Launches
ON RECORD18MISSIONS
17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2023.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
2016 · 10 years ago today
Rosetta lands on its comet
Rosetta was flown into the surface of comet 67P, photographing the ground until the signal stopped.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
September 30 in spaceflight
18 orbital launches flew on September 30, the earliest of them in 1965, and 17 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on September 30. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD1ENTRY
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1994 onward.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
No Astronomy Picture of the Day is available for this date.
What happened on September 30
Every launch on September 30
18 launches
ONLINE
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-19SpXSUCCESS
- 2015Ariane 5 ECA | Sky Muster I (NBN-Co 1A) & ARSAT-2ASASUCCESS
- 2010Molniya-M/2BL | US-K 86VKSSUCCESS
- 2009Soyuz-FG | Soyuz TMA-16RFSASUCCESS
- 2001Athena I | Starshine-OSCAR-43LMTSUCCESS
- 1994Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-68LSOCSUCCESS
- 1993Proton | Raduga 30KhSCSUCCESS
- 1986Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 57CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Molniya-M | US-K 43CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 18CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 66CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat-4A 5USAFFAILURE
- 1975Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Molniya-M | Molniya-2 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | Poppy 8A,B,C,DUSAFSUCCESS
- 1965Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 22USAFSUCCESS
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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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.