1975 in spaceflight

Summary

In 1975, several notable events occurred in spaceflight, including the launches of Venera 9 and 10 and their Venus arrivals, the launches of the Viking Mars missions, the joint American-Soviet Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), the failure of Soyuz 7K-T 39, and the launch of Aryabhatta, India's first satellite.

  • The Venera 9 mission was launched 8 June 1975 and on 20 October 1975 became the first spacecraft to orbit Venus; two days later its lander returned the first images from the surface of any planet (other than Earth).
  • Venera 10 was launched on 14 June 1975; it entered orbit of Venus on 23 October 1975 and its lander arrived on the surface of Venus on 25 October 1975. Both Venera 9 and Venera 10 returned various scientific observations of Venus and black-and-white television pictures from the planet's surface.
  • Viking 1 was launched on 20 August 1975 and Viking 2 was launched 9 September 1975. This orbiter/lander mission was to photograph the surface of Mars in 1976.
  • The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was a collaboration between the United States and the Soviet Union that saw an end to the space race. The mission was launched on 15 July 1975, with the Soyuz returning on 21 July and Apollo on 24 July.
  • On 5 April, Soyuz 7K-T 39 aborted after the second and third stages failed to separate, with the crew pulling over 21 g on a ballistic reentry.
  • On 19 April, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhatta, was launched on a Soviet Kosmos-3M.
1975 in spaceflight
Artist's impression of the ASTP docking
Orbital launches
First10 January
Last27 December
Total132
Catalogued125
National firsts
Satellite India
Rockets
Maiden flightsAtlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1AR
Delta 3000
Diamant-BP4
Long March 2C
N-I
Scout F-1
Titan III(34)B
RetirementsAtlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1A
Delta 1000
Diamant-BP4
Saturn IB
Scout F-1
Crewed flights
Orbital4
Suborbital1
Total travellers9

Launches

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Date and time (UTC) Rocket Flight number Launch site LSP
Payload Operator Orbit Function Decay (UTC) Outcome
Remarks

January

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10 January
21:43:37
 Soyuz  Baikonur Site 1/5  
 Soyuz 17 Low Earth (Salyut 4) Salyut expedition 19 February
11:03
Successful
Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, first mission to Salyut 4
17 January
09:00
  Voskhod   Baikonur Site 31/6  
  Kosmos 702 (Zenit-2M/Gektor #54) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 29 January Successful
21 January
11:04
  Kosmos-2   Plesetsk Site 133/3  
  Kosmos 703 (DS-P1-Yu #74) Low Earth Radar calibration 20 November Successful
22 January
17:55
  Delta 2910 Delta 107   Vandenberg AFB SLC-2W  
  Landsat 2 (ERTS B) NASA Sun-synchronous (SSO) Earth observation In orbit Successful
23 January
11:00
  Voskhod   Plesetsk Site 41/1  
  Kosmos 704 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #35) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 6 February Successful
28 January
12:05
  Kosmos-2   Plesetsk Site 133/1  
  Kosmos 705 (DS-P1-Yu #75) Low Earth Radar calibration 18 November Successful
30 January
15:02
  Molniya-M/Blok 2BL   Plesetsk Site 41/1  
  Kosmos 706 (US-K #4) Molniya orbit Missile early warning In orbit Successful

February

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5 February
13:15
  Kosmos-3M   Plesetsk Site 132/1  
  Kosmos 707 (Tselina-O #26) Low Earth ELINT 7 September 1980 Successful
6 February
04:49
  Molniya-M/Blok ML   Plesetsk Site 41/1  
  Molniya-2 12 Molniya orbit Communications 4 August 1985 Successful
6 February
16:35
  Diamant BP4   Guiana Space Centre ELD   CNES
  Starlette CNES Low Earth Geodesy In orbit Successful
6 February
22:04
  Delta 2914 Delta 108   Cape Canaveral SLC-17B   USAF
  SMS-2 NASA Geostationary Weather In orbit Successful
12 February
03:30
  Kosmos-3M   Plesetsk Site 132/1  
  Kosmos 708 (Sfera #13) Low Earth Geodesy In orbit Successful
12 February
14:30
  Voskhod   Plesetsk Site 41/1  
  Kosmos 709 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #36) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 25 February Successful
20 February
23:35
  Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1A AC-33    
  Intelsat IV F-6 Intelsat Intended: Geostationary Communications 20 February Launch failure
Error during booster separation caused a reset of the guidance computer, leading to the loss of control.[1] Range safety sent the flight termination command at T+413 seconds.
24 February
05:25
 M-3C  Kagoshima Space Center LP-M  ISAS
 SRATS (Taiyo) ISAS Highly elliptical orbit Ionosphere research 29 June 1980 Successful
26 February
09:00
  Voskhod   Baikonur Site 31/6  
  Kosmos 710 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #37) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 12 March Successful
14:01
28 February
  Kosmos-3M   Plesetsk Site 132/2  
  Kosmos 711 to 718 (Strela-1M × 8) Low Earth Communications In orbit Successful

