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

1970 in spaceflight
Orbital launches
First11 February
Last12 December
Successes124
Failures10
Catalogued114
National firsts
Satellite Japan
 China
Orbital launch Japan
 China

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.

Orbital Launches

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This is a list of spaceflights launched in 1970.

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

January

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9 January  Voskhod   Baikonur Site 31/6 RVSN RF
 Kosmos 318 (Zenit-2M №7, Gektor №7) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
14 January   Titan IIIB Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-4W
 OPS 6531 KH-8 4325 USAF Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
15 January   Delta M  Cape Canaveral LC-17A
 Intelsat III F6 Intelsat Geosynchronous Communications In orbit Successful
15 January  Kosmos-2  Plesetsk Site 133/1 RVSN RF
 Kosmos 319 (DS-P1-Yu №29) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Radar calibration In orbit Successful
16 January  Kosmos-2  Kapustin Yar LC-86/4 RVSN RF
 Kosmos 320 (DS-MO №2, Opticheski №2) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Technology Demonstration In orbit Successful
20 January  Kosmos-2  Plesetsk Site 133/1
 Kosmos 321 (DS-U2-MG №1) Low Earth Orbit Magnetospheric Astronomy In orbit Successful
21 January  Voskhod   Plesetsk Site 41/1 RVSN RF
 Kosmos 322 (Zenit-4 №68) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
23 January   Delta N6  Vandenberg SLC-2W
 TIROS M (ITOS 1) NOAA Low Earth Meteorology In orbit Successful
  Australis University of Melbourne Low Earth Communications In orbit Successful
30 January  Kosmos-2  Plesetsk Site 133/1 RVSN RF
 DS-P1-I №7 Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Radar calibration In orbit Failure

February

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4 February   Thorad-SLV2G Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-2E
 SERT 2 NASA Lewis research center Low Earth Technology Demonstration In orbit Successful
6 February  Proton K / D  Pad 81/23, Baikonur MOM
 Ye-8-5 No.405 MOM Selenocentric Lunar lander In orbit Failure
10 February  Voskhod  Site 41/1, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 323 (Zenit-4 #69) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
11 February   Lambda-4S   Kagoshima   Japan
  Ohsumi Tokyo University Low Earth Technology 2 August 2003 Successful
First satellite launched by Japan, final flight of L-4S
11 February   Thor LV-2F Burner 2  Vandenberg SLC-10W
 OPS 0054 DMSP-5A F1 SSO Meteorology In orbit Successful
19 February  Molniya-M/ML  Site 43/4, Plesetsk
 Molniya-1 13 Molniya Communications In orbit Successful
27 February  Kosmos-2  Plesetsk Site 133/1
 Kosmos 324 (DS-P1-Yu #30) Low Earth Orbit Calibration In orbit Successful

March

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4 March  Voskhod  Site 43/4, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 325 (Zenit-2 #79) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
4 March   Thorad-SLV2H Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-3W
 OPS 0440 KH-4B 1109 Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
  OPS 3402 Tivoli 3 USAF Low Earth ELINT In orbit Successful
10 March
12:20
  Diamant B  Kourou ELD   CNES
  DIAL-WIKA DFVLR Elliptical low Earth Upper athmosphere research 5 October 1978 Successful
  DIAL-MIKA DFVLR Elliptical low Earth Launch vehicle evaluation 9 September 1974 Spacecraft failure
Maiden flight of Diamant B, the first orbital launch from Kourou and South America in general
13 March  Voskhod  Site 43/4, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 326 (Zenit-2 #80) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
17 March  Vostok-2M  Site 41/1, Plesetsk
 Meteor-1 3 Low Earth Orbit Meteorology In orbit Successful
18 March  Kosmos-2  Site 133/1, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 327 (DS-P1-I #8) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Radar calibration In orbit Successful
20 March   Delta M  Cape Canaveral LC-17B
  NATO 2A NATO Geosynchronous Military Communication In orbit Successful
27 March  Voskhod  Site 41/1, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 328 (Zenit-2MK #2, Germes #2) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful

