Launches
ON RECORD30MISSIONS
30 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1963 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
2008 · 18 years ago today
Falcon 1 reaches orbit
On its fourth attempt Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fuelled rocket to reach orbit.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
September 28 in spaceflight
30 launches flew on September 28, the earliest of them in 1963, and 30 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on September 28. 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 2008.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on September 28
2008
Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit by the RatSat mission.
Falcon 1 ↗
Launches on September 28Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
30 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Starship | Starlink Group 31-1 (Starship Flight 14)SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-9SpXSUCCESS
- 2020Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Gonets-M27, Gonets-M28, Gonets-M29 & othersVKSSUCCESS
- 2017Proton-M Briz-M | AsiaSat 9ILSSUCCESS
- 2015PSLV XL | AstrosatISROSUCCESS
- 2014Long March 2C | Shijian 11-07CASCSUCCESS
- 2012Ariane 5 ECA | Astra 2F & GSAT-10ASASUCCESS
- 2009Ares I | Ares I-XNASASUCCESS
- 2008Falcon 1 | RatSatSpXSUCCESS
- 1999Soyuz-U-PVB | Resurs F-1MRVSN RFSUCCESS
- 1998Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 91PRSCSUCCESS
- 1991Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 67 to 72CCCPSUCCESS
- 1990Tsiklon-3 | Meteor-2 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1989Proton | Gorizont 19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1989Tsiklon-3 | AUOS-Z-AV-IK 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Atlas G Centaur | Intelsat 512USAFSUCCESS
- 1984Proton | Tselina-2 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Tsiklon-3 | Okean-OE 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Tsiklon-3 | Okean-OE 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat 505USAFSUCCESS
- 1981Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Soyuz U | Progress 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Proton | Luna-19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 22CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Mu-4S | ShinseiISASSUCCESS
- 1967Thor Delta E1 | INTELSAT II F-4USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Titan IIIB | KH-8 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1965X-15 | Flight 150USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Thor DM-21 Ablestar | Transit 5BN-1USAFSUCCESS
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.
- VIEW
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.