1970 in spaceflight

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.

1970 in spaceflight

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

Launches

This is a list of spaceflights launched in 1970.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

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	In orbit	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		CRA
	Uhuru	NASA	Low Earth	X-ray astronomy	In orbit	Successful
	First satellite dedicated to X-ray astronomy.

Off-world launches

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 (Moon)
	Luna 16 Return capsule		Highly elliptical	Sample return	17 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

Generic references:
 Spaceflight portal

• 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".
• McDowell, Jonathan. "Jonathan's Space Report".
• 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).

Footnotes