1972 in spaceflight

none yes yes yes yes 1972 Apollo 17 Night Launch - GPN-2000-001150.jpg Launch of Saturn V with the final Apollo mission to the Moon 12 January 28 December 113 105 7 1 106 Delta 0100 Delta 1000 Delta LDelta NM-4SThorad-Agena Timeline of spaceflight 1971 1973 1972 saw humanity's last crewed mission to the Moon of the 20th century, Apollo 17. 2 right on Launches August 2008 1972 yes |colspan=8| January |- 1 January 12 09:59 USSRVoskhod USSRBaikonur, LC-31/6 USSRRVSN USSRKosmos 471 (Zenit 4M/Rotor) GRU Low Earth orbit Reconnaissance January 25, 1972 Successful 2 January 20 18:36 USATitan IIID USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-4E USAKH-9 2 (Hexagon 2) USAF LEO Reconnaissance 29 February 1972 Successful USAMabeli (OPS 7719) USAF LEO ELINT 17 April 1979 Successful 1 January 23 00:12 USAAtlas SLV-3C Centaur-D AC-28 USACape Canaveral, LC-36B UNIntelsat 4 F-4 Intelsat Geosynchronous Communications Successful 1 25 January 11:15 USSRKosmos-2 USSRPlesetsk, Site 133/1 USSRRVSN USSRKosmos 472 (DS-P1-Yu No. 52) RVSN LEO Radar calibration 18 August 1972 Successful 1 January 31 17:20 USADelta L D-87 Vandenberg AFB, SLC-2E Final flight of Delta L HEOS 2 ESRO High eccentricity LEO/HEO Particle and field research August 2, 1974 Successful |colspan=8| February |- 1 8 February 05:59Wade Mark K63D http://www.astronautix.com/k/k63d.html 2024-08-12 www.astronautix.com USSR K63D USSR Vladimirovka test range, near Kapustin Yar Subscale model of the Spiral spaceplane.Krebs Gunter Dirk BOR-2 https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/bor-2.htm 2024-08-12 Gunter's Space Page Apogee: 100 km USSR BOR-2 No.104 Suborbital Re-entry test for Spiral program 8 February Successful 1 February 14 03:27 USSRProton-K/Blok D (8K82K) USSRBaikonur, LC-81/24 USSRRVSN USSRLuna 20 Lunar Lunar sample return February 21, 1972 (at Moon) Successful |colspan=8| March |- 1 March 3 01:49 USAAtlas SLV-3C Centaur/Star 37E AC-27 USACape Canaveral, LC-36A First spacecraft to cross asteroid belt. First flyby of Jupiter. First probe to leave Solar System USAPioneer 10 NASA Heliocentric to Solar Escape Jupiter flyby Successful 1 March 12 01:55 USADelta N D-88 USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-2E Final flight of Delta N TD-1A ESRO LEO Technology research January 9, 1980 Successful 1 March 24 08:46 USAThor-LV2F Burner-2A USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-10W USAUS Air Force USADMSP 5B F2 US Air Force LEO Weather satellite Successful 1 March 27 04:15 USSRMolniya-M/MVL USSRBaikonur Cosmodrome, 31/6 USSRSoviet Union USSRVenera 8 USSR Heliocentric to Venus Venus lander July 22, 1972 (on Venus) Successful |colspan=8| April |- 3 April 16 17:45 USASaturn V USAKennedy, LC-39A USANASA Crewed spaceflight to the Moon with 3 astronauts. Subsatellite placed in wrong orbit, shorter lifespan than planned USAApollo 16 CSM "Casper" NASA Lunar Crewed lunar orbiter April 27, 1972 Successful USAApollo 16 lunar module "Orion" NASA Lunar Crewed lunar lander April 20, 1972 14:23 (at Moon) Successful USAApollo 16 Subsatellite NASA Lunar Lunar particles research May 29, 1972 (at Moon) Partial failure 1 April 19 21:43 USAThorad Agena-D SLV-2H USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-3W USAUS Air Force USAKH-4B 1116 USAF LEO Reconnaissance May 12, 1972 Successful |colspan=8| May |- 1 May 25 18:41 USAThorad Agena-D SLV-2H USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-3W USAUS Air Force Final flight of Thorad-Agena USAKH-4B 1117 USAF LEO Reconnaissance June 4, 1972 |colspan=8| June |- 1 June 13 21:53 USAAtlas SLV-3C Centaur AC-29 USACape Canaveral, LC-36B UNIntelsat 4 F-5 Intelsat Geosynchronous Communications Successful 1 June 26 14:53 USSRSoyuz (11A511) USSRBaikonur, LC-1/5 USSRRVSN USSRKosmos 496 (Soyuz 7K-T) LEO Test redesigned Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft