Launches
ON RECORD18MISSIONS
17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
January 23 in spaceflight
18 orbital launches flew on January 23, the earliest of them in 1965, and 17 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on January 23. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 23 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 2003 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED5IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 23, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on January 23
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.
© Martin Pugh — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© Mike Selby — 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.
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 23
2003
The final signal was detected from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10, then about 12 billion kilometres (7.5 billion miles) from Earth.
NASA ↗2003
A very weak signal from Pioneer 10 is detected for the last time, but no usable data can be extracted.
Pioneer 10 ↗
Every launch on January 23
18 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Long March 3B/E | TJSW-14CASCSUCCESS
- 2025Long March 6A | SpaceSail Polar Group #4CASCSUCCESS
- 2024Kinetica 1 | Flight 3CASSUCCESS
- 2019New Shepard | NS-10BOSUCCESS
- 2009H-IIA 202 | GOSATJAXASUCCESS
- 2002Ariane 42L | Insat 3CASASUCCESS
- 1998Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-89USASUCCESS
- 1990Molniya-M | Molniya-3 53LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Tsiklon-2 | US-P 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984N-2 | Yuri 2ANASDASUCCESS
- 1981Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 1CCCPFAILURE
- 1980Tsiklon-3 | Okean-E 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 35CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Atlas SLV-3C Centaur | INTELSAT IV F4USAFSUCCESS
- 1970Thor Delta N6 | ITOS 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1969Voskhod | Zenit-4M 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 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.
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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.
- 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.