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September 14 in spaceflight

24 orbital launches flew on September 14, the earliest of them in 1964, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 14. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 14 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

24MISSIONS

24 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 1958 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

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.

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

This stairway in Chile brings you only a little bit closer to heaven. But ooh, the sky above it makes you wonder. For example, you may wonder about the dark lane of our own Milky Way galaxy rising behind the expansive Atacama Desert in Chile, the band of zodiacal light on the upper left, the green and red airglow just above the horizon, the star Spica in the zodiacal light stripe, and, at the very top on the right, the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy. The Desert Staircase sculpture is in the foreground, and this image was timed to catch the picturesque peering perch just in front of the near-vertical Milky Way band. Upon close inspection of the horizon you can find, left to right, some Andes Mountains, the Licancabur volcano, and the town lights of San Pedro de Atacama. The featured wide-angle composite was captured in July 2025.Tomorrow's picture: open space

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.

© Gianni Sarcone — 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.

© Ian Gorenstein — used with the credit NASA publishes

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 14

  1. 1958

    The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.

    Mohr Rocket ↗

  2. 2015

    Physicists of the LIGO and Virgo projects first observed gravitational waves, the existence of which was predicted by Henri Poincaré in 1905.

    LIGO ↗

Every launch on September 14

24 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cygnus CRS-2 NG-23 (S.S. William “Willie” C. McCool)SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2024Qaem 100 | Chamran-1IRGCAFSUCCESS
  3. 2021Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 10ASASUCCESS
  4. 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 2-1SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2015Proton-M/Blok DM-03 | Ekspress AM8KhSCSUCCESS
  6. 2015Long March 2D | Gaofen 9CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2013Epsilon | Hisaki (SPRINT-A)JAXASUCCESS
  8. 2007Soyuz-U-PVB | Foton-M No. 3RFSASUCCESS
  9. 2007H-IIA 2022 | KaguyaJAXASUCCESS
  10. 2006Soyuz-U-PVB | Orlets-1 8RFSASUCCESS
  11. 2001Soyuz U | Progress M-SO1RFSASUCCESS
  12. 2000Ariane 5 G | Astra 2B & GE-7ASASUCCESS
  13. 1997Proton-K/17S40 | Iridium 27 to 33KhSCSUCCESS
  14. 1990Kosmos-3M | Parus 70CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1989Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 43 to 48CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1983Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 24LCCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1981Tsiklon-2 | US-P 12CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 34CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1978Proton-K/D-1 | Venera-12CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1973Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 14CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 6CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1968Proton / UR-500 K/D | Zond 5CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2 65CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 10USAFSUCCESS

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.