Launches
ON RECORD34MISSIONS
30 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1958 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
May 15 in spaceflight
34 launches flew on May 15, the earliest of them in 1958, and 30 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 15. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD3ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1836.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on May 15
1836
English astronomer Francis Baily observed Baily's beads (example pictured), a phenomenon during a solar eclipse in which the rugged topography of the lunar limb allows sunlight to shine through.
Francis Baily ↗1963
Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.
Project Mercury ↗1997
The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗
Launches on May 15Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
34 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-34SpXSUCCESS
- 2026Kinetica 1 | 5 satellitesCASSUCCESS
- 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 26SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Electron | Running Out of Toes (BlackSky 8-9)RLFAILURE
- 2017Falcon 9 Full Thrust | Inmarsat-5 F4SpXSUCCESS
- 2016Long March 2D | Yaogan-30CASCSUCCESS
- 2014Proton-M Briz-M | Ekspress-AM4RKhSCFAILURE
- 2013Atlas V 401 | GPS IIF-4 (USA-242)ULASUCCESS
- 2012Ariane 5 ECA | JCSAT-13 & Vinasat-2ASASUCCESS
- 2012Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-04MRFSASUCCESS
- 2002Long March 4B | Hai Yang 1 & Feng Yun 1DCASCSUCCESS
- 2001Proton-K/DM-2M | PAS 10KhSCSUCCESS
- 1997Soyuz U | Orlets-1 6RFSASUCCESS
- 1997Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-84USASUCCESS
- 1990Soyuz U | Yantar-1KFT 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Energiya | PolyusCCCPFAILURE
- 1987Atlas H | Parcae 9A,B,C & MSD 9USAFSUCCESS
- 1986Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 55CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Soyuz U | Zenit-8 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 57CCCPFAILURE
- 1981Scout G-1 | Nova 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-4MT 18CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 30CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-Priroda 2-1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Voskhod | Zenit-2M 47CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 25CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Tsiklon-2 | US-A 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Kosmos-3M | Zaliv-GVM 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Thor SLV-2A Agena B | Nimbus 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Atlas LV-3B | Mercury-Atlas 9NASASUCCESS
- 1962Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-5 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1960Vostok 8K72 | Korabl'-Sputnik-1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1958Sputnik 8A91 | D1- 2CCCPSUCCESS
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.
- 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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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.