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July 24 in spaceflight

17 orbital launches flew on July 24, the earliest of them in 1969, and 17 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on July 24. Below are the pictures NASA published on July 24 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

17MISSIONS

17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1969, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1712 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for July 24, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on July 24

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. A likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form dark, smooth maria.Tomorrow's picture: Sunday's Childe

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.

© Robert Nemiroff — 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

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.

© Ralf Rohner — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on July 24

  2. 1847

    Brigham Young led the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley of Utah, at the time a part of Mexico.

    Brigham Young ↗

  3. 1847

    After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.

    Brigham Young ↗

  5. 1969

    Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

    Apollo program ↗

Every launch on July 24

17 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Starship | Flight 13SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-6SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-25SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2022Long March 5B | WentianCASCSUCCESS
  5. 2015Delta IV M+(5,4) | WGS-7 (USA-263)ULASUCCESS
  6. 2009Soyuz U | Progress M-67RFSASUCCESS
  7. 1995Proton | Uragan 66 to 68KhSCSUCCESS
  8. 1992Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 65VKSSUCCESS
  9. 1992Delta 6925 | Geotail & DUVEUSAFSUCCESS
  10. 1990Ariane 44L | TDF 2 & DFS-Kopernikus 2ASASUCCESS
  11. 1989Tsiklon-2 | US-P 30CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 35CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1984Soyuz U | Zenit-8 3CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1983Vostok 8A92M | Resurs-OE 1CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 23CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1975Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 3CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1969Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 7USAFSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

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.

    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.