Launches
ON RECORD32MISSIONS
28 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1959 and the latest in 2025.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1983 · 43 years ago today
Sally Ride
Sally Ride flew aboard Challenger on STS-7, the first American woman in space.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
June 18 in spaceflight
32 launches flew on June 18, the earliest of them in 1959, and 28 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on June 18. 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 1983.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on June 18
1983
Aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman and third one overall in space.
Space Shuttle Challenger ↗1983
Space Shuttle program: STS-7, astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
Space Shuttle program ↗2009
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a NASA robotic spacecraft is launched.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ↗
Launches on June 18Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
32 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-18SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Satria-1SpXSUCCESS
- 2023HASTE | Scout's Arrow (DYNAMO-A)RLSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | SARah 1SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Long March 2C | Yaogan-30-09CASCSUCCESS
- 2017Long March 3B/E | Zhongxing-9A (Chinasat-9A)CASCPARTIAL
- 2016Ariane 5 ECA | Echostar 18 & BRIsatASASUCCESS
- 2009Atlas V 401 | LRO/LCROSSULASUCCESS
- 2006Zenit | Galaxy 16SLSUCCESS
- 1999Proton-K/DM-2M | Astra 1HKhSCSUCCESS
- 1998Atlas IIAS | INTELSAT 805LMTSUCCESS
- 1997Proton-K/17S40 | Iridium 09 to 14 & Iridium 16KhSCSUCCESS
- 1991Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 81CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Tsiklon-2 | US-A 30CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F40 105L 5CCCPFAILURE
- 1986Kosmos-3M | Parus 55CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Molniya-M | US-K 40CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-7ROISUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 61CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Kosmos-3M | Parus 33CCCPFAILURE
- 1982Tsiklon-2 | IS-A 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Titan IIID | KH-9 16USAFSUCCESS
- 1980Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-Priroda 3-1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-I 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Scout D-1 | GP-ANASASUCCESS
- 1975Atlas SLV-3A Agena D | Canyon 6USAFSUCCESS
- 1974Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 42CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Titan IIIC | Transtage 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Thor SLV-2 Agena D | DSAP-1 F8 & F9USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Thor DM-21 Agena-B | P-102 Group 2-D 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1959Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-2aCCCPFAILURE
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.