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May 14 in spaceflight

24 orbital launches flew on May 14, the earliest of them in 1966, and 23 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 14. Pick another date to see what happened on it.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

24MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1973 onward.

Pictures from this date

NONE

0IMAGES

No Astronomy Picture of the Day is available for this date.

What happened on May 14

  1. 1973

    Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

    Skylab ↗

  2. 2010

    Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135.

    Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗

Every launch on May 14

24 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Zhuque-2E Block 2 | Mass SimulatorLSSUCCESS
  2. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-67SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2025Long March 2D | Space Computing ConstellationCASCSUCCESS
  4. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 8-7SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 5-9SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-15SpXSUCCESS
  7. 2013Proton-M Briz-M | Eutelsat 3D (W3D)ILSSUCCESS
  8. 2010Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-132USASUCCESS
  9. 2009Ariane 5 ECA | Herschel & PlanckASASUCCESS
  10. 2008Soyuz U | Progress M-64RFSASUCCESS
  11. 1998Soyuz U | Progress M-39RFSASUCCESS
  12. 1997Molniya-M | US-K 78PRSCSUCCESS
  13. 1996Soyuz U | Yantar-1KFT 18RFSAFAILURE
  14. 1995Titan 401A Centaur | Orion 3USAFSUCCESS
  15. 1992Delta II | Palapa B4USAFSUCCESS
  16. 1991Atlas E | NOAA 12USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 31CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1984Soyuz U | Yantar-4KS1 2CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1982Tsiklon-2 | US-A 20CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1981Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-2 7CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1981Soyuz-U | Soyuz 40CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1980Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1B 2CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1973Saturn V | Skylab 1NASASUCCESS
  24. 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 28USAFSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

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General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.

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  • 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.