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September 23 in spaceflight

23 orbital launches flew on September 23, the earliest of them in 1958, and 21 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 23. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 23 in 4 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

23MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

2ENTRIES

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

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

4IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 23, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on September 23

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.

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.

© Mike Cohea — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on September 23

  1. 1846

    Astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.

    Urbain Le Verrier ↗

  2. 1961

    U.S. President John F. Kennedy nominates African American civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, although pro-segregation Southern senators manage to delay his confirmation until September 11, 1962.

    John F. Kennedy ↗

Every launch on September 23

23 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025HASTE | JENNARLSUCCESS
  2. 2015Rokot / Briz-KM | 3 x Strela-3M (Kosmos 2507, Kosmos 2508, Kosmos 2509)VKSSUCCESS
  3. 2013Long March 4C | Fengyun-3CCASCSUCCESS
  4. 2011H-IIA 202 | IGS Optical 4MHISUCCESS
  5. 2009PSLV | Oceansat-2ISROSUCCESS
  6. 2005Minotaur I | STP-R1OSCSUCCESS
  7. 2004Kosmos-3M | Strela-3 135 to 136NPSUCCESS
  8. 1999Atlas IIAS | Echostar VLMTSUCCESS
  9. 1998Pegasus XL HAPS | Orbcomm-C1 - C8OSCSUCCESS
  10. 1997Ariane 42L | INTELSAT 803ASASUCCESS
  11. 1997Kosmos-3M | Parus 89NPSUCCESS
  12. 1987Soyuz-U2 | Progress 32CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1981Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 14CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-4MT 19CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1977Titan 24B | KH-8 49USAFSUCCESS
  16. 1975Voskhod | Zenit-2M 60CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1972Delta 1604 | IMP 7USAFSUCCESS
  18. 1969Proton | Luna-16aCCCPFAILURE
  19. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2M 3CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1965Voskhod | Zenit-4 12CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1964Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 11USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1963Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 2USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1958Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1aCCCPFAILURE

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.