1978 in spaceflight

1978 in spaceflight
	The Pioneer Venus Orbiter atop an Atlas-Centaur before launch
Orbital launches
First	6 January
Last	28 December
Total	128
Catalogued	124
National firsts
Space traveller	Czechoslovakia ; Poland ; East Germany DDR
Rockets
Retirements	Atlas-Agena ; Mu-3H
Crewed flights
Orbital	5
Total travellers	10
	v ; t ; e ;

Last updated October 01, 2023

1978 saw the launch of the Pioneer Venus missions launched by the United States, on 20 May and 8 August. The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe landed four spacecraft on the planet, one of which transmitted data for 67 minutes before being destroyed by atmospheric pressure. ISEE-C, which was launched on 8 December, flew past comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner in 1985, and Halley's Comet in 1986.^[1]

Launches


Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
10 January 12:26:00	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 1/5

		Soyuz 27		Low Earth (Salyut 6)	Salyut 6 EP-1	16 March 11:18	Successful
		Crewed flight with two cosmonauts
20 January 08:25	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 31/6

		Progress 1		Low Earth (Salyut 6)	Salyut 6 logistics	8 February 02:00	Successful
		Maiden flight of Progress spacecraft. First in-orbit refuel, from Progress to Salyut 6, 2nd Feb.
2 March 15:28:10	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 1/5

		Soyuz 28		Low Earth (Salyut 6)	Salyut 6 EP-2	10 March 11:24	Successful
		Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, first Czechoslovakian in space
20 May 13:13:00	Atlas SLV-3D Centaur			Cape Canaveral LC-36A

		Pioneer Venus Orbiter	NASA/ARC	Cytherocentric	Venus orbiter	22 October 1992	Successful
		Entered 181.6 x 66,360-km orbit around Venus on 4 December 1978.
15 June 20:16:45	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 1/5

		Soyuz 29		Low Earth (Salyut 6)	Salyut 6 EO-2	31 September 11:40	Successful
		Crewed flight with two cosmonauts
16 June 10:49	Delta 2914			Cape Canaveral LC-17B

		GOES 3	NOAA	Geostationary	Weather	In orbit	Successful
		Decommissioned on 29 June 2016.
27 June 15:27:21	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 1/5

		Soyuz 30		Low Earth (Salyut 6)	Salyut 6 EP-3	5 July 13:30	Successful
		Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, first Pole in space
8 August 07:33	Atlas SLV-3D Centaur			Cape Canaveral LC-36A

		Pioneer Venus Multiprobe Bus	NASA/ARC	Heliocentric	Venus atmospheric probe	9 December 1978 20:22:55	Successful
		Pioneer Venus Large Probe	NASA/ARC	Heliocentric	Venus atmospheric probe	9 December 1978 19:39:53	Successful
		Pioneer Venus North Probe	NASA/ARC	Heliocentric	Venus atmospheric probe	9 December 1978 19:42:40	Successful
		Pioneer Venus Night Probe	NASA/ARC	Heliocentric	Venus atmospheric probe	9 December 1978 19:52:07	Successful
		Pioneer Venus Day Probe	NASA/ARC	Heliocentric	Venus atmospheric probe	9 December 1978 20:55:34	Successful
		Day Probe survived landing, sent data for an additional 67 minutes afterward. First American probe to send data from the surface of Venus.
12 August 14:12:00	Delta 2914			Cape Canaveral LC-17B

		International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3)/International Cometary Explorer (ICE)	NASA/ESRO	Sun/Earth L₁ to Heliocentric	Probing interaction of Earth's magnetic field with solar wind, later cometary research	In orbit	Successful
		First probe stationed at Sun/Earth L₁ Lagrangian point. Later entered heliocentric orbit, encountering Comet Giacobini–Zinner on 11 September 1985. It would also study Halley's Comet from a distance in 1986.
26 August 14:51:30	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 1/5

		Soyuz 31		Low Earth (Salyut 6)	Salyut 6 EP-4	2 November 11:04	Successful
		Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, first East German in space
3 October 23:09:30	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 31/6

		Progress 4		Low Earth (Salyut 6)	Salyut 6 logistics	26 October 16:28	Successful

Deep Space Rendezvous

Date (GMT)	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
4 December	Pioneer Venus Orbiter	Cytherocentric orbit insertion
9 December	Pioneer Venus Multiprobe	Venerian atmospheric entry	The bus, one large and three small subprobes
21 December	Venera 12	Venerian landing
25 December	Venera 11	Venerian landing

EVAs

Start Date/Time	Duration	End Time	Spacecraft	Crew	Remarks
29 July 04:00	2 hours 20 minutes	06:20	Salyut 6 PE-2	Vladimir Kovalyonok Aleksandr Ivanchenkov	Ivanchenkov retrieved samples and experiments attached to the outside of Salyut. Kovalyonok assisted with the retrievals and used a color television camera to transmit EVA images to the ground controllers.

Related Research Articles

The year 1967 in spaceflight saw the most orbital launches of the 20th century and more than any other year until 2021, including that of the first Australian satellite, WRESAT, which was launched from the Woomera Test Range atop an American Sparta rocket. The United States National Space Science Data Center catalogued 172 spacecraft placed into orbit by launches which occurred in 1967.

Japan and China each launched their first satellites in 1970, bringing the total number of nations with independent launch capability to five.

Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to leave the gravitational influence of Earth. Also in 1959, Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another celestial body, impacting the Moon, and Luna 3 returned the first images of the far side of the Moon.

Explorer 1 was the first American satellite to reach orbit on 31 January 1958.

1973 saw the launch of the first American Space station known as Skylab on a Saturn rocket.

The following is an outline of 1981 in spaceflight.

The following is an outline of 1983 in spaceflight.

The following is an outline of 1985 in spaceflight.

The year 1986 saw the destruction of Space Shuttle Challenger shortly after lift-off, killing all seven aboard, the first in-flight deaths of American astronauts. This accident followed the successful flight of Columbia just weeks earlier, and dealt a major setback to the U.S. crewed space program, suspending the Shuttle program for 32 months.

This article outlines notable events occurring in 1994 in spaceflight, including major launches and EVAs.

On March 29, 1974 Mariner 10 became the first spacecraft to fly by Mercury, that saw a spacecraft for the first and last time in the 20th century.

The following is an outline of 1989 in spaceflight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1975 in spaceflight</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1976 in spaceflight</span>

The following is an outline of 1976 in spaceflight.

The following is an outline of 1979 in spaceflight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1987 in spaceflight</span>

The following is an outline of 1987 in spaceflight.

The following is an outline of 1988 in spaceflight.

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. "Jonathan's Space Report".
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:

Spaceflightportal

Footnotes

↑ Hughes, J (1996) Larousse Desk Reference Encloypedia London RD Press

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[1] Hughes, J (1996) Larousse Desk Reference Encloypedia London RD Press

[1]

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v t e Timeline of spaceflight
Spaceflight before 1951
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