1963 in spaceflight

none August 2021 January 2014 1963 X15 on B52 wing pylon.jpg A North American X-15 made two suborbital flights in July and August, becoming the first reusable spacecraft 4 January 21 December 70 50 17 3 55 Atlas LV-3A Agena-DAtlas LV-3C Centaur-BPolyot 11A59Scout X-2BScout X-3MScout X-4Thor DSV-2A AblestarTAT SLV-2A Agena-BTAT SLV-2A Agena-DVoskhod 11A57 Atlas LV-3BAtlas LV-3C Centaur-BScout X-2BScout X-2MScout X-3M 2 3 4 Timeline of spaceflight 1962 1964 2 right on 1963 yes Orbital and Suborbital launches 1963 in spaceflight (January–March) 1963 in spaceflight (April-June) 1963 in spaceflight (July–September) 1963 in spaceflight (October-December) Deep space rendezvous Date (GMT)SpacecraftEventRemarks 5 April Luna 4 Flyby of the Moon Failed lander, closest approach: 8336 km 19 June Mars 1 First flyby of Mars Closest approach: 193000 km, communications system failed before flyby Notable creations of orbital debris Date/Time (UTC)Source objectEvent typePieces trackedRemarks 9 Mayhttp://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv17i4.pdf West Ford Needles: Where are They Now? NASA Orbital Debris Quarterly News 17 4 October 2013 13 February 2016 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20160305035905/http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv17i4.pdf 5 March 2016 Westford-2 Communications experiment 46 As part of an experiment to facilitate international telecommunications, the US Military deployed an artificial space ring consisting of hundreds of millions of tiny copper needlesI. I. Shapiro H. M. Jones Perkins C.W. Orbital properties of the West Ford dipole belt Proceedings of the IEEE 52 5 May 1964 469–518 10.1109/proc.1964.2992 which would act as antennas reflecting radio signals at the target wavelength of 8 GHz. A large proportion of the needles were not dispersed properly and remained stuck in clumps that were discovered and tracked by the SSN between 1966 and 1991. 2013 10, 46 of the 144 detected debris clumps remain in orbit. The needles that were properly dispersed are believed to have decayed. This event prompted international protests http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/space/terrill.pdf The Air Force Role in Developing International Outer Space Law Terrill Jr. Delbert R. Air Force History and Museums Program Air University Press Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama May 1999 63 13 February 2016 17 April 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180417023607/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/space/terrill.pdf dead https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4217/intro.htm Beyond the Ionosphere: The Development of Satellite Communications The NASA History Series NASA history.nasa.gov Butrica Andrew J. 12 July 2017 25 December 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20171225231626/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4217/intro.htm live West Ford Project, Introductory Note by the Secretary Bondi H. June 1962 Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 3 99 1962QJRAS...3...99. 23 October 1961 22 October 1961 Protests Continue Abroad The New York Times London 12 0362-4331 and influenced the drafting of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. Orbital launch statistics By country 120 false left [ {"value":460, "color":"#484785", "label": "United States: 46 (65.71%)"}, {"value":240, "color":"#A52A2A", "label": "Soviet Union: 24 (34.29%)"}, ] Country Launches Successes Failures Partialfailures 24 15 9 0 46 35 8 3 World 24 46 15 35 9 8 0 3 By rocket Rocket Country Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks Atlas LV-3A Agena-B 3 1 1 1 Atlas LV-3A Agena-D 5 5 0 0 Maiden flight Atlas LV-3B 1 1 0 0 Retired Atlas LV-3C Centaur-B 1 1 0 0 Only flight Delta B 6 6 0 0 Delta C 1 1 0 0 Kosmos-2I 63S1 USSR 1955 8 4 4 0 Molniya 8K78 USSR 1955 1 0 1 0 Molniya-L 8K78L USSR 1955 3 1 2 0 Maiden flight Polyot 11A59 USSR 1955 1 1 0 0 Maiden flight Scout X-2B 1 0 1 0 Only flight Scout X-2M 1 0 1 0 Retired Scout X-3 2 0 1 1 Scout X-3M 1 1 0 0 Only flight Scout X-4 2 1 0 1 Maiden flight Thor DSV-2A Ablestar 2 2 0 0 Maiden flight Thor DM-21 Agena-B 1 1 0 0 Thor SLV-2 Agena-D (Thor DM-21 Agena-D) 8 6 2 0 Redesignated midyear Thrust Augmented Thor SLV-2A Agena-B 1 1 0 0 Maiden flight Thrust Augmented Thor SLV-2A Agena-D 10 8 2 0 Maiden flight Voskhod 11A57 USSR 1955 1 1 0 0 Maiden flight Vostok-K 8K72K USSR 1955 2 2 0 0 Vostok-2 8A92 USSR 1955 8 6 2 0 By orbit Orbital regime Launches Achieved Not Achieved AccidentallyAchieved Remarks Low Earth 57 44 13 2 Medium Earth 5 4 1 0 High Earth 5 3 2 0 Including Highly elliptical orbits Geosynchronous/transfer 2 2 0 0 Heliocentric 1 0 1 0 References Footnotes 2 1963 on expanded Category:Spaceflight by year