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September 15 in spaceflight

17 orbital launches flew on September 15, the earliest of them in 1967, and 16 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 15. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 15 in 4 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

17MISSIONS

16 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1967, the most recent 2023.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

2ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1830 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

4IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 15, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on September 15

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.

© Luis Miguel Meade Rodríguez — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on September 15

  2. 1968

    The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

    Soviet Union ↗

Every launch on September 15

17 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2023Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-24RFSASUCCESS
  2. 2023Firefly Alpha | FLTA003 (VICTUS NOX)FASUCCESS
  3. 2022Electron | The Owl Spreads Its Wings (StriX-1)RLSUCCESS
  4. 2020Long March 11 | Jilin-1 High Resolution 03B 01-06 & 03C 01-03CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2018Delta II 7420-10 | ICESat-2ULASUCCESS
  6. 2016Long March 2F/G | Tiangong-2CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2002Kaituozhe-1 | Hangtian Tsinghua 1-01CASCFAILURE
  8. 1989Soyuz U | Bion 9CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1988Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 41CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1987Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F40 107L 6CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1982Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 27CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 47CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1976Titan 24B | KH-8 47USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1976Soyuz-U | Soyuz 22CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-2M 32CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1969R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 21CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1967Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | KH-4B 1USAFSUCCESS

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.