Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
20 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1973, the most recent 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
May 21 in spaceflight
22 orbital launches flew on May 21, the earliest of them in 1973, and 20 reached orbit. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 21 in 4 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
NONE FOUND0ENTRIES
Wikipedia records no spaceflight or astronomy event on this date.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED4IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 21, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on May 21
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.
NASA · public domain
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.
NASA · public domain
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.
© Donald Waid — used with the credit NASA publishes
Every launch on May 21
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-31SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Kinetica 1 | 6 satellitesCASSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 12-15SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Kuaizhou 11 | Wuhan-1 and othersEPSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Axiom Space Mission 2SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 2C | MUST-1A/B & Luojia-2 01CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Antares 230 | Cygnus CRS OA-9 (S.S. J.R. Thompson)OASUCCESS
- 2010Ariane 5 ECA | Astra 3B & COMSATBw-2ASASUCCESS
- 2009Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat | Meridian No. 12LVKSFAILURE
- 2008Zenit | Galaxy 18SLSUCCESS
- 1993Soyuz U | Resurs-F2 9VKSSUCCESS
- 1991Soyuz-U-PVB | Resurs-F2 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Proton | Uragan 26 to 28CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F40 104L 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz U | Foton 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 58CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 39CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-2M 57CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 23CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Diamant B | Castor & PolluxCNESFAILURE
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.
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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.
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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.