1976 in spaceflight

The following is an outline of 1976 in spaceflight.

1976 in spaceflight
Viking 2 on the surface of Mars
Orbital launches
First6 January
Last28 December
Total131
Catalogued128
National firsts
Satellite Indonesia
Rockets
Maiden flightsThor DSV-2U
RetirementsVoskhod
Scout B-1
Soyuz
Soyuz-M
Thor-Burner
Crewed flights
Orbital3
Total travellers6

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 probeIn orbitSuccessful
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.
22 June
18:04:00		 Proton-K Baikonur Site 81/23
Salyut 5 (Almaz OPS-3) Low Earth Space station8 August 1977Successful
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 expedition24 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 expedition23 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 expedition16 October
17:45:53		Spacecraft failure
Crewed flight with two cosmonauts, failed to dock with Salyut 5
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Deep space rendezvous
Date Spacecraft Event Remarks
19 JuneViking 1Areocentric orbit insertion
20 JulyViking 1 Landerlanded in Chryse Planitia
7 AugustViking 2Areocentric orbit insertion
18 AugustLuna 24landed in Mare Crisiumsample return mission
19 AugustLuna 24lift-off from Mare Crisium170 grams (6.0 oz)
3 SeptemberViking 2 Landerlanded 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
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