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October 28 in spaceflight

28 orbital launches flew on October 28, the earliest of them in 1964, and 27 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on October 28. Below are the pictures NASA published on October 28 in 3 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

28MISSIONS

27 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1971 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

3IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 28, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on October 28

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

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.

© Guillaume Gruntz — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on October 28

  1. 1971

    Prospero (flight spare pictured), the first British satellite launched on a British rocket, lifted off from Launch Area 5B in Woomera, South Australia.

    Prospero (spacecraft) ↗

  3. 2009

    NASA successfully launches the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its short-lived Constellation program.

    NASA ↗

  4. 2014

    A rocket carrying NASA's Cygnus CRS Orb-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station explodes seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia.

    Cygnus Orb-3 ↗

Every launch on October 28

28 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-21SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-31SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2021Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-18 (79P)RFSASUCCESS
  4. 2020Electron | In Focus (Rideshare)RLSUCCESS
  5. 2014Antares 130 | Cygnus CRS Orb-3 (S.S. Deke Slayton)OSCFAILURE
  6. 2011Delta II 7920-10C | NPPULASUCCESS
  7. 2010Ariane 5 ECA | Eutelsat W3B & BSAT-3bASASUCCESS
  8. 2010SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF02VGSUCCESS
  9. 2006Long March 3B | Xinnuo 2CASCSUCCESS
  10. 1998Ariane 44L | Afristar & GE 5ASASUCCESS
  11. 1993Proton | Gorizont 28KhSCSUCCESS
  12. 1992Ariane 42P | Galaxy 7ASASUCCESS
  13. 1988Ariane 2 | TDF 1ASASUCCESS
  14. 1987Proton | US-KS 4CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1985Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 66CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1983Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-2 10CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1982Delta 3924 | Satcom 5USAFSUCCESS
  18. 1977Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 24CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1977Scout D-1 | Transat O-11USAFSUCCESS
  20. 1977Molniya-M | Molniya-3 18LCCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1974Proton | Luna-23CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1974Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 19 (33L)CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1971Black Arrow | ProsperoRoyal Aircraft EstablishmentSUCCESS
  24. 1967R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 16CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1966Scout B | OV3-2USAFSUCCESS
  26. 1965Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 26USAFSUCCESS
  27. 1965Voskhod | Zenit-4 14CCCPSUCCESS
  28. 1964Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 24CCCPSUCCESS

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.