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September 5 in spaceflight

22 orbital launches flew on September 5, the earliest of them in 1964, and 21 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 5. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 5 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

22MISSIONS

21 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1977 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 5, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on September 5

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

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos in March of 2008. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material slid down inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the crater's rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may be related to tidal stresses experienced by close-orbiting Phobos or the crater-forming impact itself.Tomorrow's picture: farside

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.

© Eric Benson — used with the credit NASA publishes

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 September 5

  1. 1977

    NASA launched the space probe Voyager 1, currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

    NASA ↗

  3. 1984

    STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.

    STS-41-D ↗

Every launch on September 5

22 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-57SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2025Ceres-1 | 3 satellitesGESUCCESS
  3. 2025Long March 3C/YZ-1 | Shiyan 29CASCSUCCESS
  4. 2024Long March 6 | Geely Constellation Group 03CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 8-11SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2024Vega | Sentinel-2CASASUCCESS
  7. 2023Ceres-1S | Tianqi 21-24GESUCCESS
  8. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-20 & Varuna-TDMSpXSUCCESS
  9. 2013SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise PF02VGSUCCESS
  10. 2007Proton-M Briz-M | JCSAT 11KhSCFAILURE
  11. 2000Proton-K/DM-2M | Sirius FM-2KhSCSUCCESS
  12. 1996Kosmos-3M | Parus 86NPSUCCESS
  13. 1989Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-8CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1989H-1 | Himawari 4MHISUCCESS
  15. 1988Titan II SLV | P-11 5103USAFSUCCESS
  16. 1986Delta 3920 | VSE & VSE TargetUSAFSUCCESS
  17. 1986Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 68CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1979Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 11LCCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1977Titan IIIE | Voyager 1LMTSUCCESS
  20. 1975Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 3CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 47CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1964Atlas Agena B | OGO 1USAFSUCCESS

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.