Previous Spaceflight Launches
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Thor DM-21 Agena-B | Discoverer 25
United States Air Force | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
June 16, 1961, 11:02 p.m.
Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-5 3
United States Air Force | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
June 8, 1961, 9:16 p.m.
Juno II | S-45A
Army Ballistic Missile Agency | United States of AmericaCape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
May 24, 1961, 7:48 p.m.
Redstone MRLV | Mercury-Redstone 3
Chrysler | United States of AmericaCape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
May 5, 1961, 2:34 p.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:
Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first manned flight of Project Mercury, the objective of which was to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely. Shepard's mission was a 15-minute suborbital flight with the primary objective of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry.
Suborbital
Little Joe | LJ-5B
North American Aviation | United States of AmericaWallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA
April 28, 1961, 2:03 p.m.
Juno II | Explorer 11
Army Ballistic Missile Agency | United States of AmericaCape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
April 27, 1961, 2:16 p.m.
Atlas LV-3B | Mercury-Atlas 3
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of AmericaCape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
April 25, 1961, 4:15 p.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:
Uncrewed test flight of the Mercury program. The launch proceeded normally until about T+20 seconds when the pitch and roll sequence failed to initiate and the vehicle instead just continued flying straight upward, requiring early termination of the flight.
Suborbital
Trailblazer 1 | Trailblazer 1g
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of AmericaWallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA
April 21, 1961, 5:56 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:
An experiment where an actual 'artificial meteorite' was flown. This was a 5.8 g steel pellet, which was driven into the atmosphere at 6 km/sec by a 'seventh stage', a shaped charge that accelerated the pellet after burnout of the rocket's six stage. This experiment provided a known reference by which the size of actual meteoroids could be measured according to the luminance of their trails.
Suborbital
Vostok-K | Vostok 1
Soviet Space Program | RussiaBaikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
April 12, 1961, 6:07 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:
The first crewed space launch & the first orbital launch. It carried the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who completed 1 orbit before safely re-entering the atmosphere, he ejected from his capsule at an altitude of 7 km in order to parachute safely to the ground. The mission lasted 108 minutes.
Low Earth OrbitThor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-5 2
United States Air Force | United States of AmericaVandenberg SFB, CA, USA
April 8, 1961, 7:21 p.m.
