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April 7 in spaceflight

29 orbital launches flew on April 7, the earliest of them in 1966, and 29 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 7. Below are the pictures NASA published on April 7 in 3 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

29MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1983 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

3IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for April 7, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on April 7

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

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.

© Rheinhold Wittich — 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.

© Gabriel Rodrigues Santos — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on April 7

  1. 1983

    During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.

    STS-6 ↗

  2. 2001

    NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey (artist's conception pictured), the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, launched from Cape Canaveral.

    NASA ↗

  3. 2001

    NASA launches the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter.

    NASA ↗

  4. 2011

    The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever.

    Israel Defense Forces ↗

Every launch on April 7

29 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Long March 8 | SpaceSail Polar Group #7CASCSUCCESS
  2. 2026Minotaur IV | STP-S29ANGSSSUCCESS
  3. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-35SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-11SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Bandwagon 1 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 8-1SpXSUCCESS
  7. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Intelsat 40eSpXSUCCESS
  8. 2023Hyperbola-1 | Dummy Payloadi-SpaceSUCCESS
  9. 2022Soyuz 2.1b | Kosmos 2554 (Lotos-S1 #6)VKSSUCCESS
  10. 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 23SpXSUCCESS
  11. 2007Soyuz-FG | Soyuz TMA-10RFSASUCCESS
  12. 2001Delta II | Mars OdysseyUSAFSUCCESS
  13. 2001Proton-M Briz-M | Ekran-M 4KhSCSUCCESS
  14. 1998Proton-K/17S40 | Iridium 62 to 68KhSCSUCCESS
  15. 1995Atlas IIA | AMSC 1LMTSUCCESS
  16. 1990Long March 3 | Asiasat 1CASCSUCCESS
  17. 1982Molniya-M | US-K 25CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 35CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1979Kosmos-3M | Parus 19CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1978Delta 2914 | Yuri 1USAFSUCCESS
  21. 1978Atlas SLV-3A Agena D | Aquacade 4USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 76CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1976Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 24 (37L)CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1975Tsiklon-2 | US-A 10CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1972Voskhod | Energiya 1CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1971Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 2CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1970Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 6CCCPSUCCESS
  28. 1968Molniya-M | Luna-14CCCPSUCCESS
  29. 1966Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 31USAFSUCCESS

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.