March

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10 March
04:41
  Titan III(34)B   Vandenberg AFB SLC-4W   USAF
  Jumpseat 4 (OPS 2439) NRO Molniya orbit SIGINT In orbit Successful
12 March
08:55
  Voskhod   Baikonur Site 31/6  
  Kosmos 719 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #38) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 25 March Successful
21 March
06:50
  Soyuz-U   Plesetsk Site 43/3  
  Kosmos 720 (Zenit-4MT/Orion #8) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance, test spacecraft 3 April Successful
26 March
08:50
  Voskhod   Plesetsk Site 41/1  
  Kosmos 721 (Zenit-2M/Gektor #55) and Nauka-5KSA 1L GRU, AN SSSR Low Earth Reconnaissance, research 7 April Successful
Nauka research payload carried inside Zenit-2M reentry capsule.
27 March
08:00
  Voskhod   Baikonur Site 31/6  
  Kosmos 722 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #39) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 9 April Successful
27 March
14:30
  Kosmos-3M   Plesetsk Site 132/1  
  Interkosmos 13 (DS-U2-IK #6) Interkosmos Low Earth Radiation belts and upper atmosphere research 2 September 1980 Successful
Cooperative project of Czechoslovakia and the USSR

April

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1 April
12:30
  Vostok-2M   Plesetsk Site 41/1  
  Meteor-1 21 Low Earth Weather In orbit Successful
2 April
11:00
  Tsyklon-2   Baikonur Site 90/20  
  Kosmos 723 (US-A #9) Low Earth Radar ocean surveillance In orbit Successful
5 April
11:04:54
 Soyuz  Baikonur Site 1/5  
 Soyuz 7K-T #39 Intended: Low Earth (Salyut 4) Salyut expedition 11:26 Launch failure
Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, first and second core stages failed to separate, flight aborted and crew returned on suborbital trajectory
7 April
11:00
  Tsyklon-2   Baikonur Site 90/20  
  Kosmos 724 (US-A #10) Low Earth Radar ocean surveillance In orbit Successful
8 April
18:29
  Kosmos-2   Plesetsk Site 133/1  
  Kosmos 725 (DS-P1-Yu #76) Low Earth Radar calibration 6 January 1976 Successful
9 April
23:58:02
  Delta 1410   Vandenberg SLC-2W   NASA
  GEOS-3 NASA Low Earth Geodesy In orbit Successful
19 April  Kosmos-3M  Kapustin Yar   Interkosmos
 Aryabhatta ISRO Low Earth X-ray astronomy, aeronomics, and solar physics studies 11 February 1992 Launch success, payload partial failure
First Indian satellite; payload failed 4–5 days after launch

May

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7 May
22:45:01
  Scout F-1   San Marco mobile range, Kenya   CRS
 SAS 3 NASA Low Earth X-ray astronomy 9 April 1979 Successful
24 May
14:58:10
 Soyuz  Baikonur Site 1/5  
 Soyuz 18 Low Earth (Salyut 4) Salyut expedition 26 July
14:18
Successful
Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, final mission to Salyut 4

