1967 -
Disaster at Cape Kennedy, resulting in the deaths of three astronauts.
- Death of Colonel Komarov in Soyuz 1 due to parachute failure.
- First soft-landing on Venus by (USSR).
- First chemical analysis of lunar soil by NASA 619-lb Surveyor 5.
1968 -
Testing of the American Saturn 5 rocket (
Project Apollo).
- First recovery of circum-lunar probe, Zond 5 which had animals aboard, (USSR).
- First manned
Apollo flight: Apollo 7 (Schirra, Cunningham, Eisele).
- First flight round the Moon: Apollo 8 (Borman, Lovell, Anders).
- NASA OAO 2 orbiting astronomical observatory (4436-lb).
1969 -
First Russian manned docking maneuver (Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5).
- First space testing of the Lunar Module: Apollo 9 (McDivitt, Scott, Schweickart).
- Further soft-landings of unmanned probes on Venus: Venus 5 and Venus 6 (USSR)(Stafford, Cernan, Young).
- July 21 First men on the moon in Apollo 11 (Armstrong and Aldrin: Collins in orbit) returning 48-lbs of lunar samples from Mare Tranquillitatis.
- Further probes sent past Mars: Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 (USA).
1970 -
First Japanese Earth orbiter, 58-lb Lambda.
- First Chinese Earth orbiter (386-lbs).
- Soviet unmanned Luna returned 3-5 oz of lunar soil after soft landing in Mare Fecunditatis.
- First unmanned lunar vehicle, Lunokhod 1, soft-landed by Soviet Luna 17 for ii-months' operation in Mare Imbrium.
- X-ray survey of the sky started by NASA-Italian 320-lb Explorer 42 (Uhuru-).
- France launched Earth orbiter.
1971 -
Soviets launched Mars 2 and 3 for first impact on Mars the planet by Mars 2 and first soft landing on Dec 2, 1971 by Mars 3.
- NASA launched 2271-lb Mariner 9, first orbiter of Mars, which telemeter high-resolution TV pictures of the surface.
- First space lab, Soviet 41,580-lb. Salyut 1, visited for 22 days by Cosmonauts Dobrovolsky, Patsayev, and Volkov, who died in Soyuz on return to Earth.
- First manned Lunar Rover used by Astronauts Scott and Irwin on Apollo-15 mission near Hadley Rille.
- First sub-satellite launched from CSM by Astronaut Worden.
1972 -
NASA launched Pioneer 10 for first Jupiter fly-by in December 1973.
- First astronomical telescope on the Moon with NASA Apollo i6 and Astronauts Young and Duke.
- First color-image of Earth from NASA 1800lb ERTS i.
- 32-in telescope in Earth orbit Oil 4850-lb OAO 3 (Copernicus).
- Last manned landing on Moon by Astronauts Cernan and Schmitt in NASA Apollo 17; 250-lbs of lunar samples returned from Taurus-Littrow.
1973 -
NASA 190,000-lb Skylab in Earth orbit made many astronomical observations and engineering experiments performed by three crews in visits as long as 85 days.
- Soviet Union launched Mars 4, 5, and 6, of which Mars 5 soft landed in March 1974.
- NASA iio8-lb Mariner 10 launched for Venus and Mercury fly-bys.
1974 -
German Helios 1 launched by NASA to orbit sun at 0-3 AU.
1975 -
Soviet Union launched Venera 9 and 10 to orbit Venus; Venera-9 lander reached the surface October 22 and transmitted the first pictures from another planet's surface.
- NASA Apollo docked with Soviet Soyuz in joint ASTP mission.
- NASA launched 7500-lb Vikings 1 and 2 to visit Mars in July 1976 with 2293-lb landers to make first analysis of Martian soil.
1980 -
NASA
Space Shuttle to be used repeatedly.
- Solar maximum mission satellite (Solar Max) launched on 14 February but fails 1 month later. It featured the first in-orbit satellite repair mass on the space shuttle mission April 1984.
- Voyager I reaches Saturn and flies within 78,000 miles (126,000 km) of its cloud tops. It sent back spectacular pictures of the rings and discovered many new moons. The first of the powerful Intelsat V communications satellites, with 12,000 volt circuits, is launched on 6-December. The first operational orbiter Columbia is rolled out to the launch pad on 29 December, looking to a launch in the following spring.
