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May 22 in spaceflight

29 orbital launches flew on May 22, the earliest of them in 1963, and 27 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 22. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 22 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

29MISSIONS

27 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1963, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

6ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 760 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 22, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on May 22

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.

© Robert Nemiroff — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

NASA · public domain

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

NASA Science

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.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

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.

© Ginge Anvik — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on May 22

  2. 1844

    In Shiraz, Iran, the Báb declared himself to be a messenger of God to Mullá Husayn, leading to the foundation of Bábism, considered to be a precursor to the Baháʼí Faith.

    Shiraz ↗

  3. 1906

    The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".

    Wright brothers ↗

  4. 1969

    Apollo 10's Lunar Module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the Moon's surface.

    Apollo 10 ↗

  5. 2002

    Police announced that the skeletal remains of Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy, who had been missing for a year, had been found in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.

    Federal Bureau of Prisons ↗

  6. 2012

    SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 launches a Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket in the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.

    SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 ↗

Every launch on May 22

29 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Starship | Flight 12SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2026Electron | Viva La StriX (StriX Launch 9)RLSUCCESS
  3. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-146SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2021SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity VF-03VGSUCCESS
  5. 2020Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | EKS 4 (Tundra 4) (Kosmos 2546)VKSSUCCESS
  6. 2019Long March 4C | Yaogan-33CASCFAILURE
  7. 2019PSLV-CA | RISAT-2BISROSUCCESS
  8. 2018Falcon 9 Block 4 | Iridium-6 & GRACE-FOSpXSUCCESS
  9. 2014Atlas V 401 | NROL-33 (Quasar)ULASUCCESS
  10. 2012Falcon 9 v1.0 | SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2SpXSUCCESS
  11. 2005Proton-M Briz-M | DirecTV-8KhSCSUCCESS
  12. 1999Titan 404B | NROL-9USAFSUCCESS
  13. 1994Soyuz U | Progress M-23RFSASUCCESS
  14. 1993Soyuz-U2 | Progress M-18RFSASUCCESS
  15. 1990Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 7CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1985Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 52LCCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1984Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 25CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1981Delta 3914 | GOES 5USAFSUCCESS
  19. 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 17CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1979Proton | TKS-VA 9 & 10CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1976Scout B-1 | WidebandUSAFSUCCESS
  22. 1975Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | INTELSAT IV F1USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1971Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 8CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1970Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 32CCCPFAILURE
  25. 1969Thor Delta M | INTELSAT III F-4USAFSUCCESS
  26. 1967Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 37USAFSUCCESS
  27. 1967Voskhod | Zenit-4 29CCCPSUCCESS
  28. 1965Atlas D | FIRE 2USAFSUCCESS
  29. 1963Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-A1 2CCCPSUCCESS

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.