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May 23 in spaceflight

22 orbital launches flew on May 23, the earliest of them in 1968, and 19 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on May 23. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 23 in 1 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

22MISSIONS

19 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1968, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

1ENTRY

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1706 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

1IMAGE

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 23, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on May 23

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

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

What happened on May 23

Every launch on May 23

22 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-16SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2025Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Kosmos 2588VKSSUCCESS
  3. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-62SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2014Rokot / Briz-KM | 3x Strela-3M (Kosmos 2496, Kosmos 2497, Kosmos 2498) & Kosmos 2499VKOSUCCESS
  5. 2012Safir 1B | FajrISAFAILURE
  6. 2008Rokot / Briz-KM | Strela-3 137 to 139VKSSUCCESS
  7. 1995Atlas I | GOES 9GDSUCCESS
  8. 1986Kosmos-3M | Parus 54CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1985Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 15CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1984Ariane 1 | Spacenet 1ASASUCCESS
  11. 1982Soyuz U | Progress 13CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1981Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat 501USAFSUCCESS
  13. 1980Ariane 1 | FirewheelASAFAILURE
  14. 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 13CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1978Kosmos-3M | Parus 15CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 6CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1977Atlas SLV-3A Agena D | Canyon 7USAFSUCCESS
  18. 1977Tsiklon-2 | IS-A 5CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1974Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 1CCCPFAILURE
  20. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4M 48CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1969Titan IIIC | Vela 5A & 5BUSAFSUCCESS
  22. 1968Thor Burner 2 | DSAP-4B F1USAFSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

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.