1961 in spaceflight

1961 in spaceflight

The Vostok 1 spacecraft, aboard which Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth on 12 April 1961
Orbital launches
First	31 January
Last	22 December
Total	50
Successes	28
Failures	20
Partial failures	2
Catalogued	36
National firsts
Spaceflight	Italy
Space traveller	Soviet Union  United States
Rockets
Maiden flights	Atlas LV-3A Agena-B Kosmos-2I 63S1 Saturn I (suborbital test)
Retirements	Atlas LV-3A Agena-A Juno II
Crewed flights
Orbital	2
Suborbital	2
Total travellers	4

Deep Space Rendezvous

Date (GMT)	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
19 May	Venera 1	First flyby of Venus	Spacecraft was already non-functional as communication had been lost en route, closest approach: 100,000 kilometres (62,000 mi)

Notable creations of orbital debris

Date/Time (UTC)	Source object	Event type	Pieces tracked	Remarks
29 June[1]	Thor-Able upper stage of Transit 4A navigation satellite	Rocket explosion	294[1]	First explosion of a rocket stage in orbit creating hundreds of debris pieces

Orbital launch summary

By country

		Soviet Union   United States
Orbital launch attempts by country in 1961

Country	Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
Soviet Union	9	5	4	0
United States	41	23	16	2

By rocket

Rocket	Country	Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
Atlas LV-3A Agena-A	United States	1	1	0	0	Retired
Atlas LV-3A Agena-B	United States	7	2	4	1	Maiden flight
Atlas LV-3B	United States	3	2	1	0	First orbital launch
RM-90 Blue Scout II	United States	1	0	1	0	First orbital launch
Juno II	United States	3	1	2	0	Retired
Kosmos-2I 63S1	Soviet Union	2	0	2	0	Maiden flight
Molniya 8K78	Soviet Union	2	1	1	0
Scout X-1	United States	3	1	2	0
Thor DM-21 Ablestar	United States	3	2	0	1
Thor DM-21 Agena-B	United States	17	11	6	0
Thor DM-19 Delta	United States	3	3	0	0
Vostok-K 8K72K	Soviet Union	5	4	1	0

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

Generic references:
 Spaceflight portal

• Bergin, Chris. "NASASpaceFlight.com".
• Clark, Stephen. "Spaceflight Now".
• Kelso, T.S. "Satellite Catalog (SATCAT)". CelesTrak.
• Krebs, Gunter. "Chronology of Space Launches".
• Kyle, Ed. "Space Launch Report".
• McDowell, Jonathan. "Jonathan's Space Report".
• Pietrobon, Steven. "Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive".
• Wade, Mark. "Encyclopedia Astronautica".
• Webb, Brian. "Southwest Space Archive".
• Zak, Anatoly. "Russian Space Web".
• "ISS Calendar". Spaceflight 101.
• "NSSDCA Master Catalog". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
• "Space Calendar". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• "Space Information Center". JAXA.
• "Хроника освоения космоса" [Chronicle of space exploration]. CosmoWorld (in Russian).

Footnotes

1. Orbital Debris: A Chronology (PDF). NASA JSC. January 1999. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 September 2000. Retrieved 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.