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April 6 in spaceflight

18 orbital launches flew on April 6, the earliest of them in 1962, and 17 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 6. Below are the pictures NASA published on April 6 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

18MISSIONS

17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1965 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for April 6, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on April 6

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.

© Robert Nemiroff — 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 April 6

  1. 1965

    Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.

    Intelsat I ↗

  3. 1985

    Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Field Marshal Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab.

    Gaafar Nimeiry ↗

  4. 2026

    During the Artemis II mission, the Orion made its closest approach to the far side of the Moon and reached its greatest distance from Earth .

    Artemis II ↗

  5. 2026

    The crew of Artemis II makes the first crewed circumlunar flight since Apollo 17 in 1972, returning humanity to the Moon's vicinity and breaking Apollo 13's record by ~4,000 miles as the furthest crewed spaceflight.

    Artemis II ↗

Every launch on April 6

18 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-72SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2022Long March 4C | Gaofen-3 03CASCSUCCESS
  3. 1997Soyuz U | Progress M-34RFSASUCCESS
  4. 1993Molniya-M | US-K 73PRSCSUCCESS
  5. 1990Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 345-352CCCPSUCCESS
  6. 1989Soyuz-U-PVB | Zenit-8 79CCCPSUCCESS
  7. 1984Space Shuttle Challenger OV-099 | STS-41-CLSOCSUCCESS
  8. 1983Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 15CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 87CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1976Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 31CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1973Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Pioneer 11USAFSUCCESS
  12. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-2M 27CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1968Atlas F | OV1-13 & 14USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1967Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | ATS 2USAFSUCCESS
  15. 1966Voskhod | Zenit-4 17CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1965Thor Delta D | Early BirdUSAFSUCCESS
  17. 1963Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-P1 2CCCPFAILURE
  18. 1962Kosmos-2I 63S1 | 1MS 1CCCPSUCCESS

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.