Skip to content
DELTA-V

MARKED ON THIS DATE

ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR

June 21 in spaceflight

26 orbital launches flew on June 21, the earliest of them in 1966, and 21 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on June 21. Below are the pictures NASA published on June 21 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

26MISSIONS

21 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1966, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1993 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 21, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on June 21

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 — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

NASA · public domain

What happened on June 21

  1. 1993

    Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-57 to retrieve the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) satellite. It is also the first shuttle mission to carry the Spacehab module.

    Space Shuttle Endeavour ↗

  2. 2004

    SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

    SpaceShipOne ↗

  3. 2006

    Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.

    Pluto ↗

Every launch on June 21

26 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-28SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2022Nuri | Flight Test 2KARISUCCESS
  3. 2011Soyuz-U | Progress M-11M (43P)RFSASUCCESS
  4. 2011SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF13VGSUCCESS
  5. 2010Dnepr 1 | TanDEM-XISCKSUCCESS
  6. 2009Zenit | Measat 3ASLSUCCESS
  7. 2006Delta II | MITExUSAFSUCCESS
  8. 2005Volna | Cosmos-1Makeyev Rocket Design BureauFAILURE
  9. 2005Molniya-M | Molniya-3KPRSCFAILURE
  10. 1993Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-57LSOCSUCCESS
  11. 1990Molniya-M | US-K 64CCCPFAILURE
  12. 1989Proton | Raduga-1 1CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1988Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 45CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1985Zenit-2 | GVM Tselina-2CCCPFAILURE
  15. 1985Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 55LCCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1985Soyuz U | Progress 24CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1984Kosmos-3M | Nadezhda 3CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1980Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 47CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1978Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 18CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1975Delta 1910 | OSO 8USAFSUCCESS
  21. 1974Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 24CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-2M 39CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-2M 29CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1969Thor Delta E1 | IMP GUSAFFAILURE
  25. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2M 2CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1966Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 34USAFSUCCESS

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.