Launches
ON RECORD25MISSIONS
24 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1962 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1990 · 36 years ago today
Hubble goes up
Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit. The flaw in its mirror wasn't found for two months.
read more1970 · 56 years ago today
China's first satellite
Dong Fang Hong 1 reached orbit on a Long March 1 and broadcast a song back to the ground.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
April 24 in spaceflight
25 launches flew on April 24, the earliest of them in 1962, and 24 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 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 1967.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on April 24
1967
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
Astronaut ↗1970
China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.
Dong Fang Hong 1 ↗1990
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard STS-31 by Space Shuttle Discovery.
Hubble Space Telescope ↗
Launches on April 24Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
25 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Long March 2D | 4 x SatNet test satellitesCASCSUCCESS
- 2025Long March 2F/G | Shenzhou 20CASCSUCCESS
- 2013Soyuz-U | Progress M-19M (51P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2010Proton-M / Briz-M Enhanced | SES-1ILSSUCCESS
- 2007Minotaur I | NFIREOSCSUCCESS
- 2006Soyuz U | Progress M-56RFSASUCCESS
- 2003Proton | US-KMO 6KhSCSUCCESS
- 1998Delta 7420-10C | Globalstar 6, 8, 14, 15USAFSUCCESS
- 1996Titan 401A Centaur | Mercury 15USAFSUCCESS
- 1996Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1B 14NPSUCCESS
- 1996Delta II | MSXUSAFSUCCESS
- 1991Tsiklon-3 | Meteor-3 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1990Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-31 (Hubble)LSOCSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz U | Foton 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Proton | Uragan 17 to 19CCCPFAILURE
- 1981Titan 34B | Jumpseat 6USAFSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 41CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 17 (22L)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Apollo LM | Apollo 16NASASUCCESS
- 1971Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 41CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Scout B | San Marco 3ASISUCCESS
- 1970Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U1-RCCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Long March 1 | Dong Fang Hong 1CASCSUCCESS
- 1968Tsiklon-2A | I2M 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1962Kosmos-2I 63S1 | Sputnik 13CCCPSUCCESS
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.