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January 20 in spaceflight

25 orbital launches flew on January 20, the earliest of them in 1966, and 24 reached orbit. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 20 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

25MISSIONS

24 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1966, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

NONE FOUND

0ENTRIES

Wikipedia records no spaceflight or astronomy event on this date.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 20, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on January 20

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.

© Dennis Huff — 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.

© Andreas Aufschnaiter — 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.

© Mark Carter — used with the credit NASA publishes

Every launch on January 20

25 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Ceres-1 | 5 satellitesGESUCCESS
  2. 2024Qaem 100 | SorayaIRGCAFSUCCESS
  3. 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 16SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2021Electron | Another One Leaves The Crust (GMS-T)RLSUCCESS
  5. 2018Atlas V 411 | SBIRS GEO Flight 4 (SBIRS GEO-3)ULASUCCESS
  6. 2016PSLV XL | IRNSS-1EISROSUCCESS
  7. 2012Delta IV M+(5,4) | WGS-4 (USA-233)ULASUCCESS
  8. 2011Delta IV Heavy | NROL-49 (KH-11) (USA-224)ULASUCCESS
  9. 2011Zenit-3F | Elektro-L No.1RFSASUCCESS
  10. 2005Kosmos-3M | Parus 96NPSUCCESS
  11. 1994Proton-K/DM-2M | Gals 1KhSCSUCCESS
  12. 1988Soyuz-U2 | Progress 34CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1983Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 39CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 52CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1981Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 15CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1978Soyuz U | Progress 1CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1977Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 23CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 74CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1976Kosmos-3M | Parus 5CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1973Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 17CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1972Titan IIID | KH-9 2USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1971Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 7 (19L)CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1970Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-MG 1CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1969Proton / UR-500 K/D | Soyuz 7K-L1 No.13LCCCPFAILURE
  25. 1966Little Joe II | A-004NASASUCCESS

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

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.