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January 11 in spaceflight

17 orbital launches flew on January 11, the earliest of them in 1964, and 17 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on January 11. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 11 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

17MISSIONS

17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1787 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 11, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on January 11

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.

© Dario Giannobile — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

© 염범석 Bum-Suk Yeom — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

NASA · public domain

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

What happened on January 11

  1. 1787

    German-born British astronomer William Herschel discovered two Uranian moons, later named Oberon and Titania by his son John.

    William Herschel ↗

  3. 1935

    Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

    Amelia Earhart ↗

  4. 1996

    Space Shuttle program: STS-72 launches from the Kennedy Space Center marking the start of the 74th Space Shuttle mission and the 10th flight of Endeavour.

    Space Shuttle program ↗

Every launch on January 11

17 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Pandora / Twilight rideshare missionSpXSUCCESS
  2. 2024Gravity-1 | Maiden flightOrienSpaceSUCCESS
  3. 2024Kuaizhou 1A | Tianxing-1-02EPSUCCESS
  4. 2019Falcon 9 Block 5 | Iridium-8SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2018Long March 3B / YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M7 & M8CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2018SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity GF07VGSUCCESS
  7. 2004Zenit | Estrela do Sul 1SLSUCCESS
  8. 1996Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-72LMSOSUCCESS
  9. 1984Kosmos-3M | Parus 41CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1984Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 90 (Kosmos 1530)CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1980Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 46CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 94CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4M 45CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1968Thor Delta E1 | GEOS BUSAFSUCCESS
  15. 1967Thor Delta E1 | INTELSAT II F-2USAFSUCCESS
  16. 1965Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 25CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | Poppy 5A, 5B & 5CUSAFSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

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

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Links here cost you nothing extra.

  • 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

BROWSE opens an Amazon search, not a specific recommendation.

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.