April

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3 April  Voskhod  Site 43/4, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 329 (Zenit-2M #8, Gektor #8) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
7 April  Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk
 Kosmos 330 (Tselina O #6) Low Earth Orbit SIGNIT In orbit Successful
8 April   Thorad-SLV2G Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-2E
 Nimbus 4 NOAA / NASA Medium Earth Meteorology In orbit Successful
  Topo 1 US Army Medium Earth Geodesy In orbit Successful
8 April  Voskhod  Site 31/6, Baikonur
 Kosmos 331 (Zenit-4 #70) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
8 April   Titan IIIC  Cape Canaveral LC-40
  OPS 7033 Vela 11 USAF Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
  OPS 7044 Vela 12 USAF Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
11 April  Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk
 Kosmos 332 (Zaliv #5) Medium Earth Navigation In orbit Successful
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.
15 April  Voskhod  Site 41/1, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 333 (Zenit-4M #4, Rotor #4) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
15 April   Titan IIIB Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-4W
 OPS 2863 KH-8 4326 USAF Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
23 April   Delta M  Cape Canaveral LC-17A
 Intelsat III F7 Intelsat Geosynchronous Communication In orbit Successful
23 April  Kosmos-2   Plesetsk Site 133/1
 Kosmos 334 (DS-P1-Yu #31) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Radar calibration In orbit Successful
24 April
13:35
  Long March 1 Y1   Jiuquan LA-2A   CASC
  Dong Fang Hong I CAST Medium Earth Technology demonstration In orbit Successful
First satellite launched by China.
24 April  Kosmos-2   Kapustin Yar
 Kosmos 335 (DS-U1-R #1) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Research In orbit Successful
25 April  Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk
 Kosmos 336 (Strela-1M #1) Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Successful
 Kosmos 337 (Strela-1M #2) Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Successful
 Kosmos 338 (Strela-1M #3) Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Successful
 Kosmos 339 (Strela-1M #4) Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Successful
 Kosmos 340 (Strela-1M #5) Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Successful
 Kosmos 341 (Strela-1M #6) Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Successful
 Kosmos 342 (Strela-1M #7) Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Successful
 Kosmos 336 (Strela-1M #8) Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Successful
28 April  Vostok-2M  Site 41/1, Plesetsk
  Meteor-1 4 Medium Earth Meteorology In orbit Successful
12 May  Voskhod  Site 41/1, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 344 (Zenit-2 #81) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
20 May  Voskhod  Site 31/6, Baikonur
 Kosmos 345 (Zenit-4 #71) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
20 May   Thorad-SLV2H Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-3W
  OPS 4720 KH-4B 1110 CIA Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
  OPS 8520 Tripos 4 / Sousea 3 USAF Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
22 May  Kosmos-2   Plesetsk Site 133/1
  DS-P1-Yu #32 Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Radar calibration In orbit Failure

June

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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.
10 June  Voskhod  Site 31/6, Baikonur
 Kosmos 346 (Zenit-4 #72) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
12 June   Europa 1 F9   Woomera LC-6A   ELDO
  STV 3 ELDO Low Earth Vehicle Evaluation In orbit Failure
Fairing failed to separate
12 June  Kosmos-2   Kapustin Yar
 Kosmos 347 (DS-P1-Yu #33) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Radar calibration In orbit Successful
13 June  Kosmos 2   Plesetsk Site 133/1
 Kosmos 348 (DS-U2-GK #2) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Research In orbit Successful
17 June  Voskhod  Site 43/4, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 349 (Zenit-4 #73) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
19 June   Atlas-SLV3A Agena-D  Cape Canaveral LC-13
  OPS 5346 Aquacade (Rhyolite 1) NRO / CIA Geosynchronous Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
23 June  Vostok-2M  Site 41/1, Plesetsk
  Meteor-1 5 Medium Earth Meteorology In orbit Successful
25 April   Titan IIIB Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-4W
 OPS 6820 KH-8 4327 USAF Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
26 June  Molniya-M / ML  Site 43/4, Plesetsk
 Molniya-1 14 (Molniya-1 21L) Molniya Communication In orbit Successful
26 June  Voskhod  Site 31/6, Baikonur
 Kosmos 350 (Zenit-2M #9, Gektor #4) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
27 June  Kosmos-3M   Plesetsk Site 132/1
 Kosmos 351 (DS-P1-Yu #34) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Radar calibration In orbit Successful
27 June  Kosmos 2   Plesetsk Site 133/1
  Strela-2M #1 Low Earth Orbit Military Communication In orbit Failure

July

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7 July  Voskhod  Site 31/6, Baikonur
 Kosmos 352 (Zenit-4 #72) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
9 July  Voskhod  Site 41/1, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 353 (Zenit-2M #4, Gektor #10) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
21 July  Voskhod  Site 43/4, Plesetsk
  Zenit-4 #75 GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Failure
23 July   Thorad-SLV2H Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-3W
 OPS 4324 KH-4B 1111 Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
23 July   Delta M  Cape Canaveral LC-17A
 Intelsat III F8 Intelsat Geosynchronous Communication In orbit Successful
28 July  R-36-0  Site 191/66, Baikonur
 Kosmos 354 (OGCh #22) Low Earth Orbit Weapon System Test In orbit Successful

