Launches
ON RECORD23MISSIONS
20 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1960 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1958 · 68 years ago today
NASA is created
President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act. The agency opened that October.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
July 29 in spaceflight
23 launches flew on July 29, the earliest of them in 1960, and 20 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on July 29. 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 1851.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on July 29
1958
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Dwight D. Eisenhower ↗1985
Space Shuttle Challenger launches on STS-51-F. The shuttle ends up in a lower orbit than planned due to an engine failure during ascent.
Space Shuttle Challenger ↗2021
The International Space Station temporarily spins out of control, moving the ISS 45 degrees out of attitude, following an engine malfunction of Russian module Nauka.
International Space Station ↗
Launches on July 29Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
23 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Long March 7A | Tianlian 3-01CASCSUCCESS
- 2025Eris-1 | Maiden FlightGSTFAILURE
- 2025Hyperbola-1 | Kunpeng-03i-SpaceSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon Heavy | EchoStar 24/Jupiter-3SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Long March 2D | Yaogan 35 Group 03CASCSUCCESS
- 2021Electron | It’s a Little Chile Up Here (STP-27RM)RLSUCCESS
- 2021Long March 2D | Tianhui-1-04CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Long March 3B / YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M5 & M6CASCSUCCESS
- 2014Ariane 5 ES | ATV-5 (Georges Lemaitre)ASASUCCESS
- 2014SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF29VGSUCCESS
- 2011Long March 2C | Shijian 10-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2009Dnepr | DubaiSat 1ISCKSUCCESS
- 1994Soyuz U | Yantar-1KFT 17RFSASUCCESS
- 1985Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-51-FLSOCSUCCESS
- 1982Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 44CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 79CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 22CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Delta 2310 | NOAA 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1974Proton-K/DM | Molniya-1SCCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Proton | Salyut-2aCCCPFAILURE
- 1966Titan IIIB | KH-8 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1960Atlas LV-3B | Mercury-Atlas 1NASAFAILURE
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
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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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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.