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April 14 in spaceflight

23 orbital launches flew on April 14, the earliest of them in 1959, and 22 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 14. Below are the pictures NASA published on April 14 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

23MISSIONS

22 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1959, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1958 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for April 14, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on April 14

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.

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.

© Mike Selby — 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.

© Mark Hanson — 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 April 14

  1. 1958

    The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.

    Soviet Union ↗

  2. 1970

    After an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 (mission patch pictured) exploded, disabling the spacecraft's electrical and life-support systems, astronaut Jack Swigert reported: "Houston, we've had a problem here".

    Apollo 13 ↗

  3. 1981

    STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia, completes its first test flight.

    STS-1 ↗

Every launch on April 14

23 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-24SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2026Kinetica 1 | 8 x Jilin-1CASSUCCESS
  3. 2025New Shepard | NS-31BOSUCCESS
  4. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-73SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2023Ariane 5 ECA+ | JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer)ASASUCCESS
  6. 2021New Shepard | NS-15BOSUCCESS
  7. 2018Atlas V 551 | AFSPC-11ULASUCCESS
  8. 2015Falcon 9 v1.1 | SpX CRS-6SpXSUCCESS
  9. 2009Long March 3C | Beidou DW 2CASCSUCCESS
  10. 2008Atlas V 421 | ICO G1ULASUCCESS
  11. 1989Proton | Raduga 23CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1988Soyuz U | Foton 4CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1984Titan 34D Transtage | DSP 11USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1979Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 19CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1975Molniya-M | Molniya-3 12LCCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-4M 34CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1972Molniya-M | PrognozCCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 14CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1969Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | Nimbus 3USAFSUCCESS
  20. 1968Soyuz | Kosmos 212CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1967Scout A | Transit-O 12USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1964Atlas D | FIRE 1USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1959Vanguard | VanguardUSNFAILURE

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.