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 (spacecraft) the point where it was no longer needed, and the SLA remained attached to the launch vehicle's upper stage. Two unmanned CSM's, one unmanned LM and one manned CSM were carried into space by Saturn IB launch vehicles for low Earth orbit Apollo missions. Larger Saturn Vs launched two unmanned CSM's on high Earth orbit test flights, the CSM on one manned lunar mission, the complete spacecraft on one manned low Earth orbit mission and eight manned lunar missions. After conclusion of the Apollo program, four CSM's were launched on Saturn IBs for three Skylab Earth orbital missions and the