Launches
ON RECORD29MISSIONS
25 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1959 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
September 9 in spaceflight
29 launches flew on September 9, the earliest of them in 1959, and 25 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 9. 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 1892.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on September 9
1892
At the Lick Observatory in California, Edward Emerson Barnard discovered Amalthea (pictured), a moon of Jupiter and the last natural satellite to be discovered by visual observation.
Lick Observatory ↗2006
Space Shuttle Program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-115 to resume assembling the International Space Station. It is the first ISS assembly mission after the Columbia disaster back in 2003.
Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗2012
The Indian space agency puts into orbit its heaviest foreign satellite yet, in a streak of 21 consecutive successful PSLV launches.
ISRO ↗
Launches on September 9Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
29 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Long March 7A | Yaogan 45CASCSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-14SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Soyuz 2.1v | Razbeg 1 (Kosmos 2551)VKSSUCCESS
- 2021Long March 3B | ChinaSat 9BCASCSUCCESS
- 2012PSLV-CA | SPOT 6 & PROITERESACLSUCCESS
- 2006Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-115USASUCCESS
- 2006Long March 2C | Shi Jian 8CASCSUCCESS
- 2003Titan IVB | NROL-19USAFSUCCESS
- 1999Soyuz-U-PVB | Foton 12RVSN RFSUCCESS
- 1998Zenit-2 11K77.05 | Globalstar 5, 7, 9 to 13, 16 to 18, 20, 21RFSAFAILURE
- 1994Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-64LSOCSUCCESS
- 1994Ariane 42L | Telstar 402ASASUCCESS
- 1992Delta II | GPS IIA-6USAFSUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz-U2 | Progress 38CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F43 31L 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Long March 2C | FSW-1 1CASCSUCCESS
- 1983Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 85CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Long March 2C | FSW-0 4CASCSUCCESS
- 1982Ariane 1 | Marecs B & Sirio 2ASAFAILURE
- 1980Delta 3914 | GOES 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1980Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-2 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Proton-K/D-1 | Venera-11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Titan IIIE | Viking 2LMTSUCCESS
- 1975N-I | Kiku-1NASDASUCCESS
- 1975Molniya-M | Molniya-2 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Voskhod | Zenit-4 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1961Atlas LV-3A | Samos 3USAFFAILURE
- 1959Atlas LV-3B | Big Joe 1NASAPARTIAL
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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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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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.