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 3 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

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

3IMAGES

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.

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.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

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

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 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

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.