Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
22 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
June 19 in spaceflight
22 orbital launches flew on June 19, the earliest of them in 1962, and 22 reached orbit. Below are the pictures NASA published on June 19 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
NONE FOUND0ENTRIES
Wikipedia records no spaceflight or astronomy event on this date.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED5IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 19, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on June 19
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
2026
Starry Night II
Does this scene look familiar? It is a modern recreation of the famous painting Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Both the image and the painting depict a tall tree on the left, a crescent moon on the upper right, the planet Venus just to the right of the tree, a foreground horizon rising from left to right, and clouds above the horizon. Differences include that the photograph was taken in mid-April earlier this year in Cascavel, Brazil, while the painting was composed in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, in 1889. The original Starry Night is considered by many to be one of the three most famous paintings in the world today and a statement about the wonders of the night sky. Today is (roughly) the anniversary of the morning that van Gogh saw the sky that he later painted in his version of Starry Night. Night Sky Jigsaw: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
© Rodrigo Guerra, Original Painting: Vincent van Gogh — used with the credit NASA publishes
2025
NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble
Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the northern springtime constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait though. Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. The deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in fainter, gigantic, bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past.
© Vikas Chander — used with the credit NASA publishes
2024
NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara
Do dragons fight on the altar of the sky? Although it might appear that way, these dragons are illusions made of thin gas and dust. The emission nebula NGC 6188, home to the glowing clouds, is found about 4,000 light years away near the edge of a large molecular cloud, unseen at visible wavelengths, in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar). Massive, young stars of the embedded Ara OB1 association were formed in that region only a few million years ago, sculpting the dark shapes and powering the nebular glow with stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The recent star formation itself was likely triggered by winds and supernova explosions from previous generations of massive stars, that swept up and compressed the molecular gas. This impressively detailed image spans over 2 degrees (four full Moons), corresponding to over 150 light years at the estimated distance of NGC 6188.
© Carlos Taylor — used with the credit NASA publishes
2023
The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula
The center of the Lagoon Nebula is a whirlwind of spectacular star formation. Visible near the image center, at least two long funnel-shaped clouds, each roughly half a light-year long, have been formed by extreme stellar winds and intense energetic starlight. A tremendously bright nearby star, Herschel 36, lights the area. Vast walls of dust hide and redden other hot young stars. As energy from these stars pours into the cool dust and gas, large temperature differences in adjoining regions can be created generating shearing winds which may cause the funnels. This picture, spanning about 15 light years, combines images taken in four colors by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8, lies about 5000 light years distant toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius).
NASA · public domain
2021
Northern Summer Twilight
Nights grow shorter and days grow longer as the summer solstice approaches in the north. Usually seen at high latitudes in summer months, noctilucent or night shining clouds begin to make their appearance. Drifting near the edge of space about 80 kilometers above the Earth's surface, these icy clouds were still reflecting the sunlight on June 14. Though the Sun was below the horizon as seen north of Forrest, Manitoba, Canada, they were caught in a single exposure of a near midnight twilight sky. Multiple exposures of the foreground track the lower altitude flash of fireflies, another fleeting apparition shining in the summer night.
© Justin Anderson — used with the credit NASA publishes
Every launch on June 19
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Electron | VICTUS HAZE PumaRLSUCCESS
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-179SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Angara A5/Briz-M | Kosmos 2589 & 2590VKSSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 9-1SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Globalstar-2 FM15 & USA 328-331SpXSUCCESS
- 2016New Shepard | NS-5BOSUCCESS
- 2014Dnepr 1 | Multipayload, 37 satellites.ISCKSUCCESS
- 2008Kosmos-3M | Orbcomm FM 37 to 41 & CDS 3NPSUCCESS
- 2003Molniya-M | Molniya-3 65LPRSCSUCCESS
- 2001Atlas IIAS | ICO F2LMTSUCCESS
- 1990Soyuz U | Zenit-8 92CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Molniya-M | Molniya-3 44LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 34CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 97CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Molniya-M | US-K 21CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Ariane 1 | Meteosat 2ASASUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos-3M | AUOS-Z-T-IK 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Atlas SLV-3A Agena D | Aquacade 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 7USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Thor Delta B | Tiros 7USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Thor Delta | Tiros 5USAFSUCCESS
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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