1961 in spaceflight

none August 2021 April 2026 1961 Vostok 1 after landing.jpg The Vostok 1 spacecraft, aboard which Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth on 12 April 1961 31 January 22 December 50 28 20 2 36 USSR 1955 Atlas LV-3A Agena-BRM-90 Blue Scout IIKosmos-2I 63S1Saturn I (suborbital test) Atlas LV-3A Agena-ARM-90 Blue Scout IIJuno IIScout X-1 2 2 4 Timeline of spaceflight 1960 1962 2 right on 1961 yes Orbital and Suborbital launches 1961 in spaceflight (January–June) 1961 in spaceflight (July–December) Deep Space Rendezvous Date (GMT)SpacecraftEventRemarks19 May Venera 1 First flyby of Venus Spacecraft was already non-functional as communication had been lost en route, closest approach: 100000 kmVenera 1 https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1961-003A NSSDCA Master Catalog NASA 12 September 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20210805234237/https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1961-003A 5 August 2021 live 1961-003A Notable creations of orbital debris Date/Time (UTC)Source objectEvent typePieces trackedRemarks 29 Junehttp://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/_techrep/TP-1999-208856.pdf Orbital Debris: A Chronology 18 NASA JSC January 1999 13 February 2016 Two hours after separating from the U.S. Transit 4-A satellite, its Able Star upper stage becomes the first known artificial object to break up unintentionally in space. The cause of the explosion is unknown. The event produces at least 294 trackable pieces, more than tripling the number of known satellites of Earth. dead https://web.archive.org/web/20000901071135/http://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/_techrep/TP-1999-208856.pdf 1 September 2000 Thor-Able upper stage of Transit 4A navigation satellite Rocket explosion 294 First explosion of a rocket stage in orbit creating hundreds of debris pieces Orbital launch statistics 120 false left [ {"value":410, "color":"#484785", "label": "United States:41 (82%)"}, {"value":90, "color":"#a52a2a", "label": "Soviet Union: 9 (18%)"}, ] Country Launches Successes Failures Partialfailures 9 5 4 0 41 23 16 2 World 9 41 5 23 4 16 0 2 By rocket Rocket Country Family Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks Atlas LV-3A Agena-A Atlas 1 1 0 0 Retired Atlas LV-3A Agena-B Atlas 7 2 4 1 Maiden flight Atlas LV-3B Atlas 3 2 1 0 First orbital launch RM-90 Blue Scout II Scout 1 0 1 0 Only orbital launch Juno II Jupiter 3 1 2 0 Retired Kosmos-2I 63S1 USSR 1955 Kosmos 2 0 2 0 Maiden flight Molniya 8K78 USSR 1955 R-7 2 1 1 0 Scout X-1 Scout 3 1 2 0 Retired Thor DM-21 Ablestar Thor 3 2 0 1 Thor DM-21 Agena-B Thor 17 11 6 0 Thor DM-19 Delta Thor 3 3 0 0 Vostok-K 8K72K USSR 1955 R-7 5 4 1 0 By family Family Country Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks Atlas 11 5 5 1 Jupiter 3 1 2 0 Retired Kosmos (rocket) USSR 1955 2 0 2 0 Maiden flight R-7 8K78 USSR 1955 7 5 2 0 Scout 4 1 3 0 Thor 23 16 6 1 By orbit Orbital regime Launches Achieved Not Achieved Accidentally Achieved Remarks Low Earth 41 28 13 3 Medium Earth 1 1 0 0 High Earth 6 2 4 0 Including Highly elliptical orbits Heliocentric 2 1 1 0 References Footnotes 2 1961 on expanded Category:Spaceflight by year