Previous Spaceflight Launches

Filter by Agency, Locations or Vehicles

Show All Launches

Full Launch History

View all launches available - including launches from the past and utilize powerful search filters.

Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-2

Energia | Russia
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Sept. 12, 1959, 6:39 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Luna 2 successfully impacted the Moon's surface making it the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon and the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body.

Lunar Impactor
Explore Share

Atlas LV-3B | Big Joe 1

National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of America
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
Sept. 9, 1959, 8:19 a.m.
Status: Launch was a Partial Failure
Mission:

Suborbital flight with the objective of testing the Mercury spacecraft ablative heat shield. The Atlas booster section failed to jettison, leading to a lower apogee. It was nonetheless sufficient to satisfy the Mercury spacecraft team.

Suborbital
Explore Share

Little Joe | LJ-1

North American Aviation | United States of America
Wallops Island, Virginia, USA
Aug. 21, 1959, noon
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Little Joe 1 (LJ-1) was a failed launch of a Little Joe by NASA, a solid fuel rocket that was designed for a Max Q abort and Launch Escape System test for Mercury capsule. The objective was to determine how well the escape rocket would function under the most severe dynamic loading conditions anticipated during a Mercury-Atlas launching.

Suborbital
Explore Share

Thor Agena A | Discoverer 6

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Aug. 19, 1959, 7:24 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Discoverer 6 was the sixth in a series of reconnaissance satellites, however, it failed to return its capsule when the retrorocket failed to deorbit the capsule.

Polar Orbit
Explore Share

Juno II | Beacon

Army Ballistic Missile Agency | United States of America
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
Aug. 15, 1959, 12:31 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Beacon 2 was launched an a three stage Juno 2 rocket. The vehicle ran into trouble three minutes into flight and an array of failures caused the GNC system to fail causing the satellite to fall short of orbit.

Low Earth Orbit
Explore Share

Thor Agena A | Discoverer 5

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Aug. 13, 1959, 7 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Discoverer 5 was the fifth in a series of reconnaissance satellites, however, it failed to return its capsule when it was accidentally sent into a higher orbit.

Polar Orbit
Explore Share

Thor Able III | Explorer 6

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
Aug. 7, 1959, 2:24 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Explorer 6 was an American satellite designed to study trapped radiation of various energies, galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetism, radio propagation and the flux of micrometeorites. It also tested a scanning device designed for photographing the Earth's cloud cover, and transmitted the first pictures of Earth from a satellite.

Elliptical Orbit
Explore Share

Juno II | NASA S-1

Army Ballistic Missile Agency | United States of America
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
July 16, 1959, 5:37 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

The S-1 satellite was a geoscience satellite equipped with a suite of scientific instruments to study the environment around the Earth. It was destroyed 5 seconds into launch when the launch vehicle exploded due to an issue with the launch vehicles power supply.

Elliptical Orbit
Explore Share

Thor Agena A | Discoverer 4

McDonnell Douglas | United States of America
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
June 25, 1959, 10:47 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Discoverer 4 was the fourth in a series of reconnaissance satellites, however, it failed to reach orbit when the Agena engine underperformed and failed to place the capsule into orbit.

Polar Orbit
Explore Share

Vanguard | Vanguard

Lockheed Martin | United States of America
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
June 22, 1959, 8:16 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Vanguard is a scientific satellite to measure the Earth's magnetic field, solar X-ray radiation and its effects on the Earth's atmosphere and the near-Earth micrometeoroid environment.

Low Earth Orbit
Explore Share

Get it on Google Play
Get it on the App Store