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September 22 in spaceflight

20 orbital launches flew on September 22, the earliest of them in 1965, and 18 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 22. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 22 in 3 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

20MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

2ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1979 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

3IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 22, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on September 22

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

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. A likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form dark, smooth maria.Tomorrow's picture: Sunday's Childe

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.

© TWAN — 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.

NASA · public domain

What happened on September 22

  1. 1979

    An American Vela satellite detected an unidentified flash of light near the Prince Edward Islands in the Indian Ocean, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.

    Vela (satellite) ↗

  2. 2014

    The NASA spacecraft MAVEN entered into orbit around Mars to study the planet's atmosphere.

    NASA ↗

Every launch on September 22

20 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-48SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2019Long March 3B / YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M23 & M24CASCSUCCESS
  3. 2018H-IIB 304 | Kounotori 7 (HTV-7)MHISUCCESS
  4. 2017Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat-M | Glonass-M (Kosmos 2522)VKSSUCCESS
  5. 2012Safir 1B | FajrISAFAILURE
  6. 2010Long March 2D | Yaogan-11, Zheda Pixing 1B & Zheda Pixing 1CCASCSUCCESS
  7. 2006M-V | HinodeJAXASUCCESS
  8. 1999Soyuz-U-PVB | Globalstar 33,50,55,58RFSASUCCESS
  9. 1992Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 66VKSSUCCESS
  10. 1989Soyuz U | Zenit-8 87CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1988Soyuz-U-PVB | Zenit-8 69CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1983Delta 3920/PAM | Galaxy 2USAFSUCCESS
  13. 1982Molniya-M | US-K 28CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1977Molniya-M | Prognoz-6CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 71CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1970Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 3CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1969Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | KH-4A 52USAFSUCCESS
  18. 1969Lambda 4S | Ohsumi 4ISASFAILURE
  19. 1967R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 14CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1965Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 24USAFSUCCESS

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.