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April 24 in spaceflight

25 orbital launches flew on April 24, the earliest of them in 1962, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 24. Below are the pictures NASA published on April 24 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

25MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1967 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for April 24, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on April 24

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.

© Giorgia Hofer — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

© Daniel Stern — used with the credit NASA publishes

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

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 24

  1. 1967

    Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.

    Astronaut ↗

  2. 1970

    China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.

    Dong Fang Hong 1 ↗

  4. 1990

    STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

    STS-31 ↗

Every launch on April 24

25 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Long March 2D | 4 x SatNet test satellitesCASCSUCCESS
  2. 2025Long March 2F/G | Shenzhou 20CASCSUCCESS
  3. 2013Soyuz-U | Progress M-19M (51P)RFSASUCCESS
  4. 2010Proton-M / Briz-M Enhanced | SES-1ILSSUCCESS
  5. 2007Minotaur I | NFIREOSCSUCCESS
  6. 2006Soyuz U | Progress M-56RFSASUCCESS
  7. 2003Proton | US-KMO 6KhSCSUCCESS
  8. 1998Delta 7420-10C | Globalstar 6, 8, 14, 15USAFSUCCESS
  9. 1996Titan 401A Centaur | Mercury 15USAFSUCCESS
  10. 1996Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1B 14NPSUCCESS
  11. 1996Delta II | MSXUSAFSUCCESS
  12. 1991Tsiklon-3 | Meteor-3 4CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1990Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-31 (Hubble)LSOCSUCCESS
  14. 1987Soyuz U | Foton 3CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1987Proton | Uragan 17 to 19CCCPFAILURE
  16. 1981Titan 34B | Jumpseat 6USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1975Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 41CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1974Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 17 (22L)CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1972Apollo LM | Apollo 16NASASUCCESS
  20. 1971Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 41CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1971Scout B | San Marco 3ASISUCCESS
  22. 1970Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U1-RCCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1970Long March 1 | Dong Fang Hong 1CASCSUCCESS
  24. 1968Tsiklon-2A | I2M 1CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1962Kosmos-2I 63S1 | Sputnik 13CCCPSUCCESS

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.