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September 26 in spaceflight

27 orbital launches flew on September 26, the earliest of them in 1958, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 26. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 26 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

27MISSIONS

24 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1958, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from -46 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 26, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on September 26

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

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.

© Adam Block — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

© Jan Beckmann, Julian Zoller, Lukas Eisert, Wolfgang Hummel — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

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.

NASA · public domain

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 26

  1. -46

    Julius Caesar dedicated the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome to Venus, the mythical ancestor of his family.

    Julius Caesar ↗

  2. -46

    Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to Venus Genetrix, fulfilling a vow he made at the Battle of Pharsalus.

    Julius Caesar ↗

  3. 1983

    Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L, intended to launch a crew to the Salyut 7 space station, explodes on the launch pad. The launch escape system is activated before the Soyuz-U rocket explodes, saving the crew.

    Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L ↗

Every launch on September 26

27 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Long March 4C | Fengyun-3HCASCSUCCESS
  2. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-11SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2024H-IIA 202 | IGS Radar 8MHISUCCESS
  4. 2023Long March 4C | Yaogan 33-04CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2022Long March 6 | Shiyan 16 A/B & Shiyan 17CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2022Long March 2D | Yaogan 36CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2019Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | EKS 3 (Tundra 3) (Kosmos 2541)VKSSUCCESS
  8. 2016PSLV | SCATSat-1ISROSUCCESS
  9. 2010Minotaur IV | SBSS (USA-216)OSCSUCCESS
  10. 2005Delta II | GPS IIR-14(M)USAFSUCCESS
  11. 2002Kosmos-3M | Nadezhda-MNPSUCCESS
  12. 2000Dnepr | SmallSat RideshareISCKSUCCESS
  13. 1999Proton-K/DM-2M | LMI 1KhSCSUCCESS
  14. 1997Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-86USASUCCESS
  15. 1996Proton-K/DM-2M | Ekspress 2KhSCSUCCESS
  16. 1995Soyuz U | Resurs-F2 10VKSSUCCESS
  17. 1993Ariane 40 | SPOT 3ASASUCCESS
  18. 1991Ariane 44P | Anik E1ASASUCCESS
  19. 1985Soyuz U | Zenit-8 22CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1983Soyuz-U | Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L (Soyuz T-10a / T-10-1)CCCPFAILURE
  21. 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 16CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1975Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat-4A 1USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1974Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 72CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1968Titan IIIC | OV2-5USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1967Voskhod | Zenit-2 54CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1966Lambda 4S | Ohsumi 1ISASFAILURE
  27. 1958Vanguard | VanguardUSNFAILURE

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.