Orbital and Suborbital launches
Deep space rendezvous Date (GMT)SpacecraftEventRemarks 5 April Luna 4 Flyby of the Moon Failed lander, closest approach: 19 June Mars 1 First flyby of Mars Closest approach: , communications system failed before flyby
Notable creations of orbital debris Date/Time (UTC)Source objectEvent typePieces trackedRemarks 9 May 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 which would act as antennas reflecting radio signals at the target wavelength of 8 GHz. A large proportion of the needles were not dispersed properly and remained stuck in clumps that were discovered and tracked by the SSN between 1966 and 1991. , 46 of the 144 detected debris clumps remain in orbit. The needles that were properly dispersed are believed to have decayed. This event prompted international protests and influenced the drafting of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
Orbital launch statistics By country
Country Launches Successes Failures Partialfailures 24 15 9 0 46 35 8 3 World
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 8 4 4 0 Molniya 8K78 1 0 1 0 Molniya-L 8K78L 3 1 2 0 Maiden flight Polyot 11A59 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 1 1 0 0 Maiden flight Vostok-K 8K72K 2 2 0 0 Vostok-2 8A92 8 6 2 0
By orbit Orbital regime Launches Achieved Not Achieved AccidentallyAchieved 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