1976 in spaceflight

The following is an outline of 1976 in spaceflight.

1976 in spaceflight

Viking 2 on the surface of Mars
Orbital launches
First	6 January
Last	28 December
Total	131
Catalogued	128
National firsts
Satellite	Indonesia
Rockets
Maiden flights	Thor DSV-2U
Retirements	Voskhod Scout B-1 Soyuz Soyuz-M Thor-Burner
Crewed flights
Orbital	3
Total travellers	6

Launches

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
15 January 05:34:00	Titan IIIE/Star-37			Cape Canaveral SLC-41		NASA
		Helios-B	NASA / DFVLR	Heliocentric	Solar probe	In orbit	Successful
		Achieved a closest approach to the Sun of 43.432 million km (0.29 AU) on 17 April 1976, the closest approach achieved by an artificial satellite; it was succeeded by the Parker Solar Probe in 2018.
15 March 01:25:40[1]	Titan III(23)C			Cape Canaveral SLC-40		NASA
		LES-8	MIT Lincoln Laboratory	Geosynchronous	Technology demonstration	In orbit	Successful
		LES-9	MIT Lincoln Laboratory	Geosynchronous	Technology demonstration	In orbit	Successful
		SOLRAD 11A	NRL	Geosynchronous	Heliophysics	In orbit	Successful
		SOLRAD 11B	NRL	Geosynchronous	Heliophysics	In orbit	Successful
		LES-8 was decommissioned in 2004; LES-9, the last Lincoln Experimental Satellite, continued functioning for 44 years and was finally decommissioned in 2020.[2]
22 June 18:04:00	Proton-K			Baikonur Site 81/23
		Salyut 5 (Almaz OPS-3)		Low Earth	Space station	8 August 1977	Successful
		Visited by three crews, one of which failed to dock
6 July 12:08:45	Soyuz			Baikonur Site 1/5
		Soyuz 21		Low Earth (Salyut 5)	Salyut expedition	24 August 18:32:17	Partial mission failure
		Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, final flight of Soyuz 11A511, returned early due to crew illness
15 September 09:48:30	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 1/5
		Soyuz 22		Low Earth	Salyut expedition	23 September 07:40:47	Successful
		Crewed flight with two cosmonauts
14 October 17:39:18	Soyuz-U			Baikonur Site 1/5
		Soyuz 23		Low Earth (Intended: Salyut 5)	Salyut expedition	16 October 17:45:53	Spacecraft failure
		Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, failed to dock with Salyut 5

Deep space rendezvous

Date	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
19 June	Viking 1	Areocentric orbit insertion
20 July	Viking 1 Lander	landed in Chryse Planitia
7 August	Viking 2	Areocentric orbit insertion
18 August	Luna 24	landed in Mare Crisium	sample return mission
19 August	Luna 24	lift-off from Mare Crisium	170 grams (6.0 oz)
3 September	Viking 2 Lander	landed in Utopia Planitia

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. McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
2. Ryan, Dorothy (27 May 2020). "Lincoln Laboratory decommissions Lincoln Experimental Satellite–9". MIT. Retrieved 6 December 2020.