Launches
ON RECORD28MISSIONS
25 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1964 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
April 20 in spaceflight
28 launches flew on April 20, the earliest of them in 1964, and 25 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 20. 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 1865.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on April 20
1865
Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion.
Angelo Secchi ↗1972
Apollo program: The Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon.
Apollo program ↗2007
Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and himself.
Johnson Space Center shooting ↗2023
SpaceX's Starship launched for the first time before exploding four minutes into flight.
SpaceX ↗2023
SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes four minutes into flight.
SpaceX Starship ↗
Launches on April 20Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
28 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-145SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Long March 2D | Yaogan 42-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2023Starship | Integrated Flight TestSpXFAILURE
- 2019Long March 3B/E | Beidou-3 IGSO-1CASCSUCCESS
- 2017Long March 7 | Tianzhou-1CASCSUCCESS
- 2017Soyuz-FG | Soyuz MS-04RFSASUCCESS
- 2012Soyuz-U | Progress M-15M (47P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2011PSLV | Resourcesat-2ISROSUCCESS
- 2009Zenit 3SL | SICRAL 1BSLSUCCESS
- 2009PSLV | RISAT-2ISROSUCCESS
- 2006Atlas V 411 | Astra 1KRLMTSUCCESS
- 2004Delta II | Gravity Probe BUSAFSUCCESS
- 1996Ariane 42P | M-SAT 1ASASUCCESS
- 1990Kosmos-3M | Parus 69CCCPSUCCESS
- 1989Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 45CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Vostok 8A92M | Resurs-O1 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Soyuz-U | Soyuz T-8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Delta 2914 | Geos 1USAFFAILURE
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 76CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Molniya-M | Molniya-1 27CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Delta 1914 | Anik A2USAFSUCCESS
- 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2 61CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Thor Delta E | ESSA 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Atlas SLV-3 | PRIME 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 37CCCPSUCCESS
- 1964Molniya 8K78 | Luna-5bCCCPFAILURE
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.