1968 in spaceflight

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The United States National Space Science Data Center catalogued 157 spacecraft placed into orbit by launches, which occurred in 1968. The first crewed Apollo missions occurred in 1968. It was also the year in which Earth lifeforms first left low Earth orbit, during the successful Zond 5 mission to the Moon and the Zond 6 lunar mission which crashed upon return, and the year that humans first left low Earth orbit, during the successful Apollo 8 mission to the Moon.

Deep space lunar missions

Date (UTC)	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
10 January	Surveyor 7	Lunar landing	in the debris from Tycho crater
31 January	Lunar Orbiter 5	Lunar impact
10 April	Luna 14	Lunar orbit insertion
18 September	Zond 5	Flyby of the Moon; first return to Earth after flight to Moon; first Earth life forms to travel around the Moon (two Russian tortoises)	Closest approach: Template:Convert
14 November	Zond 6	Flyby of the Moon, with turtles, flies, and bacteria	Closest approach: Template:Convert
24 December	Apollo 8	Lunar orbit insertion; first humans to travel around the Moon
25 December	Apollo 8	Leaves lunar orbit	Completed 10 orbits

Orbital launches

Key

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January

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February

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March

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April

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May

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June

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July

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August

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September

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October

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November

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December

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Suborbital Launches

January-December

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References

Footnotes

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