Launches
ON RECORD20MISSIONS
17 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1963 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
January 16 in spaceflight
20 launches flew on January 16, the earliest of them in 1963, and 17 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on January 16. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
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 16
1969
Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
Space Race ↗2003
The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
Space Shuttle Columbia ↗
Launches on January 16Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
20 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Long March 3B/E | Shijian 32CASCFAILURE
- 2025Starship | Flight 7SpXFAILURE
- 2025New Glenn | Maiden FlightBOSUCCESS
- 2020Ariane 5 ECA | Eutelsat Konnect & GSAT-30ASASUCCESS
- 2020Kuaizhou 1A | Yinhe-1EPSUCCESS
- 2010Long March 3C | Compass-G1CASCSUCCESS
- 2003Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-107USAFAILURE
- 2002Titan IVB | Milstar 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1996Kosmos-3M | Parus 85NPSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz-U2 | Progress 27CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Kosmos-3M | Parus 53CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Soyuz U | Zenit-8 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Molniya-M | Molniya-3 36LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Delta 3910/PAM | Satcom 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-4MT 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Kosmos-3M | Parus 17CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Kosmos 11K63 | DS-MO 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2 58CCCPSUCCESS
- 1963Thor DM-21 Agena-B | P-698BK Group 1-D 1USAFSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
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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.
- VIEW
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.
- VIEW
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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LINKS AMAZON.COM
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.