Previous Spaceflight Launches
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Saturn V | Apollo 6
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of AmericaKennedy Space Center, FL, USA
April 4, 1968, noon
Status: Launch was a Partial Failure
Mission:
Apollo 6 was intended to send a Command and Service Module (CSM) plus a Lunar Module Test Article (LTA), a simulated Lunar Module (LM) with mounted structural vibration sensors, into a translunar trajectory. However, the Moon would not be in position for a translunar flight, and the Service Module engine would be fired about five minutes later to slow the craft, dropping its apogee to 11,989 nautical miles (22,204 km) and causing the CSM to return to Earth, simulating a "direct-return" abort. On the return leg, the engine would fire once more to accelerate the craft to simulate the nominal lunar return trajectory with a re-entry angle of -6.5 degrees and velocity of 36,500 feet per second (11,100 m/s). The entire mission would last about 10 hours.
Elliptical Orbit
Voskhod | Zenit-2 60
Soviet Space Program | RussiaPlesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation
April 3, 1968, 11 a.m.
Tsiklon-2A | US-AO 4
Yuzhnoye Design Bureau | UkraineBaikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
March 22, 1968, 9:30 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:
US-A (Upravlenniye Sputnik Aktivny) were active radar satellites for ocean surveillance. The high power consumtion of the active radar required a nuclear reactor as power source. The satellites were known as RORSAT in the west. The US-AO series consisted of satellites, which tested all the system components but the nuclear reactor. They were battery powered.
Low Earth OrbitVoskhod | Zenit-2M 1
Soviet Space Program | RussiaBaikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
March 21, 1968, 9:50 a.m.
Voskhod | Zenit-4 39
Soviet Space Program | RussiaPlesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation
March 16, 1968, 12:30 p.m.
Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | KH-4A 46
McDonnell Douglas | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
March 14, 1968, 10 p.m.
Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 9
RKK Energiya | RussiaPlesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation
March 14, 1968, 9:34 a.m.
Titan IIIB | KH-8 12
Lockheed Martin | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
March 13, 1968, 7:51 p.m.
Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U1-Ya 1
Strategic Rocket Forces | RussiaKapustin Yar, Russian Federation
March 6, 1968, 11:02 a.m.
Scout B | Explorer 37
Vought | United States of AmericaWallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA
March 5, 1968, 6:28 p.m.