July 2, 1972 Successful |colspan=8| July |- 1 July 23 18:41 USADelta 0900 D-89 USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-2W Maiden flight of Delta 0100 series USALandsat 1 NASA LEO Earth resources satellite Successful |colspan=8| August |- 1 10 August 00:32 PRCFeng Bao 1 701-02 PRCJiuquan Satellite Launch Center, LA-2B (Site 138) First suborbital test flight of Feng Bao 1, apogee: 200 km. PRCShiyan Peizhong Suborbital Test flight T+90 seconds Successful 1 13 August 15:10 USAScout D-1 USAWallops Flight Facility, LA-3 USAExplorer 46 (MTS) NASA LEO Meteoroid research 2 November 1979 Successful 1 August 19 02:40 JPNM-4S JPNKagoshima Space Center, LP-M JPNNASDA Final flight of M-4S. The satellite stopped transmitting several days after launch, due to high voltage arcing JPNDenpa (REXS) ISAS Highly elliptical orbit Magnetosphere research 19 May 1980 Spacecraft failure 1 August 21 10:28 USAAtlas SLV-3C Centaur AC-22 USACape Canaveral, LC-36B Final flight of Atlas SLV-3C Centaur USAOAO 3 NASA LEO Ultraviolet astronomy Successful |colspan=8| September |- 1 September 23 01:20 USADelta 1604 (1604) D-90 USACape Canaveral, LC-17B Maiden flight of Delta 1000 series. Maiden flight of Extended Long-Tank Thor stage USAExplorer 47 NASA HEO Magnetosphere research Successful |colspan=8| October |- 2 October 2 20:09 USAAtlas F Burner II USAVandenberg AFB, BMRS-A1 USAUS Air Force USAOPS 8180 (RADCAT) USAF LEO Radar calibration 2 August 2012 Successful USARadsat USAF LEO Gamma radiation research Successful 2 October 15 17:19 USADelta 0300 D-91 USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-2W USANOAA 2 (ITOS-B) NOAA LEO Weather satellite Successful USAAMSAT-OSCAR 6 AMSAT LEO Amateur radio Successful |colspan=8| November |- 1 November 9 03:23 USAThor Burner II USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-10W USAUS Air Force USADMSP 5B F3 USAF LEO Weather Successful 1 November 10 01:14 USADelta 1914 D-92 USACape Canaveral, LC-17B CANAnik A1 Telesat Geosynchronous Communications Successful |colspan=8| December |- 2 December 7 05:33 USASaturn V USAKennedy, LC-39A USANASA Crewed spaceflight to the Moon with 3 astronauts. Final flight of Apollo program. USAApollo 17 CSM "America" NASA Lunar Crewed lunar orbiter December 19, 1971 Successful USAApollo 17 lunar module "Challenger" NASA Lunar Crewed lunar lander December 14, 1971 (at Moon) Successful 1 December 11 07:56 USADelta 0900 D-93 USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-2W USANimbus 5 NASA LEO Environmental research Successful 1 December 16 11:24 USAScout D-1 USAVandenberg AFB, SLC-5 NASA USADEAeros 1 NASA/BMwF Successful 1 December 20 22:20 USAAtlas SLV-3A Agena-D USACape Canaveral, LC-13 USAUS Air Force USAOPS 9390 Canyon 5 USAF Geosynchronous SIGINT Successful |} 1972 Launches from the Moon 1 22 February 22:58 USSR Luna 20 Ascent stage Terra Apollonius (Luna) Second uncrewed lunar sample return mission USSR Luna 20 Return capsule USSR Highly elliptical Sample return 25 February Successful 1 24 April 01:25:47 USA Lunar Module Ascent Stage Descartes Highlands (Luna) USA NASA Carrying two astronauts back to CSM after lunar landing USA Apollo 16 LM NASA Selenocentric (CSM) Crewed Unknown Successful 1 14 December 22:54:37 USA Lunar Module Ascent Stage Taurus-Littrow (Luna) USA NASA Carrying two astronauts back to CSM after lunar landing USA Apollo 17 LM NASA Selenocentric (CSM) Crewed 15 December 06:50 Successful |} Deep space rendezvous in 1972 February 21 – Luna 20, 55g from Apollonius Crater (sample return mission) April 21 – Apollo 16, 95 kg from Descartes Highlands (sample return mission) July 22 – Venera 8 atmospheric probe worked for 50 min on the Venerian surface December 11 – Apollo 17, 111 kg from Taurus–Littrow (sample return mission) References Footnotes March 2022 2 1972 on expanded Category:Spaceflight by year