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January 28 in spaceflight

14 orbital launches flew on January 28, the earliest of them in 1966, and 13 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on January 28. Below are the pictures NASA published on January 28 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

14MISSIONS

13 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1966, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

2ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1986 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 28, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on January 28

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

© Dario Giannobile — 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.

© Tom Glenn — used with the credit NASA publishes

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 28

  2. 1986

    Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

    Space Shuttle program ↗

Every launch on January 28

14 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | GPS III SV09SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2024Simorgh | Mahda, Keyhan-2 & Hatef-1ISASUCCESS
  3. 2017Soyuz STB/Fregat-MT | Hispasat 36W-1 (Hispasat AG1)ASASUCCESS
  4. 2011Soyuz-U | Progress M-09M (41P)RFSASUCCESS
  5. 2010Proton-M / Briz-M Enhanced | Globus-1M #12L (Raduga-1M 2)KhSCSUCCESS
  6. 2008Proton-M Briz-M | Ekspress AM-33KhSCSUCCESS
  7. 1994Soyuz U | Progress M-21RFSASUCCESS
  8. 1989Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 43CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1986Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-51-LLSOCFAILURE
  10. 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 27CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1977Delta 2914 | NATO 3BUSAFSUCCESS
  12. 1976Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 105-112CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1975Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 75CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1966Scout A | Transit-O 7USAFSUCCESS

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.