1976 in spaceflight

The following is an outline of 1976 in spaceflight.

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.
29 February 03:30:00	N-I			Tanegashima LA-N
		Ionospheric Sounding Satellite (ISS) Ume		Low Earth	Ionospheric	In orbit	Successful
		First launch completed on February 29
15 March 01:25:40[2]	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.[1]
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
9 August 12:08:45	Proton-K/D			Baikonur 81/23
		Luna 24		Selenocentric	Lunar lander	22 August	Successful
		Third uncrewed lunar sample return, Third Soviet lunar sample return
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

Launches from the Moon

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
19 August 5:25	Luna 24 Ascent stage			Mare Crisium (Luna)
		Luna 24 Return capsule		Highly elliptical	Sample return	22 August 1976	Successful
		Third uncrewed lunar sample return mission

Deep space rendezvous

References

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Footnotes