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September 10 in spaceflight

17 orbital launches flew on September 10, the earliest of them in 1965, and 17 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 10. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 10 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

17MISSIONS

17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1858 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 10, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on September 10

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

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

How was the Saturn system imaged so clearly? Astrophotographer Tom Williams captured such exquisite details due to one night of exceptional atmospheric conditions above the United Kingdom. This means more than a cloudless sky. Pockets of air at different temperatures and densities move around and bend light as it travels through Earth’s atmosphere, distorting astronomy images. This is called “seeing.” Less atmospheric turbulence means clearer images. The astrophotographer reduced the impact of seeing with the lucky imaging technique: thousands of short-exposure images are taken very quickly with a high-speed camera and the clearest images are added up. Which object in this smörgåsbord interests you? Perhaps Titan or the icy stripes of Enceladus? Maybe the gaps and spokes in Saturn’s rings? Saturn's opposition, when Earth passes in between the planet and the Sun, occurred on October 4th. Due to the planet's proximity and full illumination from the Sun, now is a great time of year to observe it!Tomorrow's picture: bumpy

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 · public domain

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.

© Gerardo Ferrarino — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

© CARA Project — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on September 10

  1. 1858

    George Mary Searle discovered the asteroid 55 Pandora (pictured) from the Dudley Observatory near Albany, New York; it was his only asteroid discovery.

    George Mary Searle ↗

  3. 2024

    Polaris Dawn, the first private crewed spaceflight to involve a spacewalk, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    Polaris Dawn ↗

Every launch on September 10

17 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer BSpXSUCCESS
  2. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Polaris DawnSpXSUCCESS
  3. 2023Atlas V 551 | NROL-107 (Silent Barker)ULASUCCESS
  4. 2023Long March 6A | Yaogan 40CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2018Falcon 9 Block 5 | Telstar 18 VANTAGESpXSUCCESS
  6. 2011Delta II 7920H-10C | GRAIL-A (Ebb) & GRAIL-B (Flow)ULASUCCESS
  7. 2010Soyuz-U | Progress M-07M (39P)RFSASUCCESS
  8. 2009H-IIB 304 | Kounotori 1 (HTV-1)MHISUCCESS
  9. 2008Soyuz U | Progress M-65RFSASUCCESS
  10. 2002H-IIA 2024 | USERS & DRTSJAXASUCCESS
  11. 1992Ariane 44LP | Hispasat 1A & Satcom C3ASASUCCESS
  12. 1992Proton | US-KS 6KhSCSUCCESS
  13. 1986Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 40CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1971Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 15USAFSUCCESS
  15. 1971Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 12CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1968Titan IIIB | KH-8 16USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1965Thor Burner 1 | DSAP-2 F1USAFSUCCESS

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.