1988 in spaceflight
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 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-26R, the first US crewed spaceflight after the Challenger accident | |
| Orbital launches | |
|---|---|
| First | 6 January 1988 |
| Last | 29 December 1988 |
| Total | 121 |
| Catalogued | 116 |
| National firsts | |
| Satellite |  Israel Luxembourg |
| Orbital launch | Israel |
| Space traveller |  Afghanistan |
| Rockets | |
| Maiden flights | Ariane 4 Long March 4A Shavit |
| Retirements | Energia Titan 34D |
| Crewed flights | |
| Orbital | 5 |
| Total travellers | 19 |
The following is an outline of 1988 in spaceflight.
This section is an excerpt from STS-26 § Mission summary.[edit]
Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center, at 11:37:00 a.m. EDT on September 29, 1988, 975 days after the Challenger disaster.
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| 1990s | |
| 2000s | |
| 2010s | |
| 2020s | |
Launches
| Date and time (UTC) | Rocket | Flight number | Launch site | LSP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payload (⚀ = CubeSat) |
Operator | Orbit | Function | Decay (UTC) | Outcome | ||
| Remarks | |||||||
| 25 March |  Scout G-1 |
 San Marco mobile range, Kenya |
ASI | ||||
| San Marco-D/L |
ASI | Low Earth | Atmospheric research | In orbit | Successful | ||
| 7 June 21:38:16 |
 Soyuz-U2 |
Baikonur Site 1/5 |
| ||||
| Soyuz TM-5 |
Low Earth (Mir) | Mir EP-2 | 7 September 00:48:38 | Successful | |||
| Crewed flight launching three cosmonauts and landing two, computer problems during deorbit nearly resulted in loss of crew, and delayed landing by one day | |||||||
| 15 June 11:19 |
 Ariane 4 44LP |
Kourou ELA-2 |
Arianespace | ||||
 Meteosat-3 |
EUMETSAT | GTO | Meteorology | In orbit | Successful | ||
| PAS 1 |
PanAmSat | GTO | Communications | In orbit | Successful | ||
 AMSAT-OSCAR-13 |
AMSAT | Low Earth | Amateur radio | 6 December 1996 | Successful | ||
| Maiden flight of the Ariane 4 rocket | |||||||
| 7 July 17:38 |
Proton-K |
Baikonur site LC200/39 |
| ||||
| Fobos 1 |
Intended: Areocentric Actual: Heliocentric |
Mars orbiter | In orbit | Spacecraft failure | |||
| stationary lander | Phobos lander | In orbit | Never deployed | ||||
| Loss of communication 2 September 1988 en route to Mars | |||||||
| 12 July 17:01 |
Proton-K |
Baikonur site LC200/40 |
| ||||
| Fobos 2 |
Areocentric | Mars orbiter | In orbit | Spacecraft failure | |||
| stationary lander | Phobos lander | In orbit | Never deployed | ||||
| "hopping" lander | Phobos lander | In orbit | Never deployed | ||||
| Loss of communication 27 March 1989 near Phobos | |||||||
| 29 August 04:23:11 |
Soyuz-U2 |
Baikonur Site 1/5 |
| ||||
| Soyuz TM-6 |
Low Earth (Mir) | Mir EP-3 | 21 December 09:57:00 | Successful | |||
| Crewed flight with three cosmonauts, one remained on Mir as part of EO-3, first Afghan space traveller | |||||||
| 29 September 15:37:00 |
Space Shuttle Discovery |
Kennedy LC-39B |
United Space Alliance | ||||
| STS-26R |
NASA | Low Earth | Satellite deployment | 3 October 16:37:11 | Successful | ||
| TDRS-3 (TDRS-C) |
NASA | Geosynchronous | Communications | In orbit | Operational | ||
| Crewed flight with five astronauts, first US crewed spaceflight after the Challenger accident in 1986, TDRS deployed using Inertial Upper Stage | |||||||
| 15 November 03:00:02 |
Energia |
Baikonur Site 110/37 |
| ||||
| Buran 1K1 |
Low Earth | Test flight | 06:26 | Successful | |||
| 37KB No.3770 |
Low Earth (Buran) | Test flight | Successful | ||||
| Uncrewed test, only flight of Buran and final flight of Energia | |||||||
| 26 November 14:49:34 |
Soyuz-U2 |
Baikonur Site 1/5 |
| ||||
| Soyuz TM-7 |
Low Earth (Mir) | Mir EO-4/EP-4 | 27 April 1989 02:57:58 | Successful | |||
| Crewed flight with three cosmonauts | |||||||
| 2 December 14:30:34 |
Space Shuttle Atlantis |
Kennedy LC-39B |
United Space Alliance | ||||
| STS-27R |
NASA/NRO | Low Earth | Satellite deployment | 6 December 23:30:39 | Successful | ||
| USA-34 (Lacrosse) |
NRO/CIA | Low Earth | Radar imaging | 25 March 1997 | Successful | ||
| Crewed flight with five astronauts | |||||||
| 11 December 00:33 |
Ariane 4 44LP |
Kourou ELA-2 |
Arianespace | ||||
 Skynet 4B |
UK Ministry of Defence | GTO | Communications | In orbit | Successful | ||
| Astra 1A |
SES Astra | GTO | Communications | In orbit | Successful | ||
 |
Deep-space rendezvous
There were no deep-space rendezvous in 1988.
References
- Bergin, Chris. "NASASpaceFlight.com".
- Clark, Stephen. "Spaceflight Now".
- Kelso, T.S. "Satellite Catalog (SATCAT)". CelesTrak.
- Krebs, Gunter. "Chronology of Space Launches".
- Kyle, Ed. "Space Launch Report". Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
- McDowell, Jonathan. "GCAT Orbital Launch Log".
- Pietrobon, Steven. "Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive".
- Wade, Mark. "Encyclopedia Astronautica".
- Webb, Brian. "Southwest Space Archive".
- Zak, Anatoly. "Russian Space Web".
- "ISS Calendar". Spaceflight 101.
- "NSSDCA Master Catalog". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
- "Хроника освоения космоса" [Chronicle of space exploration]. CosmoWorld (in Russian).
- "Rocket Launch Manifest". Next Spaceflight.
- "Space Launch Plans". Novosti Kosmonavtiki.
Footnotes
| 1950s | |
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| 1960s | |
| 1970s | |
| 1980s | |
| 1990s | |
| 2000s | |
| 2010s | |
| 2020s | |
| January | |
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| July | |
| August | |
| September | |
| October | |
| November | |
| December | |
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses). | |