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October 11 in spaceflight

25 orbital launches flew on October 11, the earliest of them in 1958, and 22 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on October 11. Below are the pictures NASA published on October 11 in 1 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

25MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

6ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1958 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

1IMAGE

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 11, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on October 11

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

What happened on October 11

  1. 1958

    NASA launches Pioneer 1, its first space probe, although it fails to achieve a stable orbit.

    Pioneer 1 ↗

  2. 1968

    Apollo 7, the first manned mission of NASA's Apollo program, and the first three-man American space mission, launched from Complex 34 in Cape Kennedy, Florida.

    Apollo 7 ↗

  3. 1968

    NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful crewed Apollo mission.

    Apollo 7 ↗

  4. 1984

    Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan (pictured) became the first American woman to perform a space walk.

    Space Shuttle Challenger ↗

  5. 2000

    NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission.

    STS-92 ↗

  6. 2018

    Soyuz MS-10, launching an intended crew for the ISS, suffers an in-flight abort. The crew lands safely.

    Soyuz MS-10 ↗

Every launch on October 11

25 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Gravity-1 | 3 satellitesOrienSpaceSUCCESS
  2. 2020Long March 3B/E | Gaofen 13CASCSUCCESS
  3. 2019Pegasus XL | Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON)NGSSSUCCESS
  4. 2018Soyuz-FG | Soyuz MS-10RFSAFAILURE
  5. 2017Falcon 9 Full Thrust | Echostar 105/SES-11SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2007Atlas V 421 | WGS-1ULASUCCESS
  7. 2001Atlas IIAS | NROL-12LMTSUCCESS
  8. 2000Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-92LSOCSUCCESS
  9. 1995Proton | Luch 2KhSCSUCCESS
  10. 1994Tsiklon-3 | Okean-O1 7VKSSUCCESS
  11. 1993Soyuz U | Progress M-20RFSASUCCESS
  12. 1988Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 66CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1984Kosmos-3M | Parus 46CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1979Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 22CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 4CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1974Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 2CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1972Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 58CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1969Soyuz | Soyuz 6CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1968Saturn IB | Apollo 7NASASUCCESS
  20. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2 66CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1967Voskhod | Zenit-2 55CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1967Thor Burner 2 | DSAP-4A F4USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1960Atlas Agena A | Samos 1USAFFAILURE
  24. 1958Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1bCCCPFAILURE
  25. 1958Thor Able I | Pioneer 1ABMASUCCESS

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.