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1968 in spaceflight
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 The crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to witness Earthrise, photographed by William Anders on 24 December 1968 | |
| Orbital launches | |
|---|---|
| Total | 6 |
The United States National Space Science Data Center catalogued 157 spacecraft placed into orbit by launches which occurred in 1968.[1] 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: 1,950 kilometres (1,210 mi) |
| 14 November | Zond 6 | Flyby of the Moon, with turtles, flies, and bacteria | Closest approach: 2,420 kilometres (1,500 mi) |
| 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
January
| Date and time (UTC) | Rocket | Flight number | Launch site | LSP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payload | Operator | Orbit | Function | Decay (UTC) | Outcome | ||
| Remarks | |||||||
| 7 January |  Atlas-SLV3 Centaur-D
|
Cape Canaveral SLC-36A
|
|||||
| Surveyor 7
|
NASA | Selenocentric | Lunar lander | In orbit | Successful | ||
| 11 January | Delta E1
|
Vandenberg SLC-2E
|
|||||
| Explorer 36 (GEOS-B)
|
NASA | Low Earth | Research | In orbit | Successful | ||
| 16 January |  Voskhod
|
Site 41/1, Plesetsk
|
|||||
| Kosmos 199 (Zenit-2 #58)
|
GRU | Low Earth Orbit | Reconnaissance | In orbit | Successful | ||
| 17 January | Thor SLV-2A Agena-D
|
Vandenberg SLC-2W
|
|||||
| OPS 1965 Multigroup 3&Setter 1B-2
|
USAF | Low Earth | ELINT | In orbit | Successful | ||
| 18 January | Titan IIIB Agena-D
|
Vandenberg SLC-4W
|
|||||
| OPS 5028 KH-8 4311
|
USAF | Low Earth | Reconnaissance | In orbit | Successful | ||
| 19 January | Kosmos 3M
|
Plesetsk
|
|||||
| Kosmos 200 (Tselina O #2)
|
Low Earth Orbit | SIGNIT | In orbit | Successful | |||
| 22 January 23:45 |
Saturn IB (C-1B)
|
LC-37B, Cape Canaveral
|
NASA
| ||||
| Apollo 5 | NASA | LEO | Test Lunar Module | 12 February 1968 09:59 |
successful | ||
| Minor malfunction of LM descent stage engine, otherwise successful | |||||||
| 24 January | Thorad-SLV2G Agena-D
|
Vandenberg SLC-1E
|
|||||
| OPS 5028 KH-4A 1045
|
CIA | Low Earth | Reconnaissance | In orbit | Successful | ||
| Tivoli 1
|
USAF | Low Earth | ELINT | In orbit | Successful | ||
February
| Date and time (UTC) | Rocket | Flight number | Launch site | LSP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payload | Operator | Orbit | Function | Decay (UTC) | Outcome | ||
| Remarks | |||||||
| 6 February | Voskhod
|
Site 31/6, Baikonur
|
|||||
| Kosmos 201 (Zenit-4 #38)
|
GRU | Low Earth Orbit | Reconnaissance | In orbit | Successful | ||
| 7 February | Molniya-M / Blok L
|
Site 1/5, Baikonur
|
|||||
| (Ye-6LS No 112)
|
Selenocentric | Lunar Orbiter | In orbit | Failure | |||
| 20 January | Kosmos 2
|
Kapustin Yar
|
|||||
| Kosmos 202 (DS-U2-V #4)
|
Low Earth Orbit | Ionospheric research | In orbit | Successful | |||
| 20 January | Kosmos 3M
|
Plesetsk
|
|||||
| Kosmos 203 (Sfera #1)
|
Low Earth Orbit | Geodesy | In orbit | Successful | |||