 | This timeline of spaceflight may require cleanup to ensure consistency with other timeline of spaceflight articles. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Timeline of spaceflight working group for guidelines on how to improve the article. Details Concerns have been raised that:
|  |
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| Orbital launches | |
|---|---|
| First | 12 January |
| Last | 29 December |
| Total | 133 |
| Successes | 118 |
| Failures | 15 |
| Catalogued | 120 |
| National firsts | |
| Orbital launch |  United Kingdom |
| Rockets | |
| Maiden flights | Soyuz-M Delta M6 Thor LV-2F Burner IIA Titan III(24)B Titan III(33)B Titan IIID |
| Retirements | Black Arrow Delta E1 Delta M Delta M6 Delta N6 Europa Long March 1 R-36OM Soyuz-L Thor LV-2F Burner II Thorad SLV-2G Agena-D Titan III(23)B |
| Crewed flights | |
| Orbital | 4 |
| Total travellers | 12 |
1971 saw the last three known deaths of cosmonauts of the Soviet space program and the only deaths in space. Their mission was to man humanity's first space station. The experimental bay door failed to separate so the first crew failed to dock and second crew were killed on re-entry. 1971 also saw the launch of the first and only British satellite on top of a British rocket after that success the program was cancelled.