January 14 


14 January 1969

Vladimir Shatalov aboard Soyuz 4. Credit: SpaceFacts

On January 14, 1969, Soyuz 4 spacecraft, with cosmonaut Vladimir A. Shatalov (1927–2021), was launched on a mission to rendezvous and manually dock with the Soyuz 5 spacecraft.

   It was the first manned spacecraft to be launched by the U.S.S.R. during the winter and had an enhanced water-landing capability. On January 16, during its 34th orbit, Soyuz 4 began a docking exercise with Soyuz 5, which was on its 18th orbit. When the automatic system had brought the ships within 99 m of one another, a manual approach of Soyuz 4 was completed. While docked, the ships completely interlocked controls, power, and telephones. On the 51st orbit of Soyuz 4, cosmonauts Yevgeniy Khrunov (1933–2000) and Aleksey Yeliseyev (b. 1934) of Soyuz 5 passed into the orbital work compartment of their ship, donned pressure suits, opened the outer hatch, and floated and climbed hand over hand using handrails from Soyuz 5 through the opened hatch and into Soyuz 4. TV cameras recorded coverage of the whole procedure, both inside and outside the ships. The two ships remained docked for 4 hr and 35 min and were hailed in Soviet announcements as the world's first space station. Soyuz 4 returned to earth after 3 days, carrying a crew of three men instead of one.

Mission data:

Mission name: Soyuz 4
Crew at launch : Vladimir A. Shatalov (Владимир Александрович Шаталов) – Commander

Crew at landing: Vladimir A. Shatalov – Commander
                            Aleksei S. Yeliseyev (Алексей Станиславович Елисеев) – Flight engineer
                            Yevgeny V. Khrunov (Евге́ний Васи́льевич Хруно́в) – Research engineer

Spacecraft: Soyuz 7K-OK No. 12
Launch vehicle: Soyuz 11A511 (No. Ya15000-012)
Launch site: NIIP-5, LC31
Launch date and time: 14 January 1969, 07:30:00 UTC
Landing date and time: 17 January 1969, 06:50:47 UTC
Landing site: 100 kilometres SW of Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Flight duration: 2 d 23 h 20 min 47 s

Launch of Soyuz 4

Soyuz 4 as seen from Soyuz 5 during the rendezvous


© 2026, Andrew Mirecki


14 January 2005


An artist's interpretation of the area surrounding the Huygens landing site based on images and data returned on January 14, 2005.. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau

On January 14, 2005, ESA's Huygens probe, part of the international Cassini-Huygens mission, landed on the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, making the most distant landing ever accomplished by a spacecraft.

   On December 25, 2004, at 02:00 UT, the Huygens lander, which had remained dormant for more than six years, separated from Cassini and began its 20-day coast to Titan. It entered Titan’s atmosphere at 09:05:53 UT on 14 January 2005 and within 4 minutes had deployed its 8.5-meter diameter main parachute. A minute later, Huygens began transmitting the first in situ measurements of Titan’s atmosphere back to Cassini for over 2 hours before impacting on the surface of Titan at 11:38:11 UT at a velocity of 4.54 meters/second. Landing coordinates were 192.32° W, 10.25° S. At the surface, the temperature was 93.65 