June

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3 June
09:00
 Kosmos-3M  Kapustin Yar, Site 107/1  
 DS-U3-IK #5 Interkosmos Intended: Low Earth Solar radiation research 3 June Failure
3 June
13:20
 Voskhod  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
 Kosmos 742 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #43) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 15 June Successful
5 June
01:37
 Molniya-M/Blok ML  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 41/1  
 Molniya-1K 30 (Molniya-1K 37L) Molniya orbit Communications 25 September 1987 Successful
 SRET [fr] 2 CNES Molniya orbit Technology test 10 July 1988 Successful
8 June
02:37
 Proton-K/Blok D  Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 81/24  
 Venera 9 (4V1 #1) orbiter Cytherocentric Venus orbiter In orbit Successful
 Venera 9 (4V1 #1) lander Cytherocentric Venus lander 22 October
05:13 (on Venus)
Successful
First spacecraft to orbit Venus, first spacecraft to return images from the surface of another planet
8 June
18:30
 Titan IIID 3D-10  Vandenberg AFB, SLC-4E  US Air Force
 KH-9 10 (Hexagon, OPS 6381) NRO Low Earth Reconnaissance 5 November Successful
 P-226 1 (SSU 1, OPS 6381) Low Earth ELINT In orbit Successful
12 June
08:12
 Delta 2910 Delta 111  Vandenberg AFB, SLC-2W  
 Nimbus 6 NASA, NOAA Low Earth Weather In orbit Successful
12 June
12:30
 Soyuz-U  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
 Kosmos 743 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #44) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 25 June Successful
14 June
03:00
 Proton-K/Blok D  Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 81/24  
 Venera 10 (4V1 #2) orbiter Cytherocentric Venus orbiter In orbit Successful
 Venera 10 (4V1 #2) lander Cytherocentric Venus lander 25 October
02:17 (on Venus)
Successful
18 June
09:00
 Atlas SLV-3A Agena-D 5506A  Cape Canaveral AFS, LC-13  US Air Force
 Canyon 6 (AFP-827, OPS 4966) NRO High Earth orbit SIGINT In orbit Successful
20 June
06:54
 Vostok-2M  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 41/1  
 Kosmos 744 (Tselina-D #7) Low Earth ELINT 11 October 1991 Successful
11:43
21 June
 Delta 1910 Delta 112  Cape Canaveral AFS, LC-17B  
 OSO 8 NASA Low Earth Solar research, UV and X-ray astronomy 9 July 1986 Successful
24 June
12:04
 Kosmos-2  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 133/1  
 Kosmos 745 (DS-P1-Yu #77) Low Earth Radar calibration 12 March 1976 Successful
25 June
12:59
 Voskhod  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
 Kosmos 746 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #45) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 9 July Successful
27 June
13:00
 Voskhod  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 41/1  
 Kosmos 747 (Zenit-2M/Gektor #58) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 9 July Successful
 Nauka-22KS 1L Low Earth Hosted research payload

July

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15 July
14:58:10
 Soyuz-U  Baikonur Site 1/5  
 Soyuz 19 Low Earth (Apollo) International docking 21 July
10:50
Successful
Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, Soviet contribution to the Apollo Soyuz Test Project
15 July
19:50:01
 Saturn IB  Kennedy LC-39B  NASA
 Apollo NASA Low Earth (Soyuz 19) International docking 24 July
21:18
Successful
 DM-2 NASA Low Earth (Apollo) Docking adaptor 2 August Successful
Crewed flight with three astronauts, American contribution to the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, final flight of the Apollo programme and the Saturn rocket
26 July
13:28
 Feng Bao 1  Jiquan Satellite Launch Center, LA-2B (Site 138)
 JSSW 1 (CK 1) Low Earth Unknown 14 September Successful
First successful orbital launch of Feng Bao 1.

August

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20 August
21:22:00
 Titan IIIE  Cape Canaveral LC-41  
 Viking 1 Orbiter NASA Areocentric Mars orbiter In orbit Successful
 Viking 1 Lander NASA Areocentric Mars lander 20 July 1976
11:53:06
Successful
Lander landed in Chryse Planitia, becoming the first US spacecraft to land on Mars. It operated until 11 November 1982 when communications were lost due to an erroneous command being sent to the spacecraft. Orbiter was deactivated on 17 August 1980.

September

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9 September
05:30
  N-I N1F  Tanegashima Space Center LP-N (LA-Y1)  NASDA
 ETS 1 (Kiku 1) NASDA Low Earth Technology test In orbit Successful
First flight of N-I, first satellite launched by NASDA
9 September
18:39:00
 Titan IIIE  Cape Canaveral LC-41  
 Viking 2 Orbiter NASA Areocentric Mars orbiter In orbit Successful
 Viking 2 Lander NASA Areocentric Mars lander 3 September 1976
22:58:20
Successful
Lander landed in Utopia Planitia and operated until its batteries failed on 11 April 1980. Orbiter was deactivated on 25 July 1978.
27 September
08:37
 Diamant BP4  Guiana Space Centre ELD  CNES
 Aura [fr] (D-2B) CNES Low Earth Ultraviolet astronomy 30 September 1982 Successful
Last flight of Diamant

October

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16 October
22:40:00
  Delta 2914   Cape Canaveral SLC-17B   NASA
  GOES 1 NOAA Geostationary Meteorology In orbit Successful
First operational geostationary weather satellite. Deactivated on 7 March 1985

November

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4 November
10:12
 Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk Comodrome, Site 132/1  
 Kosmos 778 (Parus #4) Low Earth Navigation, data relay In orbit Successful
4 November
15:19
 Voskhod  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
 Kosmos 779 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #52) GRU Low Earth Reconnaisance 18 November Successful
14 November
19:13
 Molniya-M/Blok ML  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
 Molniya-3 3 (Molniya-3 13L) Molniya orbit Communications 19 November 2017 Successful
17 November
14:36:37
 Soyuz-U  Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 1/5  
 Soyuz 20 Low Earth (Salyut 4) Uncrewed test flight, biology 16 February 1976
02:24
Successful
Last Soyuz flight to the Salyut 4 station
20 November
02:06:48
 Delta 2910 Delta 117  Cape Canaveral AFS, LC-17B  US Air Force
 Explorer 55 (AE E) NASA Elliptical low Earth Atmosphere research 10 June 1981 Successful
21 November
09:20
 Voskhod  Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31/6  
 Kosmos 780 (Zenit-2M #62/Gektor #62) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 3 December Successful
 Nauka-20KS 2L Low Earth Research
21 November
17:11
 Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 132/1  
 Kosmos 781 (Tselina-O #28) Low Earth ELINT 26 November 1980 Successful
25 November
17:00
 Soyuz-U  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
  Kosmos 782 (Bion #3) Institute of Biomedical Problems Low Earth Biology 15 December
04:48
Successful
26 November
03:27
 Long March 2A  Jiquan Satellite Launch Center, LA-2B (Site 138)  MASI
 FSW-0 1 Low Earth Reconnaissance 29 December Successful
First successful launch of Long March 2.
28 November
00:10
 Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 132/1  
 Kosmos 783 (Strela-2M #11) Low Earth Communications In orbit Successful

December

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3 December
10:00
 Voskhod  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
 Kosmos 784 (Zenit-2M/Gektor #63) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 15 December Successful
 Nauka-22KS 2L Low Earth Hosted research payload
4 December
20:38
 Titan IIID 3D-10  Vandenberg AFB, SLC-4E  US Air Force
 KH-9 11 (Hexagon, OPS 4428) NRO Low Earth Reconnaissance 1 April 1976 Successful
 S3 2 (S73-6, OPS 5547) STP Elliptical low Earth Research 1 May 1978 Successful
6 December
03:35
 Scout-F1 196C  Vandenberg AFB, SLC-5  US Air Force
 DADE-A Intended: Low polar Earth Atmosphere density research 6 December Failure
 DADE-B Intended: Low polar Earth Atmosphere density research
11 December
17:00
 Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 132/1  
 Interkosmos 14 (DS-U2-IK #7) Interkosmos Magnetosphere, ionosphere, micrometeorites research 27 February 1983 Successful
Cooperative project of the Hungarian People's Republic, People's Republic of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and the USSR
12 December
12:45
 Tsyklon-2  Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 90/19  
 Kosmos 785 (US-A #11) Low Earth Radar ocean surveillance In orbit Successful
13 December
01:56
 Delta 3914 Delta 118  Cape Canaveral AFS, LC-17A  US Air Force
 Satcom 1 RCA Americom Geostationary Communications In orbit Successful
Maiden flight of Delta 3914
14 December
05:15
 Titan III(23)C 3C-29  Cape Canaveral AFS, SLC-40  US Air Force
 DSP 5 (OPS 3165) USAF Geostationary Missile early warning In orbit Successful
16 December
09:19
  Feng Bao 1   Jiquan Satellite Launch Center, LA-2B (Site 138)
  JSSW 2 (CK 2) Low Earth Unknown 27 January 1976 Successful
16 December
09:50
 Voskhod  Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31/6  
 Kosmos 786 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #53) GRU Low Earth Reconnaissance 29 December Successful
17 December
11:06
 Molniya-M/Blok ML  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
 Molniya-2 15 Molniya orbit Communications 28 June 1990 Successful
19 December
14:00
 Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 132/1  
 DS-P1-M #7 Intended: Low Earth ASAT target 19 December Failure
22 December
02:08
 Molniya-M/Blok SO-L  Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31/6  
 Prognoz 4 Highly elliptical orbit Solar and magnetosphere research 18 December 1977 Successful
22 December
13:00
 Proton-K/Blok DM  Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 81/24  
 Raduga 1 (Gran 11L) Geostationary Communications In orbit Successful
25 December
19:00
 Vostok-2M  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 41/1  
 Meteor-1 23 Low Earth Weather In orbit Successful
27 December
10:22
 Molniya-M/Blok ML  Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3  
 Molniya-3 4 (Molniya-3 15L) Molniya orbit Communications 17 October 1986 Successful

Deep space rendezvous

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Date Spacecraft Event Remarks
16 March Mariner 10 3rd flyby of Mercury Closest approach: 327 kilometres (203 mi)
20 October Venera 9 Cytherocentric orbit insertion First orbiter of Venus
22 October Venera 9 lander Venerian landing Landed at 05:13 UTC; first images from Venus surface
23 October Venera 10 Cytherocentric orbit insertion
25 October Venera 10 lander Venerian landing Landed at 05:17 UTC

EVAs

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Start Date/Time Duration End Time Spacecraft Crew Remarks

References

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  • 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).
Generic references:
  Spaceflight portal

Footnotes

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  1. ^ "Atlas-SLV3D Centaur-D1A | Intelsat 4 F6". nextspaceflight.com. Retrieved 28 September 2024.