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June 18 in spaceflight

32 orbital launches flew on June 18, the earliest of them in 1959, and 28 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 7 spaceflight and astronomy events on June 18. Below are the pictures NASA published on June 18 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

32MISSIONS

28 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1959, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

7ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1757 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 18, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on June 18

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

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.

© Min Xie — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

© Madhup Rathi — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on June 18

  1. 1757

    Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years' War.

    Battle of Kolín ↗

  2. 1815

    Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, forcing Napoleon to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.

    Napoleonic Wars ↗

  3. 1928

    Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she is a passenger; Wilmer Stultz is the pilot and Lou Gordon the mechanic).

    Aircraft pilot ↗

  4. 1983

    Aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman and third one overall in space.

    Space Shuttle Challenger ↗

  6. 2006

    The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat-1, is launched.

    Kazakhstan ↗

Every launch on June 18

32 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-18SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Satria-1SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2023HASTE | Scout's Arrow (DYNAMO-A)RLSUCCESS
  4. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | SARah 1SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2021Long March 2C | Yaogan-30-09CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2017Long March 3B/E | Zhongxing-9A (Chinasat-9A)CASCPARTIAL
  7. 2016Ariane 5 ECA | Echostar 18 & BRIsatASASUCCESS
  8. 2009Atlas V 401 | LRO/LCROSSULASUCCESS
  9. 2006Zenit | Galaxy 16SLSUCCESS
  10. 1999Proton-K/DM-2M | Astra 1HKhSCSUCCESS
  11. 1998Atlas IIAS | INTELSAT 805LMTSUCCESS
  12. 1997Proton-K/17S40 | Iridium 09 to 14 & Iridium 16KhSCSUCCESS
  13. 1991Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 81CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1987Tsiklon-2 | US-A 30CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1987Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F40 105L 5CCCPFAILURE
  16. 1986Kosmos-3M | Parus 55CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1985Molniya-M | US-K 40CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1983Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-7ROISUCCESS
  19. 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 61CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1982Kosmos-3M | Parus 33CCCPFAILURE
  21. 1982Tsiklon-2 | IS-A 13CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1980Titan IIID | KH-9 16USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1980Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-Priroda 3-1CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1977Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-I 20CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1976Scout D-1 | GP-ANASASUCCESS
  26. 1975Atlas SLV-3A Agena D | Canyon 6USAFSUCCESS
  27. 1974Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 1CCCPSUCCESS
  28. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 42CCCPSUCCESS
  29. 1965Titan IIIC | Transtage 5USAFSUCCESS
  30. 1964Thor SLV-2 Agena D | DSAP-1 F8 & F9USAFSUCCESS
  31. 1962Thor DM-21 Agena-B | P-102 Group 2-D 1USAFSUCCESS
  32. 1959Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-2aCCCPFAILURE

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.