Skip to content
DELTA-V

ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR

June 15 in spaceflight

28 orbital launches flew on June 15, the earliest of them in 1963, and 26 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on June 15. Below are the pictures NASA published on June 15 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

Launches

ON RECORD

28MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from -763 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 15, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on June 15

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

Triple Shockwave from Sun Crossing Rocket

2026

Triple Shockwave from Sun Crossing Rocket

What's happening to this Sun-crossing rocket? The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, visible on the upper left, launched only about one minute before this amazing image was captured. As it rose to low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, in late May, the rocket became supersonic before it crossed the disk of the distant Sun -- from the perspective of the well-placed photographer. The spacecraft's high speed caused bow-shaped compressed-air shockwaves to form across leading surfaces, with at least three visible even outside the Sun's disk because they refract sunlight. The trailing exhaust caused turbulence visible on the lower right. None of this was damaging to the robotic Starlink 10-53 mission, which delivered 29 communications satellites to low Earth orbit as planned. And if that isn't amazing enough - the Sun had spots! Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (after 1995)

© John Winkopp (WAI Media) — used with the credit NASA publishes

Two Worlds, One Sun

2025

Two Worlds, One Sun

How different does sunset appear from Mars than from Earth? For comparison, two images of our common star were taken at sunset, one from Earth and one from Mars. These images were scaled to have the same angular width and are featured here side-by-side. A quick inspection will reveal that the Sun appears slightly smaller from Mars than from Earth. This makes sense since Mars is 50% further from the Sun than Earth. More striking, perhaps, is that the Martian sunset is noticeably bluer near the Sun than the typically orange colors near the setting Sun from Earth. The reason for the blue hues from Mars is not fully understood, but thought to be related to forward scattering properties of Martian dust. The terrestrial sunset was taken in 2012 March from Marseille, France, while the Martian sunset was captured in 2015 by NASA's robotic Curiosity rover from Gale crater on Mars. APOD Turns 30!: Free Public Lecture in Cork, Ireland on June 24

© Damia Bouic; Right Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS; Digital processing: Damia Bouic — used with the credit NASA publishes

Prominences and Filaments on the Active Sun

2024

Prominences and Filaments on the Active Sun

This colorized and digitally sharpened image of the Sun is composed of frames recording emission from hydrogen atoms in the solar chromosphere on May 15. Approaching the maximum of solar cycle 25, a multitude of planet-dwarfing active regions and twisting, snake-like solar filaments are seen to sprawl across the surface of the active Sun. Suspended in the active regions' strong magnetic fields, the filaments of plasma lofted beyond the Sun's edge appear as bright solar prominences. The large prominences seen near 4 o'clock, and just before 9 o'clock around the solar limb are post flare loops from two powerful X-class solar flares that both occurred on that day. In fact, the 4 o'clock prominence is associated with the monster active region AR 3664 just rotating off the Sun's edge.

© solar cycle 25 — used with the credit NASA publishes

M15: Dense Globular Star Cluster

2023

M15: Dense Globular Star Cluster

Messier 15 is an immense swarm of over 100,000 stars. A 13 billion year old relic of the early formative years of our galaxy it's one of about 170 globular star clusters that still roam the halo of the Milky Way. Centered in this sharp reprocessed Hubble image, M15 lies some 35,000 light-years away toward the constellation Pegasus. Its diameter is about 200 light-years, but more than half its stars are packed into the central 10 light-years or so, making one of the densest concentrations of stars known. Hubble-based measurements of the increasing velocities of M15's central stars are evidence that a massive black hole resides at the center of the dense cluster. M15 is also known to harbour a planetary nebula. Called Pease 1 (aka PN Ps 1), it can be seen in this image as a small blue blob below and just right of center.

