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1968 in spaceflight 
Summary
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| This timeline of spaceflight may require cleanup to ensure consistency with other timeline of spaceflignt articles. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Timeline of spaceflight working group for guidelines on how to improve the article. Details Concerns have been raised that:
|  |
 The crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to witness Earthrise, photographed by William Anders on 24 December 1968 | |
| Orbital launches | |
|---|---|
| Total | 6 |
The United States National Space Science Data Center catalogued 157 spacecraft placed into orbit by launches which occurred in 1968.[1] The first crewed Apollo missions occurred in 1968. It was also the year in which Earth lifeforms first left low Earth orbit, during the successful Zond 5 mission, and the year that humans first left low Earth orbit, during the successful Apollo 8 mission.
Launches
| Date and time (UTC) | Rocket | Flight number | Launch site | LSP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payload (⚀ = CubeSat) |
Operator | Orbit | Function | Decay (UTC) | Outcome | ||
| Remarks | |||||||
January | |||||||
| 22 January 23:45 |
 Saturn IB (C-1B)
|
LC-37B, Cape Canaveral
|
NASA
| ||||
| Apollo 5 | NASA | LEO | Test Lunar Module | 12 February 1968 09:59 |
successful | ||
| Minor malfunction of LM descent stage engine, otherwise successful | |||||||
April | |||||||
| 4 April 12:00:02 |
Saturn V (C-5)
|
LC-39A, Kennedy
|
NASA
| ||||
| Apollo 6 | NASA | LEO | Test CSM heat shield at Lunar return speeds. Test S-IVB re-ignition in LEO. | 4 April 1968 21:57:26 |
Partial failure | ||
| Experienced Pogo oscillation during S-IC first stage ascent. S-IVB failed restart test. | |||||||
October | |||||||
| 11 October 1968 15:02 |
Saturn IB (C-1B)
|
LC-34, Cape Canaveral
|
NASA
| ||||
| Apollo 7 | NASA | LEO | Crewed orbital flight | 22 October 1968 11:11:48 |
Successful | ||
| First crewed Apollo flight | |||||||
| 25 October 1968 09:00 |
 Soyuz (R-7/A-2)
|
LC-1/5, Baikonur
|
RVSN
| ||||
| Soyuz 2 | RVSN | LEO | Docking target for Soyuz 3 | 28 October 1968 07:21 |
Successful | ||
| Soyuz 3 failed to dock | |||||||
| 26 October 08:34 |
Soyuz (R-7/A-2)
|
LC-31/6 Baikonur
|
RVSN
| ||||
| Soyuz 3 | RVSN | LEO | Crewed orbital flight | 30 October 1968 07:25:03 |
Partial Failure | ||
| Failed to dock with Soyuz 2 | |||||||
December | |||||||
| 21 December 12:51 |
Saturn V (C-5)
|
LC-39A, Kennedy
|
NASA
| ||||
| Apollo 8 | NASA | Selenocentric | Crewed lunar orbiter | 27 December 1968 15:51:42 |
Successful | ||
| First crewed mission to the Moon | |||||||
Deep space rendezvous
| Date (UTC) | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 January | Surveyor 7 | Lunar landing | in the debris from Tycho crater |
| 31 January | Lunar Orbiter 5 | Lunar impact | |
| 10 April | Luna 14 | Selenocentric orbit insertion | |
| 18 September | Zond 5 | Flyby of the Moon; first return to Earth after flight to Moon; first Earth life forms to travel around the moon | Closest approach: 1,950 kilometres (1,210 mi) |
| 14 November | Zond 6 | Flyby of the Moon | Closest approach: 2,420 kilometres (1,500 mi) |
| 24 December | Apollo 8 | Selenocentric orbit insertion; first humans to travel around the moon | |
| 25 December | Apollo 8 | Leaves selenocentric orbit | Completed 10 orbits |
Orbital Launch Summary
See also
References
Generic references:
Spaceflight portal
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
- ^ "Spacecraft Query Results". Master Catalog Search. NASA NSSDC. Retrieved 30 May 2010.