1968 in spaceflight

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1968 in spaceflight

The crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to witness Earthrise, photographed by William Anders on 24 December 1968
Orbital launches
Total	6
v t

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, and the year that humans first left low Earth orbit, during the successful Apollo 8 mission.

Launches[]

Key

 USA

 Soviet Union

January[]

January launches

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
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

April[]

April launches

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
4 April 12:00:02	Saturn V (C-5)			LC-39A, Kennedy		NASA
		Apollo 6	NASA	LEO	Test CSM heat shield at Lunar return speeds. Test S-IVB re-ignition in LEO.	4 April 1968 21:57:26	Partial failure
		Experienced Pogo oscillation during S-IC first stage ascent. S-IVB failed restart test.

October[]

October launches

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
11 October 1968 15:02	Saturn IB (C-1B)			LC-34, Cape Canaveral		NASA
		Apollo 7	NASA	LEO	Crewed orbital flight	22 October 1968 11:11:48	Successful
		First crewed Apollo flight
25 October 1968 09:00	Soyuz (R-7/A-2)			LC-1/5, Baikonur		RVSN
		Soyuz 2	RVSN	LEO	Docking target for Soyuz 3	28 October 1968 07:21	Successful
		Soyuz 3 failed to dock
26 October 08:34	Soyuz (R-7/A-2)			LC-31/6 Baikonur		RVSN
		Soyuz 3	RVSN	LEO	Crewed orbital flight	30 October 1968 07:25:03	Partial Failure
		Failed to dock with Soyuz 2

December[]

December launches

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
21 December 12:51	Saturn V (C-5)			LC-39A, Kennedy		NASA
		Apollo 8	NASA	Selenocentric	Crewed lunar orbiter	27 December 1968 15:51:42	Successful
		First crewed mission to the Moon

Deep space rendezvous[]

Orbital Launch Summary[]

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References[]