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April 23 in spaceflight

22 orbital launches flew on April 23, the earliest of them in 1962, and 22 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 23. Below are the pictures NASA published on April 23 in 4 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

22MISSIONS

22 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from -215 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

4IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for April 23, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on April 23

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.

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

What happened on April 23

  2. 1967

    Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: Союз 1, Union 1), a crewed spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov, is launched into orbit.

    Soviet space program ↗

  3. 2009

    The gamma-ray burst GRB 090423 was detected coming from the most distant astronomical object of any kind known at the time.

    Gamma-ray burst ↗

Every launch on April 23

22 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Angara 1.2 | Kosmos 2615-2618VKSSUCCESS
  2. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-14SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2026Electron | Kakushin Rising (JAXA Rideshare)RLSUCCESS
  4. 2024Electron | Beginning Of The Swarm (ACS3 & NeonSat-1)RLSUCCESS
  5. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-53SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-2SpXSUCCESS
  7. 2012Proton-M / Briz-M Enhanced | Yahsat 1BILSSUCCESS
  8. 2007PSLV | AGILEISROSUCCESS
  9. 1996Proton | PrirodaKhSCSUCCESS
  10. 1994Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 15RFSASUCCESS
  11. 1986Soyuz-U2 | Progress 26CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1983Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 41CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 20CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1974Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 65-72CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1971Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 3CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1970Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 31CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1970Thor Delta M | INTELSAT III F-7USAFSUCCESS
  18. 1969Voskhod | Zenit-4M 3CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1967Soyuz | Soyuz 1CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1965Molniya 8K78 | Molniya-1 1CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1964Atlas Agena D | KH-7 7USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1962Atlas Agena B | Ranger 4USAFSUCCESS

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.