Rocket launches in1971

The Soviet Union inaugurates the space-station era in April by launching Salyut 1 on a Proton; in October, the UK's Black Arrow carries Prospero to orbit from Woomera in South Australia — the only satellite Britain has ever launched on its own rocket, on a programme cancelled three months before the flight. Mariner 9 arrives at Mars in November as the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.