Launches
ON RECORD23MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1965 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
July 23 in spaceflight
23 launches flew on July 23, the earliest of them in 1965, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on July 23. 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 1972.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on July 23
1980
Phạm Tuân becomes the first Vietnamese citizen and the first Asian in space when he flies aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an Intercosmos Research Cosmonaut.
Phạm Tuân ↗1995
Hale–Bopp, one of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century, was independently discovered by astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.
Comet Hale–Bopp ↗1999
Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander. The shuttle also carried and deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Space Shuttle Columbia ↗2012
The Solar storm of 2012 was an unusually large coronal mass ejection that was emitted by the Sun which barely missed the Earth by nine days. If it hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.
July 2012 solar storm ↗
Launches on July 23Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
23 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Kinetica 1 | 5 satellitesCASSUCCESS
- 2026Long March 3B/E | Tianlian 2-06CASCSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | TRACERSSpXSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 2D | Skysight AS-01 to 03 & Lingxi-03CASCSUCCESS
- 2020Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-15 (76P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2020Long March 5 | Tianwen-1 (Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover)CASCSUCCESS
- 2014Soyuz-U | Progress M-24M (56P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2001Atlas IIA | GOES 12LMTSUCCESS
- 1999Space Shuttle Columbia OV-102 | STS-93USASUCCESS
- 1997Delta II | GPS IIR-2USAFSUCCESS
- 1991Soyuz U | Resurs-F 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Soyuz-U | Soyuz 37CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Proton-K/DM | Raduga 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 35CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-2M 59CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Molniya-M | Molniya-2 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Delta 0900 | Landsat 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Thor Delta M | INTELSAT III F-8USAFSUCCESS
- 1970Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 11USAFSUCCESS
- 1969Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 23CCCPFAILURE
- 1969Thor Burner 2 | DSAP-4B F3USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-P1-Yu 3CCCPSUCCESS
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.