Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1963 · 63 years ago today
Tereshkova
Valentina Tereshkova flew forty-eight orbits aboard Vostok 6, the first woman in space, and remains the only one to have flown solo.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
June 16 in spaceflight
22 launches flew on June 16, the earliest of them in 1961, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on June 16. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD6ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1963.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on June 16
1963
Aboard Vostok 6, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (pictured) became the first woman in space.
Vostok 6 ↗1963
Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
Soviet space program ↗2012
Liu Yang (pictured), a member of the Shenzhou 9 crew, became the first Chinese woman in space.
Liu Yang (taikonaut) ↗2012
China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
Shenzhou 9 ↗2012
The United States Air Force's robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission.
United States Air Force ↗
Launches on June 16Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Long March 3B/E | Shijian 31CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Glonass-M No. 56 (Kosmos 2527)VKSSUCCESS
- 2012Long March 2F/G | Shenzhou-9 & Shenzhou-9-GCCASCSUCCESS
- 2005Soyuz U | Progress M-53RFSASUCCESS
- 2004Proton-M Briz-M | INTELSAT 10-02KhSCSUCCESS
- 2001Proton-K/DM-2M | Astra 2CKhSCSUCCESS
- 1993Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 51NPSUCCESS
- 1989Soyuz U | Zenit-8 82CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Scout G-1 | Nova 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1987Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 321-328CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Ariane 1 | ECS 1ASASUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 18CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Delta 2914 | GOES 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1977Delta 2914 | GOES 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1977Molniya-M | US-K 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 62CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | KH-4A 42USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U3-S 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Titan IIIC | IDCSP 1 to 7USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Vostok-K | Vostok 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1963Scout X-3 | Transit-5A 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | Discoverer 25USAFSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
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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.