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1963 in spaceflight
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| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| year | 1963 |
| image | X15 on B52 wing pylon.jpg |
| caption | A North American X-15 made two suborbital flights in July and August, becoming the first reusable spacecraft |
| first | 4 January |
| last | 21 December |
| total | 70 |
| success | 50 |
| failed | 17 |
| partial | 3 |
| catalogued | 55 |
| maidens | Atlas LV-3A Agena-D |
| Atlas LV-3C Centaur-B | |
| Polyot 11A59 | |
| Scout X-2B | |
| Scout X-3M | |
| Scout X-4 | |
| Thor DSV-2A Ablestar | |
| TAT SLV-2A Agena-B | |
| TAT SLV-2A Agena-D | |
| Voskhod 11A57 | |
| retired | Atlas LV-3B |
| Atlas LV-3C Centaur-B | |
| Scout X-2B | |
| Scout X-2M | |
| Scout X-3M | |
| suborbital | 2 |
| orbital | 3 |
| totalcrew | 4 |
Atlas LV-3C Centaur-B Polyot 11A59 Scout X-2B Scout X-3M Scout X-4 Thor DSV-2A Ablestar TAT SLV-2A Agena-B TAT SLV-2A Agena-D Voskhod 11A57 Atlas LV-3C Centaur-B Scout X-2B Scout X-2M Scout X-3M
Orbital and Suborbital launches
Main article: 1963 in spaceflight (January–March), 1963 in spaceflight (April-June), 1963 in spaceflight (July–September), 1963 in spaceflight (October-December)
Deep space rendezvous
| Date (GMT) | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 April | Luna 4 | Flyby of the Moon | Failed lander, closest approach: 8336 km |
| 19 June | Mars 1 | First flyby of Mars | Closest approach: 193000 km, communications system failed before flyby |
Notable creations of orbital debris
| Date/Time (UTC) | Source object | Event type | Pieces tracked | Remarks | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| url=http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv17i4.pdf | title=West Ford Needles: Where are They Now? | publisher=NASA | journal=Orbital Debris Quarterly News | volume=17 | issue=4 | date=October 2013 | access-date=13 February 2016 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305035905/http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv17i4.pdf | archive-date=5 March 2016 }} | Westford-2 | Communications experiment | 46 | As part of an experiment to facilitate international telecommunications, the US Military deployed an artificial space ring consisting of hundreds of millions of tiny copper needles |
Orbital launch statistics
By country
| [ {"value":460, "color":"#484785", "label": "United States: 46 (65.71%)"}, {"value":240, "color":"#A52A2A", "label": "Soviet Union: 24 (34.29%)"}, ]
| Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| failures | style="text-align:left;" | style="text-align:left;" | World | ||||||
| 24 | 15 | 9 | 0 | ||||||
| 46 | 35 | 8 | 3 |
By rocket
| Rocket | Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlas LV-3A Agena-B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Atlas LV-3A Agena-D | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Maiden flight | |
| Atlas LV-3B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Retired | |
| Atlas LV-3C Centaur-B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Only flight | |
| Delta B | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Delta C | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Kosmos-2I 63S1 | USSR | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | |
| Molniya 8K78 | USSR | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Molniya-L 8K78L | USSR | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Maiden flight |
| Polyot 11A59 | USSR | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Maiden flight |
| Scout X-2B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Only flight | |
| Scout X-2M | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Retired | |
| Scout X-3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Scout X-3M | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Only flight | |
| Scout X-4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Maiden flight | |
| Thor DSV-2A Ablestar | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Maiden flight | |
| Thor DM-21 Agena-B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Thor SLV-2 Agena-D (Thor DM-21 Agena-D) | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | Redesignated midyear | |
| Thrust Augmented Thor SLV-2A Agena-B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Maiden flight | |
| Thrust Augmented Thor SLV-2A Agena-D | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | Maiden flight | |
| Voskhod 11A57 | USSR | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Maiden flight |
| Vostok-K 8K72K | USSR | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vostok-2 8A92 | USSR | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
By orbit
| Orbital regime | Launches | Achieved | Not Achieved | Accidentally | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Achieved | Remarks | ||||
| Low Earth | 57 | 44 | 13 | 2 | |
| Medium Earth | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | |
| High Earth | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Including Highly elliptical orbits |
| Geosynchronous/transfer | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Heliocentric | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
References
Footnotes
References
- (October 2013). "West Ford Needles: Where are They Now?". [[NASA]].
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