Launches
ON RECORD24MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1959 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1969 · 57 years ago today
Apollo 11 leaves the pad
Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center on the flight that would put two people on the Moon four days later.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
July 16 in spaceflight
24 launches flew on July 16, the earliest of them in 1959, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on July 16. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1969.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on July 16
1994
Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 began colliding with the planet Jupiter , with the first impact causing a fireball that reached a peak temperature of 24,000 kelvin.
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 ↗
Launches on July 16Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
24 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer ESpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Amazon Leo (KF-01)SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-2SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 5-15SpXSUCCESS
- 2016Soyuz-U | Progress MS-03 (64P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2011Delta IV M+(4,2) | GPS IIF-2 (USA-232)ULASUCCESS
- 2008Zenit | Echostar XISLSUCCESS
- 2000Soyuz-U-PVB | Cluster Salsa & SambaRFSASUCCESS
- 2000Delta II | GPS IIR-5USAFSUCCESS
- 1999Soyuz U | Progress M-42RFSASUCCESS
- 1996Delta II | GPS IIA-17USAFSUCCESS
- 1990Long March 2E | BADR & Aussat-B-MFSCASCSUCCESS
- 1987Tsiklon-3 | Okean-O1 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 39CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Delta 3920 | Landsat 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1974Scout D-1 | Aeros 2NASASUCCESS
- 1973Delta 0300 | ITOS EUSAFFAILURE
- 1971Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | Strawman 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1971Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 9 (20L)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Saturn V | Apollo 11NASASUCCESS
- 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 44CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965UR-500 | Proton 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos 65S3 | Strela-1 15 to 19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1959Juno II | NASA S-1NASAFAILURE
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.
- 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.
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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.