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January 6 in spaceflight

11 orbital launches flew on January 6, the earliest of them in 1976, and 11 reached orbit. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 6 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

11MISSIONS

11 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1976, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

NONE FOUND

0ENTRIES

Wikipedia records no spaceflight or astronomy event on this date.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 6, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on January 6

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2025

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2024

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2023

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Niveth Kumar — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2022

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Tamas Ladanyi — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2021

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

Every launch on January 6

11 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-71SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2025Long March 3B/E | Shijian 25CASCSUCCESS
  3. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-5SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2014Falcon 9 v1.1 | Thaicom-6SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2003Titan II SLV | CoriolisUSAFSUCCESS
  6. 1988Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 63CCCPSUCCESS
  7. 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 32CCCPSUCCESS
  8. 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 9CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1977Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-2 2CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 72CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1976Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 29CCCPSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.

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  • LISTING

    Cosmos — Carl Sagan

    Still the best single argument for why any of this matters, and it leaves the arithmetic in. For a reader who wants the science, not just the awe.

    VIEW
  • LISTING

    Pale Blue Dot — Carl Sagan

    The case for leaving Earth, written by someone unsentimental about how hard that is. Suits readers who want the argument rather than the poster.

    VIEW
  • LISTING

    Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir

    Hard-SF problem solving in The Martian's key — for anyone who liked the engineering more than the peril. The only novel on this list.

    VIEW

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LINKS AMAZON.COM

Sources and licences

Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images are drawn only from Wikimedia Commons, which does not accept non-free content — each thumbnail links to its file page, where its licence and author are recorded.

Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day; NASA imagery is generally not subject to copyright, but individual APOD entries are frequently the property of the photographer, and each caption says which applies.