1970 in spaceflight 1970 in spaceflight Japan and China each launched their first satellites in 1970, bringing the total number of nations with independent launch capability to five. Apollo 13 was launched; after suffering an explosion in deep space it had to circumnavigate the moon and use the LM as a life boat. Apollo 13 was a successful disaster in which the crew survived. The Soviet space program continued its Luna program with Luna 17, which delivered the robotic Lunokhod 1 rover to the lunar surface, and Luna 16, which achieved the first unmanned lunar sample return. The Soviets also continued the success
Apollo Applications Program Apollo Applications Program The Apollo Applications Program (AAP) was established by NASA headquarters in 1968 to develop science-based manned space missions using hardware developed for the Apollo program. AAP was the ultimate development of a number of official and unofficial Apollo follow-on projects studied at various NASA labs. Initially the AAP office in Washington was an offshoot of the Apollo "X" bureau, also known as the "Apollo Extension Series". AES was developing technology concepts for mission proposals based on the Saturn IB and Saturn V boosters. These included a manned lunar base, an earth-orbiting space station, the so-called Grand Tour