Launches
ON RECORD23MISSIONS
21 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1962 and the latest in 2024.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
April 9 in spaceflight
23 launches flew on April 9, the earliest of them in 1962, and 21 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 9. 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 1959.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on April 9
1959
NASA announced the selection of the Mercury Seven, the first astronauts in Project Mercury.
NASA ↗1959
Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
Project Mercury ↗2020
Soyuz MS-16 is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the Expedition 62/63 crew to the International Space Station.
Soyuz MS-16 ↗2021
Soyuz MS-18 is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying three members of the Expedition 64 crew to the International Space Station.
Soyuz MS-18 ↗
Launches on April 9Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
23 launches
ONLINE
- 2024Delta IV Heavy | NROL-70ULASUCCESS
- 2021Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-18RFSASUCCESS
- 2020Long March 3B | Nusantara DuaCASCFAILURE
- 2020Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-16RFSASUCCESS
- 2014Shavit-2 | Ofeq-10IAISUCCESS
- 2014Soyuz-U | Progress M-23M (55P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2011Long March 3A | Compass-IGSO-3CASCSUCCESS
- 2007Proton-M Briz-M | Anik F3KhSCSUCCESS
- 2003Ariane 5 G | INSAT-3A & Galaxy 12ASASUCCESS
- 1999Titan 402B IUS | DSP 19USAFFAILURE
- 1997Molniya-M | US-K 77PRSCSUCCESS
- 1995Soyuz U | Progress M-27RFSASUCCESS
- 1994Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-59LSOCSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 30CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 22CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Soyuz-U | Soyuz 35CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Voskhod | Zenit-2M 66CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Delta 1410 | Geos 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1969Voskhod | Zenit-2 73CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Blue Scout Jr | OAR 22-9USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Atlas Agena B | Midas 5USAFSUCCESS
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.