1977 in spaceflight

1977 in spaceflight

Launch of Voyager 2 on a Titan IIIE
Orbital launches
First	6 January
Last	27 December
Total	130
Catalogued	124
Rockets
Maiden flights	Mu-3H Tsyklon-3
Retirements	Kosmos-2I Titan IIIE
Crewed flights
Orbital	3
Total travellers	6

Spaceflight in 1977 included some important events such as the roll out of the Space Shuttle orbiter, Voyager 1 and Voyager space probes were launched. NASA received the Space Shuttle orbiter later named Enterprise, on 14 January. This unpowered sub-orbital space plane was launched off the top of a modified 747 and was flown uncrewed until 13 August until a human crew landed the Enterprise for the first time.

In August and September, the two Voyager spacecraft to the outer planets were launched. Voyager 2, launched on 20 August, went on to fly past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1, which was launched on 5 September, flew past Jupiter and Saturn, with a planned flyby of Pluto being cancelled in favour of a closer flyby of Titan.

Launches

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
19 February 05:15	M-3H			Kagoshima Space Center LP-M		ISAS
		MS-T3 (Tansei 3)	ISAS	Highly elliptical orbit	Technology test	In orbit	Successful
		First flight of M-3H
16 June 10:51:00	Delta 2914			Cape Canaveral LC-17B
		GOES 2	NOAA	Current: Graveyard Operational: Geostationary	Weather	In orbit	Successful
		Retired on 5 May 2001 and moved to a graveyard orbit
20 August 14:29:44	Titan IIIE			Cape Canaveral LC-41
		Voyager 2	NASA	Heliocentric to Galactocentric	Planetary	In orbit	Successful Operational
		Spacecraft flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, first spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune
5 September 12:56:01	Titan IIIE			Cape Canaveral LC-41
		Voyager 1	NASA	Heliocentric to Galactocentric	Planetary	In orbit	Successful Operational
		Final flight of Titan IIIE, spacecraft flew past Jupiter and Saturn

Deep space rendezvous

Date	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
20 February	Viking Orbiter 1	Flyby of Phobos	Closest approach: 89 kilometres (55 mi)
October	Viking Orbiter 2	Flyby of Deimos

EVAs

Start Date/Time	Duration	End Time	Spacecraft	Crew	Remarks
19 December 21:36	1 hour 28 minutes	23:04	Salyut 6 PE-1	Georgi Grechko (full) Yuri Romanenko (stand-up)	First Russian EVA in over 8 years and the first use of the Orlan-D spacesuit. Grechko inspected the front docking port for damage from the failed Soyuz 25 docking and found no damage, while Romanenko assisted from the open hatch.

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