Launches
ON RECORD21MISSIONS
19 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1963, the most recent 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
January 17 in spaceflight
21 orbital launches flew on January 17, the earliest of them in 1963, and 19 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on January 17. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 17 in 3 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD1ENTRY
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1997 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED3IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 17, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on January 17
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
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
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
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
What happened on January 17
1997
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: A Delta II carrying the GPS IIR-1 satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ↗
Every launch on January 17
21 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-105SpXSUCCESS
- 2026Ceres-2 | Demo FlightGEFAILURE
- 2025Long March 2D | PRSC-EO1CASCSUCCESS
- 2024Long March 7 | Tianzhou-7CASCSUCCESS
- 2022Long March 2D | Shiyan 13CASCSUCCESS
- 2021LauncherOne | Launch Demo 2VOSUCCESS
- 2018Epsilon | ASNARO-2JAXASUCCESS
- 2016Falcon 9 v1.1 | Jason-3SpXSUCCESS
- 2014SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF28VGSUCCESS
- 1997Delta II | GPS IIR-1USAFFAILURE
- 1991Soyuz-U-PVB | Zenit-8 97CCCPSUCCESS
- 1990Soyuz U | Zenit-8 89CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Proton-K/DM | Raduga 18CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 53CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 36CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Kosmos-3M | Parus 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Delta 2914 | HermesUSAFSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-2M 54CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 16CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Thor SLV-2A Agena D | Multigroup 3 & Setter 1B-2USAFSUCCESS
- 1963X-15 | Flight 77USAFSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.