|
| ||||
| Ionospheric Sounding Satellite (ISS) Ume
|
Low Earth | Ionospheric | In orbit | Successful | |||
| First launch completed on February 29 | |||||||
| 15 March 01:25:40[2] |
Titan III(23)C
|
Cape Canaveral SLC-40
|
NASA
| ||||
| LES-8
|
MIT Lincoln Laboratory | Geosynchronous | Technology demonstration | In orbit | Successful | ||
| LES-9
|
MIT Lincoln Laboratory | Geosynchronous | Technology demonstration | In orbit | Successful | ||
| SOLRAD 11A
|
NRL | Geosynchronous | Heliophysics | In orbit | Successful | ||
| SOLRAD 11B
|
NRL | Geosynchronous | Heliophysics | In orbit | Successful | ||
| LES-8 was decommissioned in 2004; LES-9, the last Lincoln Experimental Satellite, continued functioning for 44 years and was finally decommissioned in 2020.[1] | |||||||
| 22 June 18:04:00 |
 Proton-K
|
Baikonur Site 81/23
|
| ||||
| Salyut 5 (Almaz OPS-3)
|
Low Earth | Space station | 8 August 1977 | Successful | |||
| Visited by three crews, one of which failed to dock | |||||||
| 6 July 12:08:45 |
Soyuz
|
Baikonur Site 1/5
|
| ||||
| Soyuz 21
|
Low Earth (Salyut 5) | Salyut expedition | 24 August 18:32:17 |
Partial mission failure | |||
| Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, final flight of Soyuz 11A511, returned early due to crew illness | |||||||
| 9 August 12:08:45 |
Proton-K/D
|
Baikonur 81/23
|
| ||||
| Luna 24 | Selenocentric | Lunar lander | 22 August | Successful | |||
| Third uncrewed lunar sample return, Third Soviet lunar sample return | |||||||
| 15 September 09:48:30 |
Soyuz-U
|
Baikonur Site 1/5
|
| ||||
| Soyuz 22
|
Low Earth | Salyut expedition | 23 September 07:40:47 |
Successful | |||
| Crewed flight with two cosmonauts | |||||||
| 14 October 17:39:18 |
Soyuz-U
|
Baikonur Site 1/5
|
| ||||
| Soyuz 23
|
Low Earth (Intended: Salyut 5) | Salyut expedition | 16 October 17:45:53 |
Spacecraft failure | |||
| Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, failed to dock with Salyut 5 | |||||||
 |
Launches from the Moon[edit]
| Date and time (UTC) | Rocket | Flight number | Launch site | LSP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payload (⚀ = CubeSat) |
Operator | Orbit | Function | Decay (UTC) | Outcome | ||
| Remarks | |||||||
| 19 August 5:25 |
Luna 24 Ascent stage
|
Mare Crisium (Luna) | |||||
| Luna 24 Return capsule
|
|
Highly elliptical | Sample return | 22 August 1976 | Successful | ||
| Third uncrewed lunar sample return mission | |||||||
Deep space rendezvous[edit]
| Date | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 June | Viking 1 | Areocentric orbit insertion | |
| 20 July | Viking 1 Lander | landed in Chryse Planitia | |
| 7 August | Viking 2 | Areocentric orbit insertion | |
| 18 August | Luna 24 | landed in Mare Crisium | sample return mission |
| 19 August | Luna 24 | lift-off from Mare Crisium | 170 grams (6.0 oz) |
| 3 September | Viking 2 Lander | landed in Utopia Planitia |
References[edit]
- Bergin, Chris. "NASASpaceFlight.com".
- Clark, Stephen. "Spaceflight Now".
- Kelso, T.S. "Satellite Catalog (SATCAT)". CelesTrak.[dead link]
- Krebs, Gunter. "Chronology of Space Launches".
- Kyle, Ed. "Space Launch Report". Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
- McDowell, Jonathan. "GCAT Orbital Launch Log".
- Pietrobon, Steven. "Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive".
- Wade, Mark. "Encyclopedia Astronautica".
- Webb, Brian. "Southwest Space Archive".
- Zak, Anatoly. "Russian Space Web".
- "ISS Calendar". Spaceflight 101.
- "NSSDCA Master Catalog". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
- "Space Calendar". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[dead link]
- "Space Information Center". JAXA.[dead link]
- "Хроника освоения космоса" [Chronicle of space exploration]. CosmoWorld (in Russian).
Footnotes[edit]
- ^ Ryan, Dorothy (27 May 2020). "Lincoln Laboratory decommissions Lincoln Experimental Satellite–9". MIT. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Report. Archived from the original on 16 November 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2020.