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October 10 in spaceflight

15 orbital launches flew on October 10, the earliest of them in 1960, and 14 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on October 10. Below are the pictures NASA published on October 10 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

15MISSIONS

14 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1960, the most recent 2024.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1846 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 10, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on October 10

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

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

How many moons can you see? The best answer is five: four orbiting Jupiter and Luna orbiting Earth. This multi-moon picture was possible because Earth's Moon moved directly in front of Jupiter last week. The featured image is a series of exposures near alignment taken from Westchester, New York, USA. The sunlit crescent of Earth's Moon, on the lower left, is overexposed, while the Moon's night side, on the upper right, is faintly illuminated by Earthshine. Lined up nearly vertically above our Moon, listed from bottom to top, are Jupiter's bright Galilean satellites: Ganymede, Io, Callisto, and Europa. Callisto, Ganymede, and Io are larger than Earth's Moon, while Europa is only slightly smaller. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is currently orbiting Jupiter and has made close passes near three of these moons.Tomorrow's picture: stairway to heaven

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.

© José Rodrigues — 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

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 October 10

  1. 1846

    English astronomer William Lassell discovered Triton, the largest moon of Neptune.

    William Lassell ↗

  2. 1846

    Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune, is discovered by English astronomer William Lassell.

    Triton (moon) ↗

Every launch on October 10

15 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2024Long March 3B/E | WHG-03CASCSUCCESS
  2. 2022Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 No. 17 (Kosmos 2559)VKSSUCCESS
  3. 2010SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF01VGSUCCESS
  4. 2007Soyuz-FG | Soyuz TMA-11RFSASUCCESS
  5. 1999Zenit | DirecTV-1RSLSUCCESS
  6. 1991Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1B 12CCCPSUCCESS
  7. 1987Tsiklon-2 | US-P 27CCCPSUCCESS
  8. 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 39CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1978Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 16CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 68CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1974Delta 2914 | Westar 2USAFSUCCESS
  12. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4M 56CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1972Titan IIID | KH-9 4USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1964Scout X-4 | Beacon Explorer BNASASUCCESS
  15. 1960Molniya 8K78 | Mars-1aCCCPFAILURE

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

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.

    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.