1975 in spaceflight

1975 in spaceflight

Artist's impression of the ASTP docking
Orbital launches
First	10 January
Last	27 December
Total	132
Catalogued	125
National firsts
Satellite	India
Rockets
Maiden flights	Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1AR Delta 3000 Diamant-BP4 Long March 2C N-I Scout F-1 Titan III(34)B
Retirements	Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1A Delta 1000 Diamant-BP4 Saturn IB Scout F-1
Crewed flights
Orbital	4
Suborbital	1
Total travellers	9

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.

Launches

← 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
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
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. 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
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
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
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
July
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
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
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.
October
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 March 7, 1985
November
December
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

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

Deep space rendezvous

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

Start Date/Time	Duration	End Time	Spacecraft	Crew	Remarks

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