1970 in spaceflight of the Venera Venus probes with Venera 7, the first man-made spacecraft to successfully land on another planet and to transmit data back to Earth, though it only survived 23 minutes on the surface. This is a list of spaceflights launched in 1970. <br> 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
Apollo 12 and Bean achieved a precise landing at their expected location, the site of the "Surveyor 3" unmanned probe, which had landed on April 20, 1967. They carried the first color television camera to the lunar surface on an Apollo flight, but transmission was lost after Bean accidentally destroyed the camera by pointing it at the Sun. On one of two moonwalks, they visited the "Surveyor" and removed some parts for return to Earth. The mission ended on November 24 with a successful splashdown. Apollo 12 launched on schedule from Kennedy Space Center, during a rainstorm. It was the first rocket