Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
19 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
October 21 in spaceflight
22 launches flew on October 21, the earliest of them in 1961, and 19 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on October 21. 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 October 21
1959
President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves the transfer of all US Army space-related activities to NASA, including most of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
Dwight D. Eisenhower ↗
Launches on October 21Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Ceres-1S | Xiguang-4 01GESUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 7-5SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Gaganyaan Abort Test Booster | TV-D1ISROSUCCESS
- 2022Soyuz 2.1v/Volga | Kosmos 2561 & Kosmos 2562VKSSUCCESS
- 2021Nuri | Flight TestKARIFAILURE
- 2014Proton-M Briz-M | Ekspress AM6KhSCPARTIAL
- 2011Soyuz STB/Fregat | Galileo L1 (IOV FM01-FM02)ASASUCCESS
- 2003Long March 4B | Zi Yuan 1-2CASCSUCCESS
- 2001Soyuz U | Soyuz TM-33RFSASUCCESS
- 2000Proton-K/DM-2M | GE 6KhSCSUCCESS
- 2000Zenit | Thuraya 1SLSUCCESS
- 1998Ariane 5 G | MaqSat 3 & ARDESASUCCESS
- 1992Molniya 8K78M-PVB | US-K 70PRSCSUCCESS
- 1989Delta 6925 | GPS-2 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1985Long March 2C | FSW-0 7CASCSUCCESS
- 1983Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 87CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1B 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos-3M | DS-P1-M 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Tsiklon-2 | US-A 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Thor Delta N6 | ITOS BUSAFFAILURE
- 1969Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1961Atlas LV-3A | MIDAS 4 & Westford-1USAFSUCCESS
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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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.