August

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7 August  Kosmos 2   Kapustin Yar
  Interkosmos 3 (DS-U2-IK #1) Interkosmos Low Earth Orbit Science In orbit Successful
7 August  Voskhod  Site 43/4, Plesetsk
 Kosmos 355 (Zenit-4 #76) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
10 August  Kosmos 2   Plesetsk Site 133/1
 Kosmos 356 (DS-U2-MG #2) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Research In orbit Successful
17 August  Molniya-M / MVL  Site 31/6, Baikonur
  Venera 7 Heliocentric to Venus orbit Venus lander In orbit Successful
18 August   Titan IIIB Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-4W
 OPS 7874 KH-8 4328 USAF Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
19 August   Delta M  Cape Canaveral LC-17A
 Skynet 1B Ministry of Defence Geosynchronous Military Communication In orbit Successful
19 August  Kosmos 2   Plesetsk Site 133/1
  Kosmos 357 (DS-P1-Yu #35) Yuzhnoye Low Earth Orbit Radar calibration In orbit Successful
20 August  Kosmos-3M  Plesetsk
 Kosmos 358 (DS-P1-M #1) Low Earth Orbit Weapon System Test In orbit Successful
22 August  Molniya-M / MVL  Site 31/6, Baikonur
  Kosmos 359 (Venera 8a) Heliocentric to Venus orbit Venus lander In orbit Failure
26 August   Thorad-SLV2G Agena-D  Vandenberg SLC-1W
 OPS 8329 Strawman 3 USAF Low Earth Reconnaissance In orbit Successful
27 August  Scout A  Vandenberg
  Transit 19 US Navy Navigation In orbit Successful
29 August  Voskhod  Site 31/6, Baikonur
 Kosmos 360 (Zenit-4M #5, Rotor #5) GRU Low Earth Orbit Reconnaissance In orbit Successful

September

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2 September
00:34
  Black Arrow R2   Woomera LA-5B   RAE
  Orba (X 2) RAE Suborbital Atmosheric density research 2 September Failure
First orbital launch attempt of Black Arrow. Second stage shut down 13 seconds earlier than intended.[1]
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
25 September
05:00
 M-4S  Kagoshima LP-M
 MS-F1 ISAS Low Earth Solar, cosmic ray and ionosphere research 25 September Failure
First flight of M-4S. Fourth stage failed to ignite

October

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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.

November

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24 November 1970
11:00
 Soyuz-L  Baikonur Site 31/6  
 Kosmos 379 (T2K No.1) Low Earth Uncrewed test flight of LK lunar lander 21 September 1983 Successful

December

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12 December
10:54
  Scout B   San Marco mobile range, Kenya   CNR
  Explorer 42 (Uhuru) NASA Low Earth X-ray astronomy 5 April 1979 Successful
First satellite dedicated to X-ray astronomy.

Suborbital Launches

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This is a list of spaceflights launched in 1970.

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

January-March

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4 March
21:15
  Black Arrow R1   Woomera LA-5B   RAE
RAE Suborbital Test flight 4 March Successful
Test flight with inert third stage. Apogee: 550 km

April-June

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16 April
06:38
  Cockatoo   Woomera LA-2 HAD   WRE
  WRE Cockatoo 101 (Sphere) WRE Suborbital Aeronomy 16 April Successful

July-September

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31 July
02:00[3]
  K63D   Vladimirovka test range, near Kapustin Yar
  BOR-2 No.102 Suborbital Re-entry test for Spiral program 31 July Successful
Subscale model of the Spiral spaceplane.[2] Apogee: 100 km

October-December

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1 October
13:46:12
  Nike Apache   Barreira do Inferno   MORABA
  DLR N-NA-30 DLR Suborbital Ionospheric research 1 October Successful
31 October
10:32
  Aerobee 170   White Sands Missile Range   NASA
  UVT-SDGS 3 NASA Suborbital UV astronomy 31 October Successful

Launches from the Moon

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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

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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

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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. ^ "Black Arrow | Orba". nextspaceflight.com. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  2. ^ Krebs, Gunter Dirk. "BOR-2". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  3. ^ Wade, Mark. "K63D". www.astronautix.com. Retrieved 12 August 2024.