1975 in spaceflight

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

In 1975 several notable events happened in spaceflight such as the launch and arrival at Venus of Venera 9 and 10, the launch to Mars of the Viking orbiter/landers missions, the joint Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, and the launch of satellite Aryabhatta.

  • 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 saw an end to the space race with the US and USSR. The mission was launched between 15 July 1975 and 17 July 1975.
  • On 19 April India launched its first satellite, Aryabhatta with success.

Launches[edit]

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

January[edit]

10 January
21:43:37
Soviet UnionSoyuz Soviet UnionBaikonur Site 1/5 Soviet Union
Soviet UnionSoyuz 17 Low Earth (Salyut 4) Salyut expedition 19 February
11:03
Successful
Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, first mission to Salyut 4

February[edit]

March[edit]

April[edit]

5 April
11:04:54
Soviet UnionSoyuz Soviet UnionBaikonur Site 1/5 Soviet Union
Soviet UnionSoyuz 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
9 April
23:58:02
United States Delta 1410 United States Vandenberg SLC-2W United States NASA
United States GEOS-3 NASA Low Earth Geodesy In orbit Successful
19 April Soviet UnionKosmos-3M Soviet UnionKapustin Yar Soviet Union Soviet Interkosmos programme
IndiaAryabhatta 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[edit]

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

June[edit]

July[edit]

15 July
14:58:10
Soviet UnionSoyuz-U Soviet UnionBaikonur Site 1/5 Soviet Union
Soviet UnionSoyuz 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
United StatesSaturn IB United StatesKennedy LC-39B United StatesNASA
United StatesApollo NASA Low Earth (Soyuz 19) International docking 24 July
21:18
Successful
United StatesDM-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

August[edit]

20 August
21:22:00
United StatesTitan IIIE United StatesCape Canaveral LC-41 United States
United StatesViking 1 Orbiter NASA Areocentric Mars orbiter In orbit Successful
United StatesViking 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[edit]

9 September
18:39:00
United StatesTitan IIIE United StatesCape Canaveral LC-41 United States
United StatesViking 2 Orbiter NASA Areocentric Mars orbiter In orbit Successful
United StatesViking 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[edit]

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

November[edit]

December[edit]

Deep space rendezvous[edit]

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[edit]

Start Date/Time Duration End Time Spacecraft Crew Remarks

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]