Launches
ON RECORD27MISSIONS
27 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
September 24 in spaceflight
27 orbital launches flew on September 24, the earliest of them in 1964, and 27 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 24. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 24 in 6 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 2014 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 24, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on September 24
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
2026
NASA Science
Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos in March of 2008. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material slid down inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the crater's rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may be related to tidal stresses experienced by close-orbiting Phobos or the crater-forming impact itself.Tomorrow's picture: farside
NASA · public domain
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
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
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.
NASA · public domain
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.
© Donato Lioce — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© Robert Nemiroff — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on September 24
2014
The Mars Orbiter Mission makes India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt.
Mars Orbiter Mission ↗2023
NASA's OSIRIS-REx capsule containing samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu successfully lands back on Earth.
NASA ↗
Every launch on September 24
27 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | IMAP & othersSpXSUCCESS
- 2025Smart Dragon 3 | Geely Constellation Group 06CHNRSUCCESS
- 2024Kinetica 1 | 5 satellitesCASSUCCESS
- 2024Smart Dragon 3 | 8 satellitesCHNRSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-18SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-35SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Kuaizhou 1A | Shiyan 14 & Shiyan 15CASICSUCCESS
- 2022Delta IV Heavy | NROL-91ULASUCCESS
- 2019H-IIB 304 | Kounotori 8 (HTV-8)MHISUCCESS
- 2017Atlas V 541 | NROL-42ULASUCCESS
- 2011Zenit 3SL | Atlantic Bird 7SLSUCCESS
- 2008Zenit | Galaxy 19SLSUCCESS
- 2004Soyuz-U-PVB | Yantar-4K2M 1VKSSUCCESS
- 1999Athena II | IkonosLMTSUCCESS
- 1997Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 90PRSCSUCCESS
- 1995Ariane 42L | Telstar 402RASASUCCESS
- 1988Atlas E | NOAA 11USAFSUCCESS
- 1985Molniya-M | US-K 42CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Delta 3910/PAM | SBS 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos-3M | AUOS-Z-R-E-IK 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Tsiklon-3 | EPN 03.0380 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 67CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Kosmos-3M | Sfera 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-I 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Voskhod | Zenit-2 77CCCPSUCCESS
- 1964Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 22CCCPSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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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.
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.