Launches
ON RECORD23MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1964 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
July 1 in spaceflight
23 launches flew on July 1, the earliest of them in 1964, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on July 1. 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 1770.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on July 1
1770
Lexell's Comet is seen closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 astronomical units (2,180,000 km; 1,360,000 mi).
Lexell's Comet ↗1819
Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819 (C/1819 N1). It is the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.
Johann Georg Tralles ↗1966
The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (first known as the 2nd Artillery Corps) is founded.
People's Liberation Army Rocket Force ↗1997
Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-94, a re-flight of the prematurely-ended STS-83 mission with the same crew.
Space Shuttle program ↗
Launches on July 1Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
23 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Long March 4B | Haiyang 2ECASCSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | MTG-S1SpXSUCCESS
- 2024H3-22 | Advanced Land Observing Satellite-4 (ALOS-4)MHISUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | EuclidSpXSUCCESS
- 2022Atlas V 541 | USSF-12ULASUCCESS
- 2021Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 8ASASUCCESS
- 2013PSLV XL | IRNSS-1AISROSUCCESS
- 2009Ariane 5 ECA | TerreStar-1ASASUCCESS
- 1998Molniya-M | Molniya-3 61LPRSCSUCCESS
- 1997Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-94USASUCCESS
- 1994Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-19RFSASUCCESS
- 1993Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-17RFSASUCCESS
- 1992Kosmos-3M | Parus 77NPSUCCESS
- 1991Proton | Gorizont 23CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 61CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Molniya-M | Prognoz-9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 41CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 23CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Molniya-M | Molniya-2CCCPFAILURE
- 1967Titan IIIC | IDCSP 16 to 19USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Thor Delta E1 | Explorer 33USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Voskhod | Zenit-4 3CCCPSUCCESS
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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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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.