Skip to content
DELTA-V

ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR

May 19 in spaceflight

29 orbital launches flew on May 19, the earliest of them in 1964, and 28 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 19. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 19 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

Launches

ON RECORD

29MISSIONS

28 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

6ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1922 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 19, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on May 19

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

NGC 2170: The Angel Nebula

2026

NGC 2170: The Angel Nebula

Is this a painting or a photograph? In this celestial abstract art composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170, also known as the Angel Nebula, shines just above the image center. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae, a red emission region, many dark absorption nebulae, and a backdrop of colorful stars. Like the common household items that abstract painters often choose for their subjects, the clouds of gas, dust, and hot stars featured here are also commonly found in a setting like this one -- a massive, star-forming molecular cloud in the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros). The giant molecular cloud Mon R2, is impressively close, estimated to be only 2,400 light-years or so away. At that distance, this canvas would be over 60 light-years across. Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator

© Jason Marriott — used with the credit NASA publishes

Jupiter Diving

2024

Jupiter Diving

Take this simulated plunge and dive into the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant. The awesome animation is based on image data from JunoCam, and the microwave radiometer on board the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft. Your view will start about 3,000 kilometers above the southern Jovian cloud tops, and you can track your progress on the display at the left. As altitude decreases, temperature increases while you dive deeper at the location of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot. In fact, Juno data indicates the Great Red Spot, the Solar System's largest storm system, penetrates some 300 kilometers into the giant planet's atmosphere. For comparison, the deepest point for planet Earth's oceans is just under 11 kilometers down. Don't worry though, you'll fly back out again. Dive into the Universe: Random APOD Generator

NASA · public domain

Curly Spiral Galaxy M63

2023

Curly Spiral Galaxy M63

A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way. Its bright core and majestic spiral arms lend the galaxy its popular name, The Sunflower Galaxy. This exceptionally deep exposure also follows faint, arcing star streams far into the galaxy's halo. Extending nearly 180,000 light-years from the galactic center, the star streams are likely remnants of tidally disrupted satellites of M63. Other satellite galaxies of M63 can be spotted in the remarkable wide-field image, including faint dwarf galaxies, which could contribute to M63's star streams in the next few billion years.

© Sophie Paulin — used with the credit NASA publishes

A Digital Lunar Eclipse

2022

A Digital Lunar Eclipse

Recorded on May 15/16 this sequence of exposures follows the Full Moon during a total lunar eclipse as it arcs above treetops in the clearing skies of central Florida. A frame taken every 5 minutes by a digital camera shows the progression of the eclipse over three hours. The bright lunar disk grows dark and red as it glides through planet Earth's shadow. In fact, counting the central frames in the sequence measures the roughly 90 minute duration of the total phase of this eclipse. Around 270 BC, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus also measured the duration of total lunar eclipses, but probably without the benefit of digital watches and cameras. Still, using geometry he devised a simple and impressively accurate way to calculate the Moon's distance in terms of the radius of planet Earth, from the eclipse duration.

© Michael Cain — used with the credit NASA publishes

The Jellyfish and Mars

2021

The Jellyfish and Mars

Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring scene. In the telescopic field of view two bright yellowish stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum, stand just below and above the Jellyfish Nebula at the left. Cool red giants, they lie at the foot of the celestial twin. The Jellyfish Nebula itself floats below and left of center, a bright arcing ridge of emission with dangling tentacles. In fact, the cosmic jellyfish is part of bubble-shaped supernova remnant IC 443, the expanding debris cloud from a massive star that exploded. Light from that explosion first reached planet Earth over 30,000 years ago. Like its cousin in astrophysical waters the Crab Nebula supernova remnant, the Jellyfish Nebula is known to harbor a neutron star, the remnant of the collapsed stellar core. Composed on April 30, this telescopic snapshot also captures Mars. Now wandering through early evening skies, the Red Planet also shines with a yellowish glow on the right hand side of the field of view. Of course, the Jellyfish Nebula is about 5,000 light-years away, while Mars is currently almost 18 light-minutes from Earth.

© Jason Guenzel — used with the credit NASA publishes

DELTA-V // BROWSER

Play it right here

LAUNCH

What happened on May 19

  3. 1961

    Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data).

    Venera program ↗

  6. 2000

    Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-101 to resupply the International Space Station.

    Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗

Every launch on May 19

29 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Vega-C | Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE)AvioSUCCESS
  2. 2025Ceres-1S | Tianqi 16-18 & 20GESUCCESS
  3. 2024New Shepard | NS-25BOSUCCESS
  4. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-3SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2022Atlas V N22 | CST-100 Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2)ULASUCCESS
  6. 2022Soyuz 2.1a | Kosmos 2556 (Bars-M No. 3)VKSSUCCESS
  7. 2021Long March 4B | Haiyang 2DCASCSUCCESS
  8. 2011SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF09VGSUCCESS
  9. 2009Minotaur I | Tacsat 3OSCSUCCESS
  10. 2004Atlas IIAS | AMC 11LMTSUCCESS
  11. 2000Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-101USASUCCESS
  12. 1996Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-77LMSOSUCCESS
  13. 1994Pegasus HAPS | Space Test Experiments Platform 2 (STEP-2)OSCSUCCESS
  14. 1990Proton | Uragan 36 to 38CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1988Soyuz U | Zenit-8 63CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1987Soyuz-U2 | Progress 30CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1984Proton | Uragan 6 & 7CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1983Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat 506USAFSUCCESS
  19. 1983Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1B 5CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1981Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 29CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1978Tsiklon-2 | IS-A 9CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1977Kosmos-3M | DS-P1-M 11CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1972Molniya-M | Molniya-2 2CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1971Proton | Mars-2CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1971Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 42CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1966R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 4CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1966Scout A | Transit-O 9USAFSUCCESS
  28. 1965Little Joe II | A-003NASAFAILURE
  29. 1964Atlas Agena D | KH-7 8USAFSUCCESS

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.

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