Launches
ON RECORD29MISSIONS
27 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1960, the most recent 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
September 25 in spaceflight
29 orbital launches flew on September 25, the earliest of them in 1960, and 27 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 25. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 25 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD3ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1918 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 25, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on September 25
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
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
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.
© Jin Wang — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
NASA · public domain
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.
© Lorand Fenyes — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on September 25
1918
World War I: The end of the Battle of Megiddo, the climax of the British Army's Sinai and Palestine campaign under General Edmund Allenby.
Battle of Megiddo (1918) ↗1992
NASA launches the Mars Observer. Eleven months later, the probe would fail while preparing for orbital insertion.
NASA ↗1997
NASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-86 to the Mir space station.
Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗
Every launch on September 25
29 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Atlas V 551 | Amazon Leo (KA-03)ULASUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-15SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 9-8SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 7-3SpXSUCCESS
- 2019Soyuz-FG | Soyuz MS-15RFSASUCCESS
- 2019Long March 2D | Yunhai-1-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Ariane 5 ECA | Azerspace-2/Intelsat-38 & Horizons 3eASASUCCESS
- 2015Long March 11 | SECM-1 ( Pujiang-1, Tianwang 1A, Tianwang 1B, Tianwang 1C )CASCSUCCESS
- 2014Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-14MRFSASUCCESS
- 2013Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-10MRFSASUCCESS
- 2013Kuaizhou | Kuaizhou-1CASICSUCCESS
- 2009Delta II 7920-10C | STSS-DEMO/GMDULASUCCESS
- 2008Long March 2F | Shenzhou-7CASCSUCCESS
- 2008Proton-M | Uragan-M 15 to 17KhSCSUCCESS
- 2006Delta II | GPS IIR-15(M)USAFSUCCESS
- 2002Soyuz-FG | Progress M1-9RFSASUCCESS
- 2001Ariane 44P | Atlantic Bird 2ASASUCCESS
- 2000Zenit-2 | Orlets-2 2RFSASUCCESS
- 1999Ariane 44LP | Telstar 7ASASUCCESS
- 1992Commercial Titan III | Mars ObserverMMSUCCESS
- 1989Atlas G Centaur | FLTSATCOM F8USAFSUCCESS
- 1984Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 177-184CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Bion 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970R-36O 8K69M | OGCh 23CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Mu-4S | MS-F1ISASFAILURE
- 1967Scout A | Transit-O 14USAFSUCCESS
- 1960Atlas-Able | P-30 (Able VA)USAFFAILURE
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.