Space Missions of the Super70s

By Patrick Mondout

Our favorite decade was a golden age of planetary exploration. The United States launched missions to Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. In fact the incredible Voyager spacecraft eventually made it to Uranus and Neptune (in the 1980s) leaving Pluto as the only planet which has not been visited. The Soviets landed the first successful spacecraft on Venus and made many visits to the Mercury, the Moon and Mars. SkyLab and Comet Kohoutek became the punchlines to so many Johnny Carson jokes even Mars was smiling!

From the near tragedy of Apollo 13 to the joint US/USSR Apollo-Soyuz mission, here are the most important space missions during the Super70s by nation:

1970	Apollo 13	Luna-1970a Venera 7 Kosmos 359 Luna 16 Zond 8 Luna 17
1971	Apollo 14 Mariner 8 Mariner 9 Apollo 15	Kosmos 419 Mars 2 Mars 3 Luna 18 Luna 19 Soyuz 11
1972	Pioneer 10 Apollo 16 Apollo 17	Luna 20 Venera 8 Kosmos 482
1973	Pioneer 11 Explorer 49 Mariner 10	Luna 21 Mars 4 Mars 5 Mars 6 Mars 7
1974	Helios 1	Luna 22 Luna 23
1975	Viking 1 Viking 2 Apollo-Soyuz	Venera 9 Venera 10 Luna 1975a Apollo-Soyuz
1976	Helios 2	Luna 24
1977	Voyager 1 Voyager 2
1978	Pioneer Venus 1 Pioneer Venus 2	Venera 11 Venera 12
1979	ISEE3

Source: NASA.

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Space References (Videos):
Cosmos. PBS, 2000.
Stephen Hawking's Universe. PBS, 1997.
Hyperspace. BBC, 2002.
Life Beyond Earth PBS, 1999.
The Planets. BBC, 1999.
Understanding The Universe. A&E, 1996.