NASA · public domain

In the Heart of the Virgo Cluster

2022

In the Heart of the Virgo Cluster

The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies is the closest cluster of galaxies to our Milky Way Galaxy. The Virgo Cluster is so close that it spans more than 5 degrees on the sky - about 10 times the angle made by a full Moon. With its heart lying about 70 million light years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the nearest cluster of galaxies, contains over 2,000 galaxies, and has a noticeable gravitational pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. The cluster contains not only galaxies filled with stars but also gas so hot it glows in X-rays. Motions of galaxies in and around clusters indicate that they contain more dark matter than any visible matter we can see. Pictured here, the heart of the Virgo Cluster includes bright Messier galaxies such as Markarian's Eyes on the upper left, M86 just to the upper right of center, M84 on the far right, as well as spiral galaxy NGC 4388 at the bottom right. Celestial Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995)

© Saulius Adomaitis — used with the credit NASA publishes

Zhurong: New Rover on Mars

2021

Zhurong: New Rover on Mars

There's a new rover on Mars. In mid-May, China's Tianwen-1 mission delivered the Zhurong rover onto the red planet. As Mars means Planet of Fire in Chinese, the Zhurong rover's name means, roughly, God of Fire in Chinese mythology. Zhurong landed in northern Utopia Planitia, the largest known impact basin in the Solar System, and an area reported to have much underground ice. Among many other scientific instruments, Zhurong carries ground-penetrating radar that can detect ice buried even 100-meters deep. Car-sized Zhurong is pictured here next to its landing base. The image was snapped by a remote camera deployed by the rolling rover. Zhurong's planned 90-day mission includes studying the geology, soil, and atmosphere of Mars in Utopia Planitia.

NASA · public domain

DELTA-V // BROWSER

Play it right here

LAUNCH

What happened on June 15

  1. -763

    The Bur-Sagale eclipse was observed in Assyria, the earliest solar eclipse mentioned in historical sources that has been successfully identified.

    760s BC ↗

  2. -763

    Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.

    Assyria ↗

  3. 1921

    Bessie Coleman (pictured) became the first Black person to earn an international pilot's license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

    Bessie Coleman ↗

  4. 1988

    The Ariane 4 rocket is launched on its maiden flight.

    Ariane 4 ↗

Every launch on June 15

28 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-54SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2026Kinetica 1 | 8 x Jilin-1CASSUCCESS
  3. 2023Long March 2D | 41 x Jilin-1CASCSUCCESS
  4. 2021Minotaur I | NROL-111NGSSSUCCESS
  5. 2017Long March 4B | Huiyan (HXMT (Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope))CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2016Falcon 9 Full Thrust | Eutelsat 117 West B & ABS-2ASpXSUCCESS
  7. 2011SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF12VGSUCCESS
  8. 2011Safir | Rasad 1ISASUCCESS
  9. 2010Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-19RFSASUCCESS
  10. 2010Dnepr 1 | Prisma-Mango, Prisma-Tango, Picard, BPA-1ISCKSUCCESS
  11. 2010Long March 2D | Shijian 12CASCSUCCESS
  12. 2007Atlas V 401 | NROL-30 & NOSS-3 (USA-194)ULASUCCESS
  13. 2007Dnepr | TerraSAR-XISCKSUCCESS
  14. 2006Soyuz-U-PVB | Resurs-DKRFSASUCCESS
  15. 2002Zenit | Galaxy 3CSLSUCCESS
  16. 1998Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 119 to 124RVSN RFSUCCESS
  17. 1996Ariane 44P | INTELSAT 709ASASUCCESS
  18. 1988Ariane 44LP | Meteosat 3ASASUCCESS
  19. 1984Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 26LCCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 8CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1978Soyuz-U | Soyuz 29CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1976Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 113-120CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1973Soyuz | Kosmos 573CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1971Titan IIID | KH-9 1USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1969Voskhod | Zenit-4 59CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1968Kosmos 11K65 | Strela-2 4CCCPFAILURE
  27. 1965Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 28CCCPSUCCESS
  28. 1963Thor Agena D | Poppy 4A & 4BUSAFFAILURE

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