This is a detailed list of human spaceflights from 1971 to 1980, including the later Apollo Moon landings, the US Skylab missions, and the start of the Soviet Union's Salyut series of space stations.
# | Crew | Launch spacecraft | Habitation | Return spacecraft | Brief mission summary | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
42 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 31 January 1971![]() | Moon | 9 February 1971![]() | Third lunar landing. Shepard becomes only Mercury astronaut to walk on the Moon and hits a golf ball on the Moon's surface. | |
43 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 23 April 1971![]() | 25 April 1971![]() | Unsuccessful attempt to board Salyut 1 space station. | ||
44 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 6 June 1971![]() | Salyut 1 | 29 June 1971![]() | Successful boarding of Salyut 1 (first crewed space station). All crew died on re-entry due to air leak. | |
45 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 26 July 1971![]() | Moon | 7 August 1971![]() | Fourth lunar landing. First Lunar Rover. First deep space EVA. | |
46 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 16 April 1972![]() | Moon | 27 April 1972![]() | Fifth lunar landing. Second Lunar Rover. Second deep space EVA. | |
47 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 7 December 1972![]() | Moon | 19 December 1972![]() | Sixth and last lunar landing. Third and last Lunar Rover. Third and last deep space EVA. | |
48 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 25 May 1973![]() | Skylab | 22 June 1973![]() | First crewed mission to Skylab space station. Spent almost one month in space. | |
49 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 28 July 1973![]() | Skylab | 25 September 1973![]() | Spent almost two months in space. Miscellaneous scientific experiments. | |
50 | ![]() ![]() | 27 September 1973![]() | 29 September 1973![]() | Test flight of new Soyuz design following Soyuz 11 disaster. | ||
51 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 16 November 1973![]() | Skylab | 8 February 1974![]() | Spent almost three months in space. Miscellaneous scientific experiments conducted. | |
52 | ![]() ![]() | 18 December 1973![]() | 26 December 1973![]() | Second test of redesigned Soyuz capsule. Astrophysical observations. | ||
53 | ![]() ![]() | 3 July 1974![]() | Salyut 3 | 19 July 1974![]() | Military mission. Evaluation of military applications of human spaceflight. | |
54 | ![]() ![]() | 26 August 1974![]() | 28 August 1974![]() | Failed to board Salyut 3 space station. | ||
55 | ![]() ![]() | 2 December 1974![]() | 8 December 1974![]() | Systems testing in preparation for joint Soviet-US space flight. | ||
56 | ![]() ![]() | 11 January 1975![]() | Salyut 4 | 10 February 1975![]() | Astronomical observations. | |
57 | ![]() ![]() | 5 April 1975![]() | Failed to reach orbit due to malfunction. | |||
58 | ![]() ![]() | 24 May 1975![]() | Salyut 4 | 26 July 1975![]() | Research into long-term stays in space. | |
59 | ![]() ![]() | 15 July 1975![]() | 21 July 1975![]() | Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP); first joint Soviet–US spaceflight. The two craft dock in space with exchange of flags and gifts. Last crewed US mission until STS-1 in 1981. | ||
60 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 15 July 1975![]() | 24 July 1975![]() | |||
61 | ![]() ![]() | 6 July 1976![]() | Salyut 5 | 24 August 1976![]() | Assessment of Salyut 5 station's military surveillance capabilities. | |
62 | ![]() ![]() | 15 September 1976![]() | 23 September 1976![]() | Earth photography. | ||
63 | ![]() ![]() | 14 October 1976![]() | 16 October 1976![]() | Failed to board Salyut 5 space station. | ||
64 | ![]() ![]() | 7 February 1977![]() | Salyut 5 | 25 February 1977![]() | Investigation of air quality on board Salyut 5. | |
65 | ![]() ![]() | 9 October 1977![]() | 11 October 1977![]() | Failed to board Salyut 6 space station. | ||
66 | ![]() ![]() | 10 December 1977![]() | Salyut 6 | 16 March 1978![]() | First successful docking with Salyut 6. | |
67 | ![]() ![]() | 10 January 1978![]() | Salyut 6 | 16 January 1978![]() | ||
68 | ![]() ![]() | 2 March 1978![]() | Salyut 6 | 10 March 1978![]() | First Czech astronaut and first astronaut not from USA or USSR (Remek). | |
69 | ![]() ![]() | 15 June 1978![]() | Salyut 6 | 2 November 1978![]() | Salyut 6 crew rotation. | |
70 | ![]() ![]() | 27 June 1978![]() | Salyut 6 | 5 July 1978![]() | Life sciences experiments. Earth observations and study of aurora borealis. First Pole in space (Hermaszewski). | |
71 | ![]() ![]() | 26 August 1978![]() | Salyut 6 | 3 September 1978![]() | First East German in space (Jähn). | |
72 | ![]() ![]() | 25 February 1979![]() | Salyut 6 | 19 August 1979![]() | Salyut 6 crew rotation. | |
73 | ![]() ![]() | 10 April 1979![]() | 12 April 1979![]() | Failed to board Salyut 6 space station. First Bulgarian in space (Ivanov). | ||
74 | ![]() ![]() | 9 April 1980![]() | Salyut 6 | 11 October 1980![]() | Salyut 6 crew rotation. | |
75 | ![]() ![]() | 26 May 1980![]() | Salyut 6 | 3 June 1980![]() | Materials processing, Earth observation and life sciences experiments. First Hungarian in space (Farkas). | |
76 | ![]() ![]() | 5 June 1980![]() | Salyut 6 | 9 June 1980![]() | First crewed flight of the Soyuz T. | |
77 | ![]() ![]() | 23 July 1980![]() | Salyut 6 | 31 July 1980![]() | Miscellaneous scientific experiments. First Vietnamese and first Asian outside USSR in space (Tuan). | |
78 | ![]() ![]() | 18 September 1980![]() | Salyut 6 | 26 September 1980![]() | First Cuban and first black person in space (Tamayo-Mendez). | |
79 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | 27 November 1980![]() | Salyut 6 | 10 December 1980![]() | Salyut 6 refurbishment. |
Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Operations included an orbital workshop, a solar observatory, Earth observation and hundreds of experiments. Skylab's orbit eventually decayed and it disintegrated in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979, scattering debris across the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.
Alan LaVern Bean was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, NASA astronaut and painter. He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3, and was the fourth person to walk on the Moon.
Skylab 3 was the second crewed mission to the first American space station, Skylab. The mission began on July 28, 1973, with the launch of NASA astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, and Jack Lousma in the Apollo command and service module on the Saturn IB rocket, and lasted 59 days, 11 hours and 9 minutes. A total of 1,084.7 astronaut-utilization hours were tallied by the Skylab 3 crew performing scientific experiments in the areas of medical activities, solar observations, Earth resources, and other experiments.
Don Leslie Lind was an American scientist, naval officer, aviator, and NASA astronaut. He graduated from the University of Utah with an undergraduate degree in physics in 1953. Following his military service obligation, he earned a PhD in high-energy nuclear physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964.
Skylab 4 was the third crewed Skylab mission and placed the third and final crew aboard the first American space station.
Maspalomas Station is an INTA-operated, ESTRACK radio antenna ground station for communication with spacecraft located at the southern area of Gran Canaria island, on the INTA campus. It is situated on the Montaña Blanca hill and is visible from the coastal resort of Meloneras, close to Maspalomas. It was originally established in the 1960s to support NASA's nascent human spaceflight program.
Space Center Houston is a science museum that serves as the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It was designated a Smithsonian Affiliate museum in 2014. The organization is owned by NASA, and operated under a contract by the nonprofit Manned Spaceflight Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. The Johnson Space Center is the home of Mission Control and astronaut training.
Spaceflight began in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard, and Hermann Oberth, each of whom published works proposing rockets as the means for spaceflight. The first successful large-scale rocket programs were initiated in Nazi Germany by Wernher von Braun. The Soviet Union took the lead in the post-war Space Race, launching the first satellite, the first animal, the first human and the first woman into orbit. The United States landed the first men on the Moon in 1969. Through the late 20th century, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and China were also working on projects to reach space.
The Space Task Group was a working group of NASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with managing America's human spaceflight programs. Headed by Robert Gilruth and based at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, it managed Project Mercury and follow-on plans. After President John F. Kennedy set the goal in 1961 for the Apollo Program to land a man on the Moon and bring him back safely to Earth, NASA decided a much larger organization and a new facility was required to perform the Task Group's function, and it was transformed into the Manned Spacecraft Center, located in Houston, Texas.
With the advent of robotic and human spaceflight a new era of American history had presented itself. Keeping with the tradition of honoring the country's history on U.S. postage stamps, the U.S. Post Office began commemorating the various events with its commemorative postage stamp issues. The first U.S. Postage issue to depict a U.S. space vehicle was issued in 1948, the Fort Bliss issue. The first issue to commemorate a space project by name was the ECHO I communications satellite commemorative issue of 1960. Next was the Project Mercury issue of 1962. As U.S. space exploration progressed a variety of other commemorative issues followed, many of which bear accurate depictions of satellites, space capsules, Apollo Lunar Modules, space suits, and other items of interest.