Launches
ON RECORD19MISSIONS
17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1963, the most recent 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
May 18 in spaceflight
19 orbital launches flew on May 18, the earliest of them in 1963, and 17 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 18. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 18 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1969 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 18, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on May 18
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
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.
© ShaRA Team — used with the credit NASA publishes
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
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.
© Chirag Upreti — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© Craig Stocks — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© Tomas Slovinsky — used with the credit NASA publishes
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 May 18
2005
A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.
Hubble Space Telescope ↗
Every launch on May 18
19 launches
ONLINE
- 2025PSLV-XL | EOS-09 (RISAT-1B)ISROFAILURE
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-59SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-18SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Atlas V 421 | SBIRS GEO-5ULASUCCESS
- 2017Soyuz STA/Fregat | SES-15ASASUCCESS
- 2001Delta II | NROL-17USAFSUCCESS
- 1999Pegasus XL HAPS | MUBLCOM & TERRIERSOSCSUCCESS
- 1991Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz U | Yantar-1KFT 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 18CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 78CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Saturn V | Apollo 10NASASUCCESS
- 1968Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | Nimbus BUSAFFAILURE
- 1967Scout A | Transit-O 13USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 20USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Voskhod | Zenit-4 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1963Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-6 2USAFSUCCESS
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.
- VIEW
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.
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.