Launches
ON RECORD25MISSIONS
23 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1962 and the latest in 2025.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1986 · 40 years ago today
Voyager 2 at Uranus
Voyager 2 made the only close pass of Uranus in history and found a magnetic field tilted away from the planet's spin.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
January 24 in spaceflight
25 launches flew on January 24, the earliest of them in 1962, and 23 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on January 24. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD4ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1978.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on January 24
1978
The Soviet nuclear-powered satellite Kosmos 954 burned up during atmospheric reentry, scattering radioactive debris across Canada's Northwest Territories.
Nuclear power ↗1978
Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
Soviet Union ↗
1990
Japan launched the Hiten spacecraft (pictured), the first lunar probe launched by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States.
Hiten (spacecraft) ↗
Launches on January 24Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
25 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-6SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 7-11SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Electron | Virginia is for Launch Lovers (Hawk 6A-C)RLSUCCESS
- 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 1 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)SpXSUCCESS
- 2019PSLV-DL | Microsat-RISROSUCCESS
- 2017H-IIA 204 | DSN 2 (Kirameki 2)MHISUCCESS
- 2014Atlas V 401 | TDRS-LULASUCCESS
- 2006H-IIA 2022 | DaichiJAXASUCCESS
- 2001Soyuz U | Progress M1-5RFSASUCCESS
- 1995Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 20NPSUCCESS
- 1994Ariane 44LP | Eutelsat 2 F5 & Türksat 1AASAFAILURE
- 1993Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-16RFSASUCCESS
- 1992Molniya-M | US-K 68PRSCSUCCESS
- 1990Delta 6925 | GPS-2 6USAFSUCCESS
- 1990Mu-3S-II | HitenISASSUCCESS
- 1985Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-51-CLSOCSUCCESS
- 1985Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 47CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Progress 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Molniya-M | Molniya-3 20LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Voskhod | Zenit-2M 44CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 60CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | KH-4A 45USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Thor DM-21 Ablestar | 5 Payloads RideshareUSAFFAILURE
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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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.