| Year: | 1998 |
| First: | 7 January |
| Last: | 30 December |
| Total: | 82 |
| Success: | 75 |
| Failed: | 5 |
| Partial: | 2 |
| Catalogued: | 77 |
| Maidens: | Athena II Delta II 7326 Delta II 7420 Delta II 7425 Delta III Shtil' |
| Retired: | Atlas II Titan IVA |
| Orbital: | 7 |
| Totalcrew: | 39 |
| Firstsat: |
This article outlines notable events occurring in 1998 in spaceflight, including major launches and EVAs.
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| Date (GMT) | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 January | Selenocentric orbit injection | |||
| 23 January | Flyby of the Earth | Closest approach: | ||
| 10 February | 5th flyby of Europa | |||
| 29 March | Galileo | 6th flyby of Europa | ||
| 26 April | Gravity assist | |||
| 13 May | First use of moon's gravity for a recovery mission; Closest approach: | |||
| 31 May | Galileo | 7th flyby of Europa | ||
| 1 June | AsiaSat 3/HGS 1 | 2nd flyby of the Moon | Closest approach: | |
| 21 July | Galileo | 8th flyby of Europa | ||
| 26 September | Galileo | 9th flyby of Europa | ||
| 22 November | Galileo | 10th flyby of Europa | ||
| 20 December | 1st flyby of the Earth | |||
| 23 December | NEAR | Closest approach: |
| Start Date/Time | Duration | End Time | Spacecraft | Crew | Function | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 January 23:08 | 3 hours 6 minutes | 9 January 02:14 | Mir EO-24 |  Anatoly SolovyevPavel Vinogradov | Repaired the damaged airlock sealing system, used the Strela boom to move across Mir and recover an American optical monitoring experiment. Checked the integrity of cable connects to several antennas.[1] | |
| 14 January 21:12 | 3 hours | 15 January 01:04 | Mir EO-24 | Anatoly Solovyev David Wolf | Continued to make more repairs to the airlock hatch on Kvant-2 and used a handheld photo-reflectometer to inspect the exterior surface of the station.[2] | |
| 1 April 13:35 | 6 hours 40 minutes | 20:15 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat MusabayevNikolai Budarin | Installed a set of handrails and one of two-foot restraints on the outside of the Spektr module in preparation for the repair of the damaged solar array.[3] | |
| 6 April 13:35 | 4 hours 15 minutes | 17:50 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat MusabayevNikolai Budarin | Begin repair of the damaged Spektr solar panel. After installing a splint on the frayed panel, the spacewalkers had to quickly return to the airlock to handle a problem with station attitude control.[4] | |
| 11 April 09:55 | 6 Hours 25 minutes | 16:20 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat MusabayevNikolai Budarin | Jettisoned the external thruster engine (VDU) that had been located at the top of the Sofora boom and recover an experiment from the Rapana structure.[5] | Dismantling of the Rapana structure was not completed.[6] |
| 17 April 07:40 | 6 Hours 33 minutes | 14:13 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat MusabayevNikolai Budarin | Removed two structures and secured them to exterior surfaces and repositioned the new thrust engine (VDU) for future use. | |
| 22 April 05:34 | 6 Hours 21 minutes | 11:55 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat MusabayevNikolai Budarin | Completed installation of the new VDU thruster unit on top of the Sofora boom.[7] | |
20:00 | 30 minutes | 20:30 | Mir EO-26 | Gennady PadalkaSergei Avdeyev | Internal spacewalk in the depressurised Spektr module to connect electrical and control cables to the solar array servo motor.[8] | |
| 10 November 19:24 | 5 hours 54 minutes | 11 November 01:18 | Mir EO-26 | Gennady PadalkaSergei Avdeyev | Deployed Sputnik-41, deployed a French "meteorite trap" intended to catch some dust from the upcoming Leonids meteor shower.[9] | |
| 7 December 22:10 | 7 hours 21 minutes | 8 December 05:31 | STS-88 | Jerry L. Ross | Connected computer and electrical cables between the Unity node, the two mating adapters attached to either end of Unity, and the Zarya Functional Cargo Block (FGB).[10] | First ISS assembly EVA |
| 9 December 20:33 | 7 hours 2 minutes | 03:35 | STS-88 ISS Endeavour | Jerry L. RossJames H. Newman | Installed two box-like antennas on the outside of the Unity module that are part of the S-band early communications system.[11] | |
| 12 December 20:33 | 6 hours 59 minutes | 13 December 03:32 | STS-88 ISS Endeavour | Jerry L. RossJames H. Newman | Checked on an insulation cover on a cable connection on the lower Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA-2) to make sure it was fully installed, attached EVA tools on the side of Unitys upper mating adapter (PMA-1) in preparation for future EVAs, and inspected Orbiter Space Vision System targets on Unity.[12] | |