Launches
ON RECORD23MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1959 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
April 14 in spaceflight
23 launches flew on April 14, the earliest of them in 1959, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 14. 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 1958.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on April 14
1958
The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours.
Soviet Union ↗1970
After an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 (mission patch pictured) exploded, disabling the spacecraft's electrical and life-support systems, astronaut Jack Swigert reported: "Houston, we've had a problem here".
Apollo 13 ↗2023
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is launched by the European Space Agency.
Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer ↗
Launches on April 14Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
23 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-24SpXSUCCESS
- 2026Kinetica 1 | 8 x Jilin-1CASSUCCESS
- 2025New Shepard | NS-31BOSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-73SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Ariane 5 ECA+ | JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer)ASASUCCESS
- 2021New Shepard | NS-15BOSUCCESS
- 2018Atlas V 551 | AFSPC-11ULASUCCESS
- 2015Falcon 9 v1.1 | SpX CRS-6SpXSUCCESS
- 2009Long March 3C | Beidou DW 2CASCSUCCESS
- 2008Atlas V 421 | ICO G1ULASUCCESS
- 1989Proton | Raduga 23CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz U | Foton 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Titan 34D Transtage | DSP 11USAFSUCCESS
- 1979Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Molniya-M | Molniya-3 12LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Voskhod | Zenit-4M 34CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Molniya-M | PrognozCCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | Nimbus 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1968Soyuz | Kosmos 212CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Scout A | Transit-O 12USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Atlas D | FIRE 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1959Vanguard | VanguardUSNFAILURE
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.
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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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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.