Launches
ON RECORD18MISSIONS
17 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1966 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1971 · 55 years ago today
Salyut 1, the first space station
Salyut 1 reached orbit as the first crewed space station. Its only successful crew died on the way home.
read more2021 · 5 years ago today
The first flight on another planet
The helicopter Ingenuity rose three metres above Jezero Crater and hovered, the first powered flight in another world's atmosphere.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
April 19 in spaceflight
18 launches flew on April 19, the earliest of them in 1966, and 17 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 19. 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 1971.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on April 19
1971
Salyut 1, the first space station, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in the Soviet Union.
Salyut 1 ↗1975
Aryabhata (pictured), India's first satellite, was launched from Kapustin Yar in the Soviet Union.
Aryabhata (satellite) ↗2001
Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-100 carrying the Canadarm2 to the International Space Station.
Space Shuttle Endeavour ↗2021
The Ingenuity helicopter becomes the first aircraft to achieve flight on another planet.
Ingenuity (helicopter) ↗
Launches on April 19Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
18 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-22SpXSUCCESS
- 2026New Glenn | BlueBird 7 (Block 2 #2)BOFAILURE
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-2SpXSUCCESS
- 2013Soyuz 2.1a | Bion-M No. 1RFSASUCCESS
- 2004Soyuz-FG | Soyuz TMA-4RFSASUCCESS
- 2001Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-100USASUCCESS
- 2000Ariane 42L | Galaxy 4RASASUCCESS
- 1992Soyuz-U2 | Progress M-12RFSASUCCESS
- 1985Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 94CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Proton | Salyut-7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Kosmos-3M | AryabhataCCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-IK 3 & Kopernik-500CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 16USAFSUCCESS
- 1971Proton | Salyut 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 27USAFSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
SPONSORED
Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Buying through these links doesn't cost you anything extra.
- 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.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search. It isn't a pick of one product.
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.