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
	v; t; e;

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 [edit]
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 [edit]
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.^[1] 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 [edit]
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		7 April	Successful

		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 [edit]
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 [edit]
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 [edit]
3 June 09:00	Kosmos-3M			Kapustin Yar, Site 107/1

		DS-U3-IK #5	Interkosmos	Intended: Low Earth	Solar radiation research	3 June	Failure
3 June 13:20	Voskhod			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Kosmos 742 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #43)	GRU	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	15 June	Successful
5 June 01:37	Molniya-M/Blok ML			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 41/1

		Molniya-1K 30 (Molniya-1K 37L)		Molniya orbit	Communications	25 September 1987	Successful
		SRET [fr] 2	CNES	Molniya orbit	Technology test	10 July 1988	Successful
8 June 02:37	Proton-K/Blok D			Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 81/24

		Venera 9 (4V1 #1) orbiter		Cytherocentric	Venus orbiter	In orbit	Successful
		Venera 9 (4V1 #1) lander		Cytherocentric	Venus lander	22 October 05:13 (on Venus)	Successful
		First spacecraft to orbit Venus, first spacecraft to return images from the surface of another planet
8 June 18:30	Titan IIID		3D-10	Vandenberg AFB, SLC-4E		US Air Force

		KH-9 10 (Hexagon, OPS 6381)	NRO	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	5 November	Successful
		P-226 1 (SSU 1, OPS 6381)		Low Earth	ELINT	In orbit	Successful
12 June 08:12	Delta 2910		Delta 111	Vandenberg AFB, SLC-2W

		Nimbus 6	NASA, NOAA	Low Earth	Weather	In orbit	Successful
12 June 12:30	Soyuz-U			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Kosmos 743 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #44)	GRU	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	25 June	Successful
14 June 03:00	Proton-K/Blok D			Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 81/24

		Venera 10 (4V1 #2) orbiter		Cytherocentric	Venus orbiter	In orbit	Successful
		Venera 10 (4V1 #2) lander		Cytherocentric	Venus lander	25 October 02:17 (on Venus)	Successful
18 June 09:00	Atlas SLV-3A Agena-D		5506A	Cape Canaveral AFS, LC-13		US Air Force

		Canyon 6 (AFP-827, OPS 4966)	NRO	High Earth orbit	SIGINT	In orbit	Successful
20 June 06:54	Vostok-2M			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 41/1

		Kosmos 744 (Tselina-D #7)		Low Earth	ELINT	11 October 1991	Successful
11:43 21 June	Delta 1910		Delta 112	Cape Canaveral AFS, LC-17B

		OSO 8	NASA	Low Earth	Solar research, UV and X-ray astronomy	9 July 1986	Successful
24 June 12:04	Kosmos-2			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 133/1

		Kosmos 745 (DS-P1-Yu #77)		Low Earth	Radar calibration	12 March 1976	Successful
25 June 12:59	Voskhod			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Kosmos 746 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #45)	GRU	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	9 July	Successful
27 June 13:00	Voskhod			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 41/1

		Kosmos 747 (Zenit-2M/Gektor #58)	GRU	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	9 July	Successful
		Nauka-22KS 1L		Low Earth	Hosted research payload	9 July	Successful
July [edit]
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 [edit]
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 [edit]
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.
27 September 08:37	Diamant BP4			Guiana Space Centre ELD		CNES

		Aura [fr] (D-2B)	CNES	Low Earth	Ultraviolet astronomy	30 September 1982	Successful
		Last flight of Diamant
October [edit]
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 [edit]
4 November 10:12	Kosmos-3M			Plesetsk Comodrome, Site 132/1

		Kosmos 778 (Parus #4)		Low Earth	Navigation, data relay	In orbit	Successful
4 November 15:19	Voskhod			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Kosmos 779 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #52)	GRU	Low Earth	Reconnaisance	18 November	Successful
14 November 19:13	Molniya-M/Blok ML			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Molniya-3 3 (Molniya-3 13L)		Molniya orbit	Communications	19 November 2017	Successful
17 November 14:36:37	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 1/5

		Soyuz 20		Low Earth (Salyut 4)	Uncrewed test flight, biology	16 February 1976 02:24	Sucessful
		Last Soyuz flight to the Salyut 4 station
20 November 02:06:48	Delta 2910		Delta 117	Cape Canaveral AFS, LC-17B		US Air Force

		Explorer 55 (AE E)	NASA	Elliptical low Earth	Atmosphere research	10 June 1981	Successful
21 November 09:20	Voskhod			Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31/6

		Kosmos 780 (Zenit-2M #62/Gektor #62)	GRU	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	3 December	Successful
		Nauka-20KS 2L		Low Earth	Research	3 December	Successful
21 November 17:11	Kosmos-3M			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 132/1

		Kosmos 781 (Tselina-O #28)		Low Earth	ELINT	26 November 1980	Successful
25 November 17:00	Soyuz-U			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Kosmos 782 (Bion #3)	Institute of Biomedical Problems	Low Earth	Biology	15 December 04:48	Successful
26 November 03:27	Long March 2A			Jiquan Satellite Launch Center, LA-2B (Site 138)		MASI

		FSW-0 1		Low Earth	Reconnaissance	29 December	Successful
		First successful launch of Long March 2.
28 November 00:10	Kosmos-3M			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 132/1

		Kosmos 783 (Strela-2M #11)		Low Earth	Communications	In orbit	Successful
December [edit]
3 December 10:00	Voskhod			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Kosmos 784 (Zenit-2M/Gektor #63)	GRU	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	15 December	Successful
		Nauka-22KS 2L		Low Earth	Hosted research payload	15 December	Successful
4 December 20:38	Titan IIID		3D-10	Vandenberg AFB, SLC-4E		US Air Force

		KH-9 11 (Hexagon, OPS 4428)	NRO	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	1 April 1976	Successful
		S3 2 (S73-6, OPS 5547)	STP	Elliptical low Earth	Research	1 May 1978	Successful
6 December 03:35	Scout-F1		196C	Vandenberg AFB, SLC-5		US Air Force

		DADE-A		Intended: Low polar Earth	Atmosphere density research	6 December	Failure
		DADE-B		Intended: Low polar Earth	Atmosphere density research	6 December	Failure
11 December 17:00	Kosmos-3M			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 132/1

		Interkosmos 14 (DS-U2-IK #7)	Interkosmos		Magnetosphere, ionosphere, micrometeorites research	27 February 1983	Successful
		Cooperative project of the Hungarian People's Republic, People's Republic of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and the USSR
12 December 12:45	Tsyklon-2			Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 90/19

		Kosmos 785 (US-A #11)		Low Earth	Radar ocean surveillance	In orbit	Successful
13 December 01:56	Delta 3914		Delta 118	Cape Canaveral AFS, LC-17A		US Air Force

		Satcom 1	RCA Americom	Geostationary	Communications	In orbit	Successful
		Maiden flight of Delta 3914
14 December 05:15	Titan III(23)C		3C-29	Cape Canaveral AFS, SLC-40		US Air Force

		DSP 5 (OPS 3165)	USAF	Geostationary	Missile early warning	In orbit	Successful
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
16 December 09:50	Voskhod			Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31/6

		Kosmos 786 (Zenit-4MK/Germes #53)	GRU	Low Earth	Reconnaissance	29 December	Successful
17 December 11:06	Molniya-M/Blok ML			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Molniya-2 15		Molniya orbit	Communications	28 June 1990	Successful
19 December 14:00	Kosmos-3M			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 132/1

		DS-P1-M #7		Intended: Low Earth	ASAT target	19 December	Failure
22 December 02:08	Molniya-M/Blok SO-L			Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31/6

		Prognoz 4		Highly elliptical orbit	Solar and magnetosphere research	18 December 1977	Successful
22 December 13:00	Proton-K/Blok DM			Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 81/24

		Raduga 1 (Gran 11L)		Geostationary	Communications	In orbit	Successful
25 December 19:00	Vostok-2M			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 41/1

		Meteor-1 23		Low Earth	Weather	In orbit	Successful
27 December 10:22	Molniya-M/Blok ML			Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Site 43/3

		Molniya-3 4 (Molniya-3 15L)		Molniya orbit	Communications	17 October 1986	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.^{[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

^ "Atlas-SLV3D Centaur-D1A | Intelsat 4 F6". nextspaceflight.com. Retrieved 28 September 2024.

[1] "Atlas-SLV3D Centaur-D1A | Intelsat 4 F6". nextspaceflight.com. Retrieved 28 September 2024.

[1]

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March

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July

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September

October

November

December

Deep space rendezvous

EVAs

References

Footnotes