Launches
ON RECORD15MISSIONS
14 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1967, the most recent 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
January 18 in spaceflight
15 orbital launches flew on January 18, the earliest of them in 1967, and 14 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on January 18. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 18 in 6 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 1911 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 18, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on January 18
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
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.
© David Bowman — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© Ralf Rohner — used with the credit NASA publishes
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
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 18
1911
Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
Eugene Burton Ely ↗
Every launch on January 18
15 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-100SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Axiom Space Mission 3SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | GPS III SV06SpXSUCCESS
- 2019Epsilon | RAPIS-1 & othersJAXASUCCESS
- 2009Delta IV Heavy | NROL-26 (USA-202)ULASUCCESS
- 2007Soyuz U | Progress M-59RFSASUCCESS
- 1991Tsiklon-2 | US-P 37CCCPSUCCESS
- 1990Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 47CCCPSUCCESS
- 1989Soyuz U | Zenit-8 75CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Proton | Gorizont 25LCCCPFAILURE
- 1985Proton-K/DM | Gorizont 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | FLTSATCOM 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1979Molniya-M | Molniya-3 23LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Titan IIIB | KH-8 11USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Titan IIIC | IDCSP 8 to 15USAFSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
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- VIEW
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.
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.