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January 22 in spaceflight

18 orbital launches flew on January 22, the earliest of them in 1965, and 16 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on January 22. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 22 in 1 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

18MISSIONS

16 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1968 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

1IMAGE

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 22, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on January 22

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

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

What happened on January 22

  1. 1968

    Apollo 5 (pictured), the first flight of NASA's Lunar Module, lifted off from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station.

    Apollo 5 ↗

  2. 1968

    Apollo Program: Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.

    Apollo program ↗

  3. 1973

    The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo Moon landing mission.

    Apollo 17 ↗

  4. 1992

    Space Shuttle program: The space shuttle Discovery launches on STS-42 carrying Dr. Roberta Bondar, who becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.

    Space Shuttle program ↗

  5. 1998

    Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

    Space Shuttle Endeavour ↗

Every launch on January 22

18 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026New Shepard | NS-38BOSUCCESS
  2. 2026Electron | The Cosmos Will See You Now (Open Cosmos Constellation Launch 1)RLSUCCESS
  3. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-30SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2016New Shepard | NS-3BOSUCCESS
  5. 2011H-IIB 304 | Kounotori 2 (HTV-2)MHISUCCESS
  6. 1998Shavit-2 | Ofeq-4ISAFAILURE
  7. 1992Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-42LSOCSUCCESS
  8. 1990Ariane 40 | SPOT 2ASASUCCESS
  9. 1987Molniya-M | Molniya-3 42LCCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1987Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 23CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1976Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 30CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1976Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 32CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1975Delta 2910 | Landsat 2USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1969Titan IIIB | KH-8 19USAFSUCCESS
  15. 1969Thor Delta C1 | OSO 5USAFSUCCESS
  16. 1968Saturn IB | Apollo 5NASASUCCESS
  17. 1966Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 34CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1965Thor Delta C | Tiros 9USAFFAILURE

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.