Launches
ON RECORD6MISSIONS
6 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1969 and the latest in 2024.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
January 5 in spaceflight
6 launches flew on January 5, the earliest of them in 1969, and 6 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on January 5. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD5ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1969.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on January 5
2005
The dwarf planet Eris was discovered by a team using images from the Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory.
Dwarf planet ↗2005
The dwarf planet Eris is discovered by Palomar Observatory-based astronomers, later motivating the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time.
Eris (dwarf planet) ↗2014
A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV MK.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic engine.
GSAT-14 ↗
Launches on January 5Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
6 launches
ONLINE
- 2024Kuaizhou 1A | Tianmu-1 15-18EPSUCCESS
- 2017Long March 3B | TJS-2 (TJSW-2)CASCSUCCESS
- 2014GSLV Mk II | GSAT-14ISROSUCCESS
- 1987Tsiklon-3 | Meteor-2 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 273-280CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Molniya-M | Venera-5CCCPSUCCESS
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- VIEW
LISTING
Cosmos, by Carl Sagan
Sagan's tour of the universe and how we came to understand it. It keeps the science in.
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LISTING
Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan
Sagan's case for people leaving Earth one day, and an honest look at how hard that would be.
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LISTING
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
A science-fiction novel from the author of The Martian, built around solving one engineering problem after another.
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Sources and licences
Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images come only from Wikimedia Commons, which doesn't accept non-free content. Each thumbnail links to its file page, which lists its licence and author.
Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. Many of them belong to the photographer or a partner agency, so we only show the ones credited to NASA alone.