1968 in spaceflight

The United States National Space Science Data Center catalogued 157 spacecraft placed into orbit by launches which occurred in 1968.[1] The first crewed Apollo missions occurred in 1968. It was also the year in which Earth lifeforms first left low Earth orbit, during the successful Zond 5 mission, and the year that humans first left low Earth orbit, during the successful Apollo 8 mission.

1968 in spaceflight

The crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to witness Earthrise, photographed by William Anders on 24 December 1968
Orbital launches
Total	6

Launches

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December

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
January
22 January 23:45	Saturn IB (C-1B)			LC-37B, Cape Canaveral		NASA
		Apollo 5	NASA	LEO	Test Lunar Module	12 February 1968 09:59	successful
Minor malfunction of LM descent stage engine, otherwise successful
April
4 April 12:00:02	Saturn V (C-5)			LC-39A, Kennedy		NASA
		Apollo 6	NASA	LEO	Test CSM heat shield at Lunar return speeds. Test S-IVB re-ignition in LEO.	4 April 1968 21:57:26	Partial failure
Experienced Pogo oscillation during S-IC first stage ascent. S-IVB failed restart test.
October
11 October 1968 15:02	Saturn IB (C-1B)			LC-34, Cape Canaveral		NASA
		Apollo 7	NASA	LEO	Crewed orbital flight	22 October 1968 11:11:48	Successful
First crewed Apollo flight
25 October 1968 09:00	Soyuz (R-7/A-2)			LC-1/5, Baikonur		RVSN
		Soyuz 2	RVSN	LEO	Docking target for Soyuz 3	28 October 1968 07:21	Successful
Soyuz 3 failed to dock
26 October 08:34	Soyuz (R-7/A-2)			LC-31/6 Baikonur		RVSN
		Soyuz 3	RVSN	LEO	Crewed orbital flight	30 October 1968 07:25:03	Partial Failure
Failed to dock with Soyuz 2
21 December 12:51	Saturn V (C-5)			LC-39A, Kennedy		NASA
		Apollo 8	NASA	Selenocentric	Crewed lunar orbiter	27 December 1968 15:51:42	Successful
First crewed mission to the Moon

Deep space rendezvous

Date (UTC)	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
10 January	Surveyor 7	Lunar landing	in the debris from Tycho crater
31 January	Lunar Orbiter 5	Lunar impact
10 April	Luna 14	Selenocentric orbit insertion
18 September	Zond 5	Flyby of the Moon; first return to Earth after flight to Moon; first Earth life forms to travel around the Moon	Closest approach: 1,950 kilometres (1,210 mi)
14 November	Zond 6	Flyby of the Moon	Closest approach: 2,420 kilometres (1,500 mi)
24 December	Apollo 8	Selenocentric orbit insertion; first humans to travel around the Moon
25 December	Apollo 8	Leaves selenocentric orbit	Completed 10 orbits

References

Generic references:
 Spaceflight portal

• 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".
• 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).

Footnotes

1. "Spacecraft Query Results". Master Catalog Search. NASA NSSDC. Retrieved 30 May 2010.