List of human spaceflights, 1961–1970

For notes, summary and related links, see List of human spaceflights.

This is a detailed list of human spaceflights from 1961 to 1970, spanning the Soviet Vostok and Voskhod programs, the start of the Soviet Soyuz program, the American Mercury and Gemini programs, and the first lunar landings of the American Apollo program.

* Red indicates fatalities.
* Green indicates sub-orbital spaceflight (including flights that failed to attain intended orbit).
* Grey indicates flights to the Moon.
* The United States defines spaceflight as any flight reaching an altitude of 50 miles, while the FAI definition requires an altitude of 100 kilometers. During the 1960s, 13 crewed flights of the U.S. North American X-15 rocket plane met the U.S. criteria, of which only two met the FAI's. This article's primary list includes only the latter two flights. A separate, secondary list gives the other eleven which flew between 50 miles and 100 kilometers.

#  | Crew  | Launch
spacecraft  | Habitation  | Return
spacecraft  | Brief mission summary

|
|
|
|
|

1  |  Yuri Gagarin | 12 April 1961
Vostok 1 | First crewed spaceflight. Reached Low Earth Orbit (LEO), flew around the Earth one time.
2  |  Alan Shepard (1)  | 5 May 1961
Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) | First American crewed spaceflight. Did not reach Earth orbit, maximum altitude: 187 km (116 miles).[1][2]
3  |  Gus Grissom (1)  | 21 July 1961
Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7) | Second American crewed spaceflight. Did not reach Earth orbit, maximum altitude: 190 km (118.26 mi).
4  |  Gherman Titov | 6 August 1961
Vostok 2 | 7 August 1961
Vostok 2 | Day-long flight in LEO. Flew around the Earth 17 times. Brief manual control by pilot.
5  |  John Glenn (1)  | 20 February 1962
Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) | First American crewed orbital flight. Flew around the Earth three times. It was also the first "completed" orbital human spaceflight per past FAI definitions, because unlike Soviet Vostok missions of that period, the crew landed while remaining inside the spacecraft.[3][4][5][6]
6  |  Scott Carpenter | 24 May 1962
Mercury-Atlas 7 (Aurora 7) | First manual retrofire. Earth photography and study of liquids in weightless conditions.
7  |  Andriyan Nikolayev (1)  | 11 August 1962
Vostok 3 | 15 August 1962
Vostok 3 | First instance of two crewed spacecraft in orbit simultaneously.
8  |  Pavel Popovich (1)  | 12 August 1962
Vostok 4 | 15 August 1962
Vostok 4 | First instance of two crewed spacecraft in orbit simultaneously.
9  |  Wally Schirra (1)  | 3 October 1962
Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7) | First flawless Mercury mission.
10  |  Gordon Cooper (1)  | 15 May 1963
Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7) | 16 May 1963
Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7) | First live TV from U.S. astronaut.
11  |  Valery Bykovsky (1)  | 14 June 1963
Vostok 5 | 19 June 1963
Vostok 5 | Longest solo spaceflight.
12  |  Valentina Tereshkova | 16 June 1963
Vostok 6 | 19 June 1963
Vostok 6 | First woman in space.
13  |  Joseph A. Walker | 19 July 1963
Flight 90, X-15 | First winged craft in space. Reached altitude of 106 km.
14  |  Joseph A. Walker | 22 August 1963
Flight 91, X-15 | Reached altitude of 108 km. Walker becomes first person to fly into space twice. X-15-3 (serial 56-6672) becomes first vehicle to fly into space twice.
15  |  Vladimir Komarov (1)
Konstantin Feoktistov
Boris Yegorov | 12 October 1964
Voskhod 1 | 13 October 1964
Voskhod 1 | First multiple person spaceflight. Biomedical research.
16  |  Alexei Leonov (1)
Pavel Belyayev | 18 March 1965
Voskhod 2 | 19 March 1965
Voskhod 2 | First EVA.
17  |  Gus Grissom (2)
John Young (1)  | 23 March 1965
Gemini 3 | First to perform orbital maneuvers.
18  |  James McDivitt (1)
Ed White | 3 June 1965
Gemini 4 | 7 June 1965
Gemini 4 | First American EVA.
19  |  Gordon Cooper (2)
Pete Conrad (1)  | 21 August 1965
Gemini 5 | 29 August 1965
Gemini 5 | First one week spaceflight. Cooper becomes the first person to orbit the Earth on two different missions.
20  |  Frank Borman (1)
Jim Lovell (1)  | 4 December 1965
Gemini 7 | 18 December 1965
Gemini 7 | First two-week spaceflight. First space rendezvous in history with Gemini 6A.
21  |  Wally Schirra (2)
Thomas P. Stafford (1)  | 15 December 1965
Gemini 6A | 16 December 1965
Gemini 6A | First space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
22  |  Neil Armstrong (1)
David Scott (1)  | 16 March 1966
Gemini 8 | 17 March 1966
Gemini 8 | First docking in space in history with Agena Target Vehicle Planned EVA canceled due to early re-entry necessitated by stuck thruster.
23  |  Thomas P. Stafford (2)
Eugene Cernan (1)  | 3 June 1966
Gemini 9A | 6 June 1966
Gemini 9A | First backup crew to fly space mission.
24  |  John Young (2)
Michael Collins (1)  | 18 July 1966
Gemini 10 | 21 July 1966
Gemini 10 | First rendezvous with two different objects.
25  |  Pete Conrad (2)
Richard F. Gordon Jr. (1)  | 12 September 1966
Gemini 11 | 15 September 1966
Gemini 11 | Held altitude record prior to lunar missions (1374 km).
26  |  Jim Lovell (2)
Buzz Aldrin (1)  | 11 November 1966
Gemini 12 | 15 November 1966
Gemini 12 | First manual rendezvous. Miscellaneous scientific experiments.
27  |  Vladimir Komarov (2)  | 23 April 1967
Soyuz 1 | 24 April 1967
Soyuz 1 | Crashed on re-entry. First human fatality during a spaceflight.
28  |  Wally Schirra (3)
Donn F. Eisele
Walter Cunningham | 11 October 1968
Apollo 7 | 22 October 1968
Apollo 7 | First three person U.S. crew. Launched over 20 months after Apollo 1 fatalities.
29  |  Georgy Beregovoy | 26 October 1968
Soyuz 3 | 30 October 1968
Soyuz 3 | Failed to dock with uncrewed Soyuz 2.
30  |  Frank Borman (2)
Jim Lovell (3)
William Anders | 21 December 1968
Apollo 8 | 27 December 1968
Apollo 8 | First crewed lunar orbit.
31  |  Vladimir Shatalov (1)  | 14 January 1969
Soyuz 4 | 17 January 1969
Soyuz 4 | First crew transfer between space vehicles. First docking of two crewed spacecraft.
32  |  Aleksei Yeliseyev (1)
Yevgeny Khrunov | 15 January 1969
Soyuz 5 | 17 January 1969
Soyuz 4 | First crew transfer between space vehicles. First docking of two crewed spacecraft.
Boris Volynov (1)  | 18 January 1969
Soyuz 5
33  |  James McDivitt (2)
David Scott (2)
Rusty Schweickart | 3 March 1969
Apollo 9 | 13 March 1969
Apollo 9 | Tested Lunar Module in low Earth orbit.
34  |  Thomas P. Stafford (3)
John Young (3)
Eugene Cernan (2)  | 18 May 1969
Apollo 10 | 26 May 1969
Apollo 10 | Tested Lunar Module in low lunar orbit.
35  |  Neil Armstrong (2)
Michael Collins (2)
Buzz Aldrin (2)  | 16 July 1969
Apollo 11 | Moon | 24 July 1969
Apollo 11 | First lunar landing.
36  |  Georgy Shonin
Valeri Kubasov (1)  | 11 October 1969
Soyuz 6 | 16 October 1969
Soyuz 6 | First three-craft spaceflight.
37  |  Anatoly Filipchenko (1)
Vladislav Volkov (1)
Viktor Gorbatko (1)  | 12 October 1969
Soyuz 7 | 17 October 1969
Soyuz 7 | First three-craft spaceflight.
38  |  Vladimir Shatalov (2)
Aleksei Yeliseyev (2)  | 13 October 1969
Soyuz 8 | 18 October 1969
Soyuz 8 | First three-craft spaceflight.
39  |  Pete Conrad (3)
Richard F. Gordon Jr. (2)
Alan Bean (1)  | 14 November 1969
Apollo 12 | Moon | 24 November 1969
Apollo 12 | Second lunar landing. Precision landing near Surveyor 3.
40  |  Jim Lovell (4)
Jack Swigert
Fred Haise | 11 April 1970
Apollo 13 | 17 April 1970
Apollo 13 | Lunar landing aborted following explosion en route.
41  |  Andriyan Nikolayev (2)
Vitaliy Sevastyanov (1)  | 1 June 1970
Soyuz 9 | 19 June 1970
Soyuz 9 | Investigations into effects of prolonged spaceflight. Record duration mission for single spacecraft.

## Flights between 50 miles and 100 kilometers

[edit]

In addition to the above spaceflights, eleven flights of the North American X-15 reached a maximum altitude above 50 miles but below 100 kilometers, thus satisfying the U.S. definition of spaceflight but failing to surpass the Kármán line. Among the twelve X-15 pilots, only Neil Armstrong and Joe Engle would travel to space following their participation in the program. Eleven of the thirteen flights above 50 miles were made in the X-15-3, the program's third plane; only two were made in the X-15-1, its first.

In the below table, "spaceflight" and related phrases refer to the American convention.

#  | Crew  | Launch
spacecraft  | Habitation  | Return
spacecraft  | Brief mission summary

|
|
|
|
|

—  |  Robert M. White | 17 July 1962
X-15 Flight 62 | White's only spaceflight. First spaceflight of X-15 program.
—  |  Joseph A. Walker | 17 January 1963
X-15 Flight 77 | Walker's first spaceflight.
—  |  Robert A. Rushworth | 27 June 1963
X-15 Flight 87 | Rushworth's only spaceflight.
—  |  Joe Engle | 29 June 1965
X-15 Flight 138 | Engle's first spaceflight.
—  |  Joe Engle | 10 August 1965
X-15 Flight 143 | Engle's second spaceflight.
—  |  John B. McKay | 18 September 1965
X-15 Flight 150 | McKay's only spaceflight.
—  |  Joe Engle | 14 October 1965
X-15 Flight 153 | Engle's third and last spaceflight, and final flight with X-15 program. First spaceflight of the X-15-1.
—  |  William H. Dana | 1 November 1966
X-15 Flight 174 | Dana's first spaceflight.
—  |  William J. Knight | 17 October 1967
X-15 Flight 190 | Knight's only spaceflight. Last successful flight of the X-15-3.
—  |  Michael J. Adams | 15 November 1967
X-15 Flight 191 | Adams' only spaceflight. Fatal disaster, killing Adams and destroying the X-15-3.
—  |  William H. Dana | 21 August 1968
X-15 Flight 197 | Dana's second and last spaceflight. Third-to-last flight of X-15 program. Second and last spaceflight of the X-15-1.

## See also

[edit]

* Spaceflight portal

A chart showing U.S. astronaut assignments during the 1960s through the Apollo era.

* List of human spaceflight programs
* List of human spaceflights
* List of human spaceflights, 1971–1980
* List of human spaceflights, 1981–1990
* List of human spaceflights, 1991–2000
* List of human spaceflights, 2001–2010
* List of human spaceflights, 2011–2020
* List of human spaceflights, 2021–present

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Sparrow, Giles (2019). Spaceflight : the complete story, from Sputnik to Curiosity (Second [American] ed.). New York: Dorling Kindersley Limited. p. 82\. ISBN 978-1465479655.
2. ^ Swenson, Loyd S. Jr.; Grimwood, James M.; Alexander, Charles C. (1966). This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. The NASA History Series. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. OCLC 569889. NASA SP-4201. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
3. ^ "FAI Sporting Code Section 8 – Astronautics, 2009 Edition (Class K, Class P)" (PDF). Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
4. ^ Williams, Matthew S. (28 April 2022). "Ad Astra: The past, present, and future of spacecraft". interestingengineering.com. Archived from the original on 2022-06-10. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
5. ^ "Vostok/Mercury". abyss.uoregon.edu. Archived from the original on 2022-08-05. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
6. ^ Burgess, Colin (2009). The first Soviet cosmonaut team : their lives, legacy, and historical impact. Berlin: Springer. p. xxiii. ISBN 978-0387848235.

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