Launches
ON RECORD24MISSIONS
22 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1959, the most recent 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1969 · 57 years ago today
Apollo 11 leaves the pad
Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center on the flight that would put two people on the Moon four days later.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
July 16 in spaceflight
24 orbital launches flew on July 16, the earliest of them in 1959, and 22 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 7 spaceflight and astronomy events on July 16. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD7ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 622 onward.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
No Astronomy Picture of the Day is available for this date.
What happened on July 16
1877
The Imperial Russian army under Grand Duke Nicholas defeats the Ottoman army and takes the city of Nikopol (modern Bulgaria).
Imperial Russian Army ↗1910
John Robertson Duigan makes the first flight of the Duigan pusher biplane, the first aircraft built in Australia.
John Robertson Duigan ↗1945
Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Manhattan Project ↗1994
Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 began colliding with the planet Jupiter , with the first impact causing a fireball that reached a peak temperature of 24,000 kelvin.
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 ↗1994
The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is destroyed in a head-on collision with Jupiter.
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 ↗
Every launch on July 16
24 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer ESpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Amazon Leo (KF-01)SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-2SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 5-15SpXSUCCESS
- 2016Soyuz-U | Progress MS-03 (64P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2011Delta IV M+(4,2) | GPS IIF-2 (USA-232)ULASUCCESS
- 2008Zenit | Echostar XISLSUCCESS
- 2000Soyuz-U-PVB | Cluster Salsa & SambaRFSASUCCESS
- 2000Delta II | GPS IIR-5USAFSUCCESS
- 1999Soyuz U | Progress M-42RFSASUCCESS
- 1996Delta II | GPS IIA-17USAFSUCCESS
- 1990Long March 2E | BADR & Aussat-B-MFSCASCSUCCESS
- 1987Tsiklon-3 | Okean-O1 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 39CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Delta 3920 | Landsat 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1974Scout D-1 | Aeros 2NASASUCCESS
- 1973Delta 0300 | ITOS EUSAFFAILURE
- 1971Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | Strawman 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1971Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 9 (20L)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Saturn V | Apollo 11NASASUCCESS
- 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 44CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965UR-500 | Proton 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos 65S3 | Strela-1 15 to 19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1959Juno II | NASA S-1NASAFAILURE
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.