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January 26 in spaceflight

17 orbital launches flew on January 26, the earliest of them in 1962, and 17 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on January 26. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 26 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

17MISSIONS

17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2024.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1934 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 26, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on January 26

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

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.

© Reg Pratt — 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.

NASA · public domain

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.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

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 26

  1. 1934

    Hurtig & Seamon's New Burlesque Theater in New York City reopened as the Apollo Theater, becoming one of the nation's premier venues for African-American performers.

    Apollo Theater ↗

  3. 1949

    The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California, the largest aperture optical telescope in the world for 28 years, saw first light.

    Hale Telescope ↗

  4. 1949

    The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).

    Hale Telescope ↗

  5. 1962

    Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).

    Ranger 3 ↗

Every launch on January 26

17 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2024SpaceShipTwo | Galactic 06VGSUCCESS
  2. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 5-2SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2023H-IIA 202 | IGS Radar 7MHISUCCESS
  4. 1993Molniya-M | US-K 72PRSCSUCCESS
  5. 1989Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 46CCCPSUCCESS
  6. 1989Proton | Gorizont 17CCCPSUCCESS
  7. 1988Soyuz U | Zenit-8 58CCCPSUCCESS
  8. 1984Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 17CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1984Soyuz-U | Zenit-6U 91 (Kosmos 1533)CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1983Delta 3910 | IRASUSAFSUCCESS
  11. 1978Delta 2914 | IUEUSAFSUCCESS
  12. 1978Long March 2 | FSW-0 3CASCSUCCESS
  13. 1973Kosmos-3M | Zaliv-GVM 4CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1971Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 39CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1971Atlas SLV-3C Centaur | INTELSAT IV F2USAFSUCCESS
  16. 1967Thor Delta E | ESSA 4USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1962Atlas Agena B | Ranger 3USAFSUCCESS

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.