1977 in spaceflight

{{Wikipedia:WikiProject Timeline of spaceflight/Cleanup|incomplete=yes|refs=yes}}

1977 in spaceflight

Launch of Voyager 2 on a Titan IIIE
Orbital launches
First	6 January
Last	27 December
Total	130
Catalogued	124
Rockets
Maiden flights	Mu-3H Tsyklon-3
Retirements	Kosmos-2I Titan IIIE
Manned flights
Orbital	3
Total travellers	6

Spaceflight in 1977 included some important events such as the roll out of the space shuttle orbiter, Voyager 1 and Voyager space probes were launched. NASA received the space shuttle orbiter later named Enterprise, on 14 January. This unpowered sub-orbital space plane was launched off the top of a modified 747 and was flown unmanned until 13 August until a manned crew landed the Enterprise for the first time.

In August and September, the two Voyager spacecraft to the outer planets were launched. Voyager 2, launched on 20 August, went on to fly past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1, which was launched on 5 September, flew past Jupiter and Saturn, with a planned flyby of Pluto being cancelled in favour of a closer flyby of Titan.

Launches

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Launch site		LSP
	Payload	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
	Remarks
16 June 10:51:00	Delta 2914		Cape Canaveral LC-17B
	GOES 2	NOAA	Current: Graveyard Operational: Geostationary	Weather	In orbit	Successful
	Retired on 5 May 2001 and moved to a graveyard orbit
20 August 14:29:44	Titan IIIE		Cape Canaveral LC-41
	Voyager 2	NASA	Heliocentric to Galactocentric	Planetary	In orbit	Successful Operational
	Spacecraft flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, first spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune
5 September 12:56:01	Titan IIIE		Cape Canaveral LC-41
	Voyager 1	NASA	Heliocentric to Galactocentric	Planetary	In orbit	Successful Operational
	Final flight of Titan IIIE, spacecraft flew past Jupiter and Saturn

Deep Space Rendezvous

Date	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
20 February	Viking Orbiter 1	Flyby of Phobos	Closest approach: 89 kilometres (55 mi)
October	Viking Orbiter 2	Flyby of Deimos

EVAs

Start Date/Time	Duration	End Time	Spacecraft	Crew	Remarks
19 December 21:36	1 hour 28 minutes	23:04	Salyut 6 PE-1	Georgi Grechko (full) Yuri Romanenko (stand-up)	First Russian EVA in over 8 years and the first use of the Orlan-D spacesuit. Grechko inspected the front docking port for damage from the failed Soyuz 25 docking and found no damage, while Romanenko assisted from the open hatch.

References

Generic references: