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1968 in spaceflight

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Field	Value
year	1968
image	NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg
caption	The crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to witness Earthrise, photographed by William Anders on 24 December 1968
first	7 January
last	26 December
total	128
success	119
failed	9
partial	3
maidens	Delta M
Delta N
retired	Delta J
Kosmos-3
orbital	3

Delta N Kosmos-3

The United States National Space Science Data Center catalogued 157 spacecraft placed into orbit by launches, which occurred in 1968. 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 to the Moon and the Zond 6 lunar mission which crashed upon return, and the year that humans first left low Earth orbit, during the successful Apollo 8 mission to the Moon.

Deep space lunar missions

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	Lunar 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 (two Russian tortoises)	Closest approach: 1950 km
14 November	Zond 6	Flyby of the Moon, with turtles, flies, and bacteria	Closest approach: 2420 km
24 December	Apollo 8	Lunar orbit insertion; first humans to travel around the Moon
25 December	Apollo 8	Leaves lunar orbit	Completed 10 orbits

Orbital launches

:Key

:USA :USSR

January

|d-date = 10 January (on Moon) |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date =12 February 1968 |d-time = 09:59 |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-date = |}

February

|d-date = |d-date = 7 February |d-date = 24 March |d-date = |}

March

|d-date = |d-date=9 March |d-date = |d-date = 2 March 1969 |d-date = |d-date = 16 November 1990 |d-date = 6 March |d-date = |d-date = 22 April 1989 |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |}

April

|d-date = TLI to direct return abort (planned) |d-date =4 April 1968 |d-time =21:57:26 |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = 30 June |d-date = |d-date = |d-date=22 April |d-date = 26 April |d-date = 25 April |d-date = 2 March 1969 |}

May

|d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date =18 May |d-date = 18 May |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |}

June

|d-date = |d-date = |d-date = 4 June |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = 15 June |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |}

July

|d-date = |d-date = 2 November |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |}

August

|d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = 22 June 1981 |d-date = |d-date = Low Earth orbit (achieved) |d-date = 17 October |d-date = |d-date = 16 August |d-span=12 |o-span=12 |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-span=inherit |o-span=inherit |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = 1 September |d-time=09:03 |}

September

|d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date=21 September |d-time=16:08 |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = 19 September |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |}

October

|d-date = 2 October |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date =22 October 1968 |d-time =11:11:48 |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date =28 October 1968 |d-time =07:21 |d-span = |o-span = |d-date =30 October 1968 |d-time = 07:25:03 |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-date = |}

November

|d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date=17 November |d-time=14:10 |d-date = |d-date=24 July 1969 |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = 29 November |d-date = |}

December

|d-date = 5 March 1969 |d-date = |d-date = 28 October 1975 |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = 5 May 1969 |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = |d-date = 12 February 1969 |d-date =27 December 1968 |d-time =15:51:42 |d-span = |o-span = |d-date = |d-date = 18 July 1969 |}

Suborbital Launches

January-December

|d-date =28 March |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date =20 May |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date =27 May |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date =8 August |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |d-date =20 August |d-time = |d-span = |o-span = |}

Orbital launch summary

References

Footnotes

References

"Spacecraft Query Results". NASA NSSDC.
Wade, Mark. "T-7".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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