Launches
ON RECORD24MISSIONS
24 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
September 14 in spaceflight
24 orbital launches flew on September 14, the earliest of them in 1964, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 14. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 14 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1958 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED5IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 14, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on September 14
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
2025
Planets of the Solar System: Tilts and Spins
How does your favorite planet spin? Does it spin rapidly around a nearly vertical axis, or horizontally, or backwards? The featured video animates NASA images of all eight planets in our Solar System to show them spinning side-by-side for an easy comparison. In the time-lapse video, a day on Earth -- one Earth rotation -- takes just a few seconds. Jupiter rotates the fastest, while Venus spins not only the slowest (can you see it?), but backwards. The inner rocky planets across the top underwent dramatic spin-altering collisions during the early days of the Solar System. Why planets spin and tilt as they do remains a topic of research with much insight gained from modern computer modeling and the recent discovery and analysis of hundreds of exoplanets: planets orbiting other stars.
NASA · public domain
2024
The Moona Lisa
Only natural colors of the Moon in planet Earth's sky appear in this creative visual presentation. Arranged as pixels in a framed image, the lunar disks were photographed at different times. Their varying hues are ultimately due to reflected sunlight affected by changing atmospheric conditions and the alignment geometry of Moon, Earth, and Sun. Here, the darkest lunar disks are the colors of earthshine. A description of earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth's oceans illuminating the Moon's dark surface, was written over 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. But stand farther back from your screen or just shift your gaze to the smaller versions of the image. You might also see one of da Vinci's most famous works of art. Tonight: International Observe the Moon Night
© Gianni Sarcone — used with the credit NASA publishes
2023
NGC 7331 and Beyond
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way. About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Pegasus, NGC 7331 was recognized early on as a spiral nebula and is actually one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. Since the galaxy's disk is inclined to our line-of-sight, long telescopic exposures often result in images that evokes a strong sense of depth. The effect is further enhanced in this sharp image by galaxies that lie beyond the gorgeous island universe. The most prominent background galaxies are about one tenth the apparent size of NGC 7331 and so lie roughly ten times farther away. Their close alignment on the sky with NGC 7331 occurs just by chance. Lingering above the plane of the Milky Way, this striking visual grouping of galaxies is known to some as the Deer Lick Group.
© Ian Gorenstein — used with the credit NASA publishes
2022
Waves of the Great Lacerta Nebula
It is one of the largest nebulas on the sky -- why isn't it better known? Roughly the same angular size as the Andromeda Galaxy, the Great Lacerta Nebula can be found toward the constellation of the Lizard (Lacerta). The emission nebula is difficult to see with wide-field binoculars because it is so faint, but also usually difficult to see with a large telescope because it is so great in angle -- spanning about three degrees. The depth, breadth, waves, and beauty of the nebula -- cataloged as Sharpless 126 (Sh2-126) -- can best be seen and appreciated with a long duration camera exposure. The featured image is one such combined exposure -- in this case 10 hours over five different colors and over six nights during this past June and July at the IC Astronomy Observatory in Spain. The hydrogen gas in the Great Lacerta Nebula glows red because it is excited by light from the bright star 10 Lacertae, one of the bright blue stars just above the red-glowing nebula's center. The stars and nebula are about 1,200 light years distant. Harvest Full Moon 2022: Notable Submissions to APOD
© Jarmo Ruuth, Telescope Live; Text: Ata Sarajedini (Florida Atlantic U., Astronomy Minute podcast) — used with the credit NASA publishes
2021
Mars Panorama 360 from Curiosity
Which way up Mount Sharp? In early September, the robotic rover Curiosity continued its ascent up the central peak of Gale Crater, searching for more clues about ancient water and further evidence that Mars could once have been capable of supporting life. On this recent Martian morning, before exploratory drilling, the rolling rover took this 360-degree panorama, in part to help Curiosity's human team back on Earth access the landscape and chart possible future routes. In the horizontally-compressed featured image, an amazing vista across Mars was captured, complete with layered hills, red rocky ground, gray drifting sand, and a dusty atmosphere. The hill just left of center has been dubbed Maria Gordon Notch in honor of a famous Scottish geologist. The current plan is to direct Curiosity to approach, study, and pass just to the right of Gordon Notch on its exploratory trek.
NASA · public domain
What happened on September 14
1958
The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.
Mohr Rocket ↗
2015
The first observation of gravitational waves is made, announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016.
First observation of gravitational waves ↗
Every launch on September 14
24 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cygnus CRS-2 NG-23 (S.S. William “Willie” C. McCool)SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Qaem 100 | Chamran-1IRGCAFSUCCESS
- 2021Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 10ASASUCCESS
- 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 2-1SpXSUCCESS
- 2015Proton-M/Blok DM-03 | Ekspress AM8KhSCSUCCESS
- 2015Long March 2D | Gaofen 9CASCSUCCESS
- 2013Epsilon | Hisaki (SPRINT-A)JAXASUCCESS
- 2007Soyuz-U-PVB | Foton-M No. 3RFSASUCCESS
- 2007H-IIA 2022 | KaguyaJAXASUCCESS
- 2006Soyuz-U-PVB | Orlets-1 8RFSASUCCESS
- 2001Soyuz U | Progress M-SO1RFSASUCCESS
- 2000Ariane 5 G | Astra 2B & GE-7ASASUCCESS
- 1997Proton-K/17S40 | Iridium 27 to 33KhSCSUCCESS
- 1990Kosmos-3M | Parus 70CCCPSUCCESS
- 1989Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 43 to 48CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 24LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Tsiklon-2 | US-P 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 34CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Proton-K/D-1 | Venera-12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Proton / UR-500 K/D | Zond 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2 65CCCPSUCCESS
- 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 10USAFSUCCESS
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.
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General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
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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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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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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.
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