1970 in spaceflight

1970 in spaceflight

Orbital launches
First	11 February
Last	12 December
Successes	124
Failures	10
Catalogued	114
National firsts
Satellite	Japan China
Orbital launch	Japan China

Japan and China each launched their first satellites in 1970, bringing the total number of nations with independent launch capability to five.

Apollo 13 was launched; after suffering an explosion in deep space it had to circumnavigate the moon and use the LM as a life boat. Apollo 13 was a successful disaster in which the crew survived. The Soviet space program continued its Luna program with Luna 17, which delivered the robotic Lunokhod 1 rover to the lunar surface, and Luna 16, which achieved the first uncrewed lunar sample return. The Soviets also continued the success of the Venera Venus probes with Venera 7, the first man-made spacecraft to successfully land on another planet and to transmit data back to Earth, though it only survived 23 minutes on the surface.

Launches

This is a list of spaceflights launched in 1970.

← Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec →

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
February
11 February	Lambda-4S			Kagoshima		Japan
		Ohsumi	Tokyo University	Low Earth	Technology	2 August 2003	Successful
		First satellite launched by Japan
March
3 March 21:15	Black Arrow			Woomera		RAE
			RAE	Low Earth	Test LV	In orbit	Successful
April
11 April 19:13	Saturn V (C-5)			Kennedy LC-39A		NASA
		Apollo 13 CSM Odyssey	NASA	Intended: Lunar orbit Actual: Lunar free return	Crewed lunar orbit.	15 April 1970	Failure
		Apollo 13 LM Aquarius	NASA	Intended: Lunar landing Actual: Lunar free return	Crewed lunar landing	15 April 1970	Failure
		Explosion in Service Module crippled spacecraft, resulting in mission abort. Mission aborted due to CSM malfunction. LM used to help bring crew back to Earth.
24 April	Long March 1 Rocket			Jiuquan		PRC
		Dong Fang Hong I	PRC	Low Earth	Test satellite	In orbit	Successful
		First satellite launched by China
June
1 June 19:00	Soyuz (R-7/A-2)			Baikonur Site 1		RVSN
		Soyuz 9	RVSN	Low Earth	Crewed Orbital Spaceflight	19 June 1970 11:58	Successful
		Longest Crewed flight involving only one spacecraft. (As of 09/06/06)
1 June 19:00	Black Arrow			Woomera		RAE
		Orba	RAE	Low Earth	Micrometeoroid detection satellite	In orbit	Failure
		First British attempt to launch a satellite. Failed to reach orbit after premature 2nd stage cutout.
September
12 September 13:25	Proton-K/D			Baikonur 81/23
		Luna 16		Selenocentric	Lunar lander	24 September	Successful
		First uncrewed lunar sample return, first Soviet lunar sample return
October
20 October 19:55	Proton-K/D			Baikonur 81/23
		Zond 8		Highly elliptical	Spacecraft test	In orbit	Successful
		Final circumlunar flight of the Zond program.
December
12 December 10:54	Scout B			San Marco mobile range, Kenya		CNR
		Uhuru	NASA	Low Earth	X-ray astronomy	5 April 1979	Successful
		First satellite dedicated to X-ray astronomy.

← Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec →

Launches from the Moon

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
21 September 7:43	Luna 16 Ascent stage			Mare Fecunditatis (Luna)
		Luna 16 Return capsule		Highly elliptical	Sample return	24 September 1970	Successful
		First uncrewed lunar sample return mission

Deep Space Rendezvous

Date (GMT)	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
11 April 1970	Apollo 13 S-IVB stage	Impacted the Moon
15 April	Apollo 13	Lunar flyby at 254 kilometres (158 mi)	Intended lunar landing, forced to abort and return to Earth using lunar free return trajectory
20 September	Luna 16	100gm from Mare Fecunditatis	First sample return mission
24 October	Zond 8	Circumlunar flight of the Moon 1,110 kilometres (690 mi)
17 November	Luna 17	Delivered Lunokhod 1 at Mare Imbrium	First robotic Lunar rover
15 December	Venera 7	Atmospheric probe worked for 23 min on the Venerian surface	First soft landing on another planet

References

• Bergin, Chris. "NASASpaceFlight.com".
• Clark, Stephen. "Spaceflight Now".
• Kelso, T.S. "Satellite Catalog (SATCAT)". CelesTrak.
• 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.
• "Space Information Center". JAXA.
• "Хроника освоения космоса" [Chronicle of space exploration]. CosmoWorld (in Russian).

Generic references:
Spaceflight portal