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July 29 in spaceflight

23 orbital launches flew on July 29, the earliest of them in 1960, and 20 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on July 29. Below are the pictures NASA published on July 29 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

23MISSIONS

20 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1960, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1851 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for July 29, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on July 29

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

A Helix Nebula Deep Field

2025

A Helix Nebula Deep Field

Is the Helix Nebula looking at you? No, not in any biological sense, but it does look quite like an eye. The Helix Nebula is so named because it also appears that you are looking down the axis of a helix. In actuality, it is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry, including radial filaments and extended outer loops. The Helix Nebula (aka NGC 7293) is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The remnant central stellar core, destined to become a white dwarf star, glows in light so energetic it causes the previously expelled gas to fluoresce. The featured picture, taken in red, green, and blue but highlighted by light emitted primarily by hydrogen was created from 12 hours of exposure through a personal telescope located in Greece. A close-up of the inner edge of the Helix Nebula shows complex gas knots the origin of which are still being researched. Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator

© George Chatzifrantzis — used with the credit NASA publishes

Milky Way over Uluru

2024

Milky Way over Uluru

What's happening above Uluru? A United Nations World Heritage Site, Uluru is an extraordinary 350-meter high mountain in central Australia that rises sharply from nearly flat surroundings. Composed of sandstone, Uluru has slowly formed over the past 300 million years as softer rock eroded away. The Uluru region has been a home to humans for over 22,000 years. Recorded last month, the starry sky above Uluru includes the central band of our Milky Way galaxy, complete with complex dark filaments of dust, bright red emission nebulas, and billions of stars.

© Max Inwood — used with the credit NASA publishes

Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun

2023

Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun

Bright sunlight glints as long dark shadows mark this image of the surface of the Moon. It was taken fifty-four years ago, July 20, 1969, by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first to walk on the lunar surface. Pictured is the mission's lunar module, the Eagle, and spacesuited lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin is unfurling a long sheet of foil also known as the Solar Wind Composition Experiment. Exposed facing the Sun, the foil trapped particles streaming outward in the solar wind, catching a sample of material from the Sun itself. Along with moon rocks and lunar soil samples, the solar wind collector was returned for analysis in earthbound laboratories.

NASA · public domain

SOFIA's Southern Lights

2022

SOFIA's Southern Lights

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a large reflecting telescope into the stratosphere. The ability of the airborne facility to climb above about 99 percent of Earth's infrared-blocking atmosphere has allowed researchers to observe from almost anywhere over the planet. On a science mission flying deep into the southern auroral oval, astronomer Ian Griffin, director of New Zealand’s Otago Museum, captured this view from the observatory's south facing starboard side on July 17. Bright star Canopus shines in the southern night above curtains of aurora australis, or southern lights. The plane was flying far south of New Zealand at the time at roughly 62 degrees southern latitude. Unfortunately, after a landing at Christchurch severe weather damaged SOFIA requiring repairs and the cancellation of the remainder of its final southern hemisphere deployment.

© Ian Griffin — used with the credit NASA publishes

The Tulip and Cygnus X-1

2021

The Tulip and Cygnus X-1

This tall telescopic field of view looks out along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the nebula rich constellation Cygnus the Swan. Popularly called the Tulip Nebula, the brightest glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust above center is also found in the 1959 catalog by astronomer Stewart Sharpless as Sh2-101. Nearly 70 light-years across the complex and beautiful Tulip Nebula blossoms about 8,000 light-years away, shown in a Hubble palette image that maps the glow of the nebula's sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen ions into red, green, and blue colors. Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars at the edge of the Cygnus OB3 association, including O star HDE 227018, ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula. Also in the field of view is microquasar Cygnus X-1, one of the strongest X-ray sources in planet Earth's sky. Driven by powerful jets from a black hole accretion disk, its fainter bluish curved shock front is only just visible though, directly above the cosmic Tulip's petals near the top of the frame.

© Carlos Uriarte — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on July 29

  2. 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 ↗

  3. 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 ↗

  5. 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 ↗

Every launch on July 29

23 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Long March 7A | Tianlian 3-01CASCSUCCESS
  2. 2025Eris-1 | Maiden FlightGSTFAILURE
  3. 2025Hyperbola-1 | Kunpeng-03i-SpaceSUCCESS
  4. 2023Falcon Heavy | EchoStar 24/Jupiter-3SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2022Long March 2D | Yaogan 35 Group 03CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2021Electron | It’s a Little Chile Up Here (STP-27RM)RLSUCCESS
  7. 2021Long March 2D | Tianhui-1-04CASCSUCCESS
  8. 2018Long March 3B / YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M5 & M6CASCSUCCESS
  9. 2014Ariane 5 ES | ATV-5 (Georges Lemaitre)ASASUCCESS
  10. 2014SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF29VGSUCCESS
  11. 2011Long March 2C | Shijian 10-02CASCSUCCESS
  12. 2009Dnepr | DubaiSat 1ISCKSUCCESS
  13. 1994Soyuz U | Yantar-1KFT 17RFSASUCCESS
  14. 1985Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-51-FLSOCSUCCESS
  15. 1982Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 13CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 44CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 79CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1976Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 22CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1976Delta 2310 | NOAA 5USAFSUCCESS
  20. 1974Proton-K/DM | Molniya-1SCCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1972Proton | Salyut-2aCCCPFAILURE
  22. 1966Titan IIIB | KH-8 1USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1960Atlas LV-3B | Mercury-Atlas 1NASAFAILURE

Sources and licences

Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images are drawn only from Wikimedia Commons, which does not accept non-free content — each thumbnail links to its file page, where its licence and author are recorded.

Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day; NASA imagery is generally not subject to copyright, but individual APOD entries are frequently the property of the photographer, and each caption says which applies.

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