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October 15 in spaceflight

26 orbital launches flew on October 15, the earliest of them in 1965, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on October 15. Below are the pictures NASA published on October 15 in 4 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

26MISSIONS

24 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1783 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

4IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 15, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on October 15

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

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.

NASA · public domain

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

2022

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

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.

© Mike Selby — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on October 15

  1. 1783

    The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon makes the first human ascent, piloted by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier.

    Montgolfier brothers ↗

  2. 1991

    The "Oh-My-God particle", an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray measured at 40,000,000 times that of the highest energy protons produced in a particle accelerator, is observed at the University of Utah HiRes observatory in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.

    Oh-My-God particle ↗

  5. 2003

    China launches Shenzhou 5, its first crewed space mission.

    Shenzhou 5 ↗

Every launch on October 15

26 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer CSpXSUCCESS
  2. 2024Long March 4C | Gaofen-12 05CASCSUCCESS
  3. 2024Long March 6A | SpaceSail Polar Group #2CASCSUCCESS
  4. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 9-7SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-10SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2023Long March 2D | Yunhai-1-04CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2022Angara 1.2 | EMKA-3 (Kosmos 2560)VKSSUCCESS
  8. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Hotbird 13FSpXSUCCESS
  9. 2021Long March 2F/G | Shenzhou 13CASCSUCCESS
  10. 2018Long March 3B / YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M15 & M16CASCSUCCESS
  11. 2017Atlas V 421 | NROL-52ULASUCCESS
  12. 2014PSLV XL | IRNSS-1CISROSUCCESS
  13. 2009Soyuz U | Progress M-03MRFSASUCCESS
  14. 2003Long March 2F | Shenzhou-5CASCSUCCESS
  15. 2002Soyuz-U-PVB | Foton-M No. 1VKSFAILURE
  16. 1997Titan IVB/Centaur | Cassini-HuygensLMTSUCCESS
  17. 1994PSLV | IRS-P2ISROSUCCESS
  18. 1986Molniya-M | US-K 50 (Kosmos 1785)CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1986Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 13 to 18CCCPFAILURE
  20. 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 49CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1976Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 26 (35L)CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1974Scout B-1 | Ariel 5SERCSUCCESS
  23. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-2M 43CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1972Delta 0300 | NOAA 2USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1970Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 6 (16L)CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1965Titan IIIC | OV2-1USAFSUCCESS

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.