Launches
ON RECORD16MISSIONS
15 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1960 and the latest in 2026.
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September 13 in spaceflight
16 launches flew on September 13, the earliest of them in 1960, and 15 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on September 13. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD1ENTRY
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1959.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on September 13
1959
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 (model pictured) struck the Moon, the first spacecraft to reach another celestial body.
Luna 2 ↗
Launches on September 13Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
16 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | O3b mPower 11-13SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-10SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 No. 18 (Kosmos 2595) & Kosmos 2596VKSSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 9-6SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Long March 7A | ChinaSat 1ECASCSUCCESS
- 2016Shavit-2 | Ofeq-11IAISUCCESS
- 2012Atlas V 401 | NROL-36 (Multipayload mission)ULASUCCESS
- 1991Proton | US-KS 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Kosmos-3M | Parus 45CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 26 (Kosmos 1597)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Delta 3914 | OTS 1USAFFAILURE
- 1977Kosmos-3M | Parus 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 81CCCPSUCCESS
- 1964Voskhod | Zenit-4 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1961Atlas LV-3B | Mercury-Atlas 4NASASUCCESS
- 1960Thor Agena A | Discoverer 15USAFSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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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.