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.

1970 in spaceflight

Orbital launches
First	11 February
Last	12 December
Successes	124
Failures	10
Catalogued	114
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

This is a list of spaceflights launched in 1970.

← Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec →

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
January
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
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
3 March 21:15	Black Arrow			Woomera		RAE
			RAE	Low Earth	Test LV	In orbit	Successful
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	Diamant B			Kourou ELD
		Dial-WIKA	DFVLR		Technology Demonstration	In orbit	Successful
		Dial-MIKA	DFVLR		Technology Demonstration	In orbit	Successful
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
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
May
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.

← Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec →

Suborbital Launches

This is a list of spaceflights launched in 1970.

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
July-September
31 July 02:00	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. Apogee: 100 km

Launches from the Moon

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

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

• 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". 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.
• "Space Information Center". JAXA.
• "Хроника освоения космоса" [Chronicle of space exploration]. CosmoWorld (in Russian).

Generic references:
Spaceflight portal