1976 in spaceflight

Summary

The following is an outline of 1976 in spaceflight.

1976 in spaceflight
Viking 2 on the surface of Mars
Orbital launches
First6 January
Last28 December
Total131
Catalogued128
National firsts
Satellite Indonesia
Rockets
Maiden flightsThor DSV-2U
RetirementsVoskhod
Scout B-1
Soyuz
Soyuz-M
Thor-Burner
Crewed flights
Orbital3
Total travellers6

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).
Generic references:
  Spaceflight portal

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Report. Archived from the original on 16 November 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2020.