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 the crew. The "Apollo Manned Survey Mission" proposed an Earth-observation science module also based on the LM ascent stage, and would also have been launched using a S-IVB vehicle into a high-inclination orbit. It was also proposed that a surplus Saturn V would launch a manned lunar survey mission to establish suitable sites for later manned landings. The wet workshop space station concept provided for a low-budget Earth orbiting station. The original plan, as proposed by Wernher von Braun, used the S-II stage as the primary structure of the station, with the area normally filled by the S-IVB stage replaced