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October 9 in spaceflight

20 orbital launches flew on October 9, the earliest of them in 1962, and 20 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on October 9. Below are the pictures NASA published on October 9 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

20MISSIONS

20 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2023.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1604 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 9, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on October 9

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

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

Scientists are melting holes in the bottom of the world. In fact, almost 100 holes melted near the South Pole are now being used as an astronomical observatory. Astronomers with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory lowered a long string knotted with basketball-sized light detectors into each vertical lake. The water in each hole soon refreezes. The detectors attached to the strings are sensitive to blue light emitted in the surrounding clear ice. Such light results from fast-moving secondary particles liberated when high-energy neutrinos emitted by powerful processes out in the universe collide with ice molecules. IceCube has now detected many illuminating neutrinos. Pictured in 2010, one of the last of IceCube's detector strings is lowered into the freezing abyss, making IceCube the largest neutrino detector ever created. In recognition of unprecedented discoveries, it was announced earlier this week that a founding leader of the IceCube Collaboration will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.Tomorrow's picture: Moons Planet

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.

© Mike Carroll — 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.

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.

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.

© Josselin Desmars — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on October 9

  1. 1604

    Kepler's Supernova is the most recent supernova to be observed within the Milky Way.

    Kepler's Supernova ↗

  2. 1934

    An Ustashe assassin kills King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France, in Marseille.

    Ustaše ↗

  3. 1992

    The Peekskill meteorite, a 27.7 pounds (12.6 kg) meteorite crashed into a parked car in Peekskill, New York.

    Peekskill meteorite ↗

Every launch on October 9

20 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 7-4SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2023Vega | THEOS-2, TRITON & othersASASUCCESS
  3. 2019Proton-M/Briz-M | Eutelsat 5 West B & MEV-1ILSSUCCESS
  4. 2018Long March 2C/YZ-1S | Yaogan-32-01CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2017H-IIA 202 | Michibiki 4 (QZS-4)MHISUCCESS
  6. 2017Falcon 9 Block 4 | Iridium-3SpXSUCCESS
  7. 2017Long March 2D | VRSS-2 (Antonio José de Sucre)CASCSUCCESS
  8. 2000Pegasus Hybrid | High Energy Transient Explorer 2 (HETE-2)OSCSUCCESS
  9. 1998Atlas IIA | Hot Bird 5LMTSUCCESS
  10. 1997Soyuz U | Foton 11 & MirkaRVSN RFSUCCESS
  11. 1991Soyuz-U | Orlets-1 3CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1987Soyuz U | Zenit-8 53CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1985Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 7 to 12CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1985Atlas E/SGS-2 | GPS 11USAFSUCCESS
  15. 1981Proton-K/DM | Raduga 10CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 19CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1977Soyuz U | Soyuz 25CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1975Titan 24B | KH-8 45USAFSUCCESS
  19. 1970Voskhod | Zenit-4M 7CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1962Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-5 7USAFSUCCESS

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.