Launches
ON RECORD20MISSIONS
16 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1961, the most recent 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1969 · 57 years ago today
The first steps
Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder and stood on the Moon; Buzz Aldrin followed nineteen minutes later.
read more2011 · 15 years ago today
The last Shuttle landing
Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center to end the Space Shuttle programme after thirty years.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
July 21 in spaceflight
20 orbital launches flew on July 21, the earliest of them in 1961, and 16 reached orbit. Below are the pictures NASA published on July 21 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 July 21, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on July 21
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
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
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
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.
© Gabriel Rodrigues Santos — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© German Penelas Perez — used with the credit NASA publishes
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
Every launch on July 21
20 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | MRV-1SpXSUCCESS
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-39SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Proton-M | MLM NaukaKhSCSUCCESS
- 2012H-IIB 304 | Kounotori 3 (HTV-3)MHISUCCESS
- 2009Kosmos-3M | Parus 98NPSUCCESS
- 2006Molniya-M | US-K 83PRSCSUCCESS
- 1994Long March 3 | APSTAR 1CASCSUCCESS
- 1988Ariane 3 | Insat 1C & ECS5ASASUCCESS
- 1982Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 55CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 241-248CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Tsiklon-2 | IS-A 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos-3M | Sfera 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Proton | Mars-4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Voskhod | Zenit-4 75CCCPFAILURE
- 1969Apollo LM | Apollo 11NASASUCCESS
- 1968Proton / UR-500 K/D | Soyuz 7K-L1 No.8LCCCPFAILURE
- 1967Voskhod | Zenit-4 32CCCPFAILURE
- 1962Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-4 8USAFSUCCESS
- 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-5 4USAFFAILURE
- 1961Redstone MRLV | Mercury-Redstone 4NASASUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
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- VIEW
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.