1987 in spaceflight

1987 in spaceflight
Orbital launches
The Atlas H launches on its final flight
First	5 January
Last	29 December
Total	115
Catalogued	110
National firsts
Space traveller	Syria
Rockets
Maiden flights	ASLV Energia
Retirements	Atlas H N-II Titan III(34)B
Manned flights
Orbital	3
Total travellers	8

Launches

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Launch site		LSP
	Payload	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
	Remarks
5 February 21:38:16	Soyuz-U2		Baikonur Site 1/5
	Soyuz TM-2		Low Earth (Mir)	Mir EO-2	30 July 01:04:12	Successful
	Manned flight launching two cosmonauts and landing three, first manned flight of Soyuz-TM
26 February 23:05	Delta 3914		Cape Canaveral LC-17A
26 February 23:05	GOES 7	NOAA	Geostationary	Weather	In orbit	Operational
31 March 00:16:16	Proton-K		Baikonur Site 200/39
	Kvant-1	1991—2001: Roskosmos	Low Earth (Mir)	Mir module	23 March 2001 05:59:36	Successful
	Kvant FSB		Low Earth (Kvant-1)	Space tug	25 August 1988	Successful
15 May 17:30:01	Energia		Baikonur Site 250
	Polyus		Intended: Low Earth	Weapons tests Technology	15 May	Launch failure
	Maiden flight of Energia, computer error resulted in spacecraft attempting to perform circularisation burn in a retrograde orientation, failed to orbit
8 June	RH-300 Mk II		Sriharikota		ISRO
		ISRO	Suborbital	Engineering test	8 June	Successful
	First flight of the RH-300 Mk II, reached an altitude of 130 km (80 miles)
22 July 01:59:17	Soyuz-U2		Baikonur Site 1/5
	Soyuz TM-3		Low Earth (Mir)	Mir EP-1	29 December 09:16:15	Successful
	Manned flight with three cosmonauts, first Syrian in space, carried replacement for ill EO-2 crewmember
21 November 02:19:00	Ariane 2		Kourou ELA-2		Arianespace
	TV-SAT 1	Deutsche Bundespost	Current: Graveyard Operational: Geosynchronous	Communications	In orbit	Spacecraft failure
	Immediately after launch, one of its solar panels failed to deploy, and as a result of this the main uplink antenna, which was located behind the solar panel, could not deploy either. Briefly used to verify the systems of the Spacebus 300 satellite bus before being retired to a graveyard orbit.
21 December 11:18:03	Soyuz-U2		Baikonur Site 1/5
	Soyuz TM-4		Low Earth (Mir)	Mir EO-3	17 June 1988 10:12:32	Successful
	Manned flight with three cosmonauts

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Deep-space rendezvous

There were no deep-space rendezvous in 1987.

References

Kyle, Ed. "Space Launch Report".
Wade, Mark. "Encyclopedia Astronautica".
Krebs, Gunter. "Chronology of Space Launches". Gunter's Space Page.
"Space Information Center". JAXA.
McDowell, Jonathan. "Jonathan's Space Report". Jonathan's Space Page.
"Mission Set Database". NASA GSFC.
"NASASpaceFlight.com".
"Launch Logs". Orbital Report News Agency.
"Space Calendar". NASA JPL.
"Southwest Space Archive".
"Launch Forecast". Space.com.
"Spaceflight Now".
Pietrobon, Steven. "Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive".
"U.S. Space Objects Registry".
"Хроника освоения космоса ('Chronicle of space exploration')" (in Russian). Cosmoworld.ru.

Generic references:

Footnotes

Timeline of spaceflight
1940s					1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
1950s	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
1960s	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
1970s	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
1980s	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
1990s	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
2000s	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
2010s	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016

← 1986 · Orbital launches in 1987 · 1988 →

Meteor-2 No.17 \| Kosmos 1811 \| Kosmos 1812 \| Kosmos 1813 \| Progress 27 \| Kosmos 1814 \| Kosmos 1815 \| Molniya-3 No.42 \| Kosmos 1816 \| Kosmos 1817 \| Kosmos 1818 \| Ginga \| Soyuz TM-2 \| Kosmos 1819 \| USA-21 \| Kosmos 1820 \| Kosmos 1821 \| Momo 1 \| Kosmos 1822 \| Kosmos 1823 \| Kosmos 1824 \| GOES 7 \| Progress 28 \| Kosmos 1825 \| Kosmos 1826 \| Kosmos 1827 · Kosmos 1828 · Kosmos 1829 · Kosmos 1830 · Kosmos 1831 · Kosmos 1832 \| Kosmos 1833 \| Gran' No.31L \| Palapa B2P \| SROSS-A \| FLTSATCOM-6 \| Kvant-1 \| Kosmos 1834 \| Kosmos 1835 \| Kosmos 1836 \| Progress 29 \| Kosmos 1837 \| Kosmos 1838 · Kosmos 1839 · Kosmos 1840 \| Kosmos 1841 \| Kosmos 1842 \| Kosmos 1843 \| Gorizont No.23L \| Kosmos 1844 \| Kosmos 1845 \| USA-22 · LIPS-3 · USA-23 · USA-24 · USA-25 \| Polyus \| Progress 30 \| Kosmos 1846 \| Kosmos 1847 \| Kosmos 1848 \| Kosmos 1849 \| Kosmos 1850 \| Kosmos 1851 \| Kosmos 1852 · Kosmos 1853 · Kosmos 1854 · Kosmos 1855 · Kosmos 1856 · Kosmos 1857 · Kosmos 1858 · Kosmos 1859 \| Resurs-F1 No.105 \| Kosmos 1860 \| USA-26 \| Kosmos 1861 \| Kosmos 1862 \| Kosmos 1863 \| Kosmos 1864 \| Kosmos 1865 \| Kosmos 1866 \| Kosmos 1867 \| Kosmos 1868 \| Kosmos 1869 \| Soyuz TM-3 \| Kosmos 1870 \| Kosmos 1871 \| Progress 31 \| Fanhui Shi Weixing 10 \| Meteor-2 No.21 \| Kosmos 1872 \| Kiku No.5 \| Kosmos 1873 \| Kosmos 1874 \| Ekran No.29L \| Kosmos 1875 · Kosmos 1876 · Kosmos 1877 · Kosmos 1878 · Kosmos 1879 · Kosmos 1880 \| Fanhui Shi Weixing I-01 \| Kosmos 1881 \| Kosmos 1882 \| Aussat A3 · ECS-4 \| Kosmos 1883 · Kosmos 1884 · Kosmos 1885 \| Transit-O 27 · Transit-O 29 \| Kosmos 1886 \| Progress 32 \| Kosmos 1887 \| Kosmos 1888 \| Kosmos 1889 \| Kosmos 1890 \| Kosmos 1891 \| Kosmos 1892 \| Kosmos 1893 \| USA-27 \| Kosmos 1894 \| Kosmos 1895 \| Kosmos 1896 \| Progress 33 \| TV-SAT 1 \| Kosmos 1897 \| USA-28 \| Kosmos 1898 \| Kosmos 1899 \| Gran' No.32L \| Kosmos 1900 \| Kosmos 1901 \| Kosmos 1902 \| Soyuz TM-4 \| Kosmos 1903 \| Kosmos 1904 \| Kosmos 1905 \| Kosmos 1906 \| Ekran-M No.13L \| Kosmos 1907

Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( \| ). Manned flights are indicated in bold text. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in (brackets).