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November 1 in spaceflight

16 orbital launches flew on November 1, the earliest of them in 1961, and 14 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on November 1. Below are the pictures NASA published on November 1 in 4 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

16MISSIONS

14 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1961, the most recent 2022.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1952 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

4IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 1, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on November 1

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

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

What’s causing this unusually long cloud on Mars? Known as the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC) and first recorded by NASA’s Viking Orbiter 2 in 1977, the strange cloud has been imaged in greater detail more recently by ESA’s robotic Mars Express spacecraft. The featured image is from 2018. The cloud forms only during spring and summer seasons and then only during morning hours. Made of water-ice, the most familiar process that causes cloud crystals to form around bits of dust would fail due to the thinness and lack of dust high in the Martian atmosphere. Leading speculation holds that dust is not involved. After the cloud forms near the volcano Arsia Mons, wind blows the cloud downstream — creating a tail that can extend over 1500 kilometers. Efforts to better understand AMECs will continue, an understanding that may bolster a more complete view of cloud formation on Earth.Tomorrow's picture: eyeing a cat

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.

© Max Inwood — 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.

© John Hayes — used with the credit NASA publishes

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 November 1

  1. 1952

    Nuclear weapons testing: The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, at the Eniwetok atoll. The explosion had a yield of ten megatons TNT equivalent.

    Nuclear weapons testing ↗

  2. 1963

    The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens.

    Arecibo Observatory ↗

  3. 2009

    An Ilyushin Il-76 crashes near the Mir mine after takeoff from Mirny Airport in Yakutia, killing all 11 aboard.

    Ilyushin Il-76 ↗

Every launch on November 1

16 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2022Falcon Heavy | USSF-44SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2018Long March 3B | Beidou-3 G1CASCSUCCESS
  3. 2016SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity CC02VGPARTIAL
  4. 2007Kosmos-3M | SAR-Lupe 3NPSUCCESS
  5. 1994Delta 7925-10 | WindUSAFSUCCESS
  6. 1994Ariane 42P | Astra 1DASASUCCESS
  7. 1979Kosmos-3M | AUOS-Z-R-P-IK 1CCCPSUCCESS
  8. 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MT 14CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 72CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1974Voskhod | Zenit-2M 52CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1972Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 33-40CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1968Tsiklon-2A | I2P 2CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1966X-15 | Flight 174USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1963Sputnik 11A59 | PolyotCCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1962Molniya 8K78 | Mars 1CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1961Blue Scout II | Mercury-Scout 1NASAFAILURE

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.