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September 16 in spaceflight

29 orbital launches flew on September 16, the earliest of them in 1966, and 26 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 16. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 16 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

29MISSIONS

26 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1966, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1822 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 16, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on September 16

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

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.

© Robert Gendler — 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.

© Andrew Klinger — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on September 16

  1. 1822

    French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a "note" read to the Academy of Sciences, reports a direct refraction experiment verifying David Brewster's hypothesis that photoelasticity (as it is now known) is stress-induced birefringence.

    Augustin-Jean Fresnel ↗

  2. 1961

    Pakistan establishes its Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission with Abdus Salam as its head.

    SUPARCO ↗

  4. 2021

    Inspiration4, the first private orbital crewed spaceflight, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center.

    Inspiration4 ↗

Every launch on September 16

29 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Long March 2C/YZ-1S | 4 x SatNet test satellitesCASCSUCCESS
  2. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-16SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2021Hapith I | Test FlightTiSPACEFAILURE
  4. 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Inspiration4SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2018PSLV-CA | SSTL-S1 & NovaSAR-SISROSUCCESS
  6. 2016Vega | PerúSAT-1 / SkySat 4-7ASASUCCESS
  7. 2003Kaituozhe-1 | Hangtian Tsinghua 1-02CASCFAILURE
  8. 1998Ariane 44LP | PAS 7ASASUCCESS
  9. 1996Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-79USASUCCESS
  10. 1993Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 14RFSASUCCESS
  11. 1988H-1 | Sakura 3BMHISUCCESS
  12. 1988Proton | Uragan 29 to 31CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1987Scout G-1 | Transit-O 27,29USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1987Proton | Uragan 20 to 22CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1987Ariane 3 | Aussat A3 & ECS 4ASASUCCESS
  16. 1986Proton | Uragan 14 to 16CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1982Proton-K/DM | EkranCCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1982Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 38CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1978Mu-3H | JikikenISASSUCCESS
  20. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 5CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1977Tsiklon-2 | US-A 14CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1975Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 50CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-4M 42CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1970Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-I 9CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 48CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1967Voskhod | Zenit-2 53CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 32USAFSUCCESS
  28. 1966Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 41CCCPFAILURE
  29. 1966Thor Burner 2 | DSAP-4A F1USAFSUCCESS

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.