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April 29 in spaceflight

30 orbital launches flew on April 29, the earliest of them in 1958, and 28 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 29. Below are the pictures NASA published on April 29 in 3 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

30MISSIONS

28 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1958, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1826 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

3IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for April 29, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on April 29

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

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.

© Starry Earth — 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

What happened on April 29

  1. 1826

    In Parramatta, Australia, Scottish astronomer James Dunlop discovered Centaurus A (pictured), which was later recognised as one of the nearest radio galaxies to Earth.

    Parramatta ↗

  2. 1826

    The galaxy Centaurus A or NGC 5128 is discovered by James Dunlop.

    Centaurus A ↗

Every launch on April 29

30 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon Heavy | ViaSat-3 F3 (ViaSat-3 Asia-Pacific)SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2025Firefly Alpha | FLTA006 (Message in a Booster)FAFAILURE
  3. 2025Vega-C | BiomassASASUCCESS
  4. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 12-10SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-16SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2022Angara 1.2 | Kosmos 2555 (MKA-R)VKSSUCCESS
  7. 2022Long March 2C | SuperView Neo 1-01 & 02CASCSUCCESS
  8. 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 24SpXSUCCESS
  9. 2021Long March 5B | TianheCASCSUCCESS
  10. 2021Vega | Pléiades Neo 3ASASUCCESS
  11. 2019Long March 4B | Tianhui-2-01CASCSUCCESS
  12. 2018New Shepard | NS-8BOSUCCESS
  13. 2015New Shepard | NS-1BOSUCCESS
  14. 2013SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise PF01VGSUCCESS
  15. 2012Long March 3B/E | Compass-M3 & Compass-M4CASCSUCCESS
  16. 2009Soyuz-U-PVB | Yantar-4K2M 5VKSSUCCESS
  17. 1998Proton | US-KMO 4KhSCSUCCESS
  18. 1992Soyuz U | Yantar-1KFT 15RFSASUCCESS
  19. 1992Soyuz U | Resurs-F2 8VKSSUCCESS
  20. 1985Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-51-BLSOCSUCCESS
  21. 1982Tsiklon-2 | US-P 14CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1980Soyuz U | Yantar-4K1 2CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1980Tsiklon-2 | US-A 16CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1975Molniya-M | Molniya-1 29CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1974Kosmos-3M | Sfera 11CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1974Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 24CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1965Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 19USAFSUCCESS
  28. 1965Scout X-4 | Beacon Explorer CNASASUCCESS
  29. 1962Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-4 3USAFSUCCESS
  30. 1958Vanguard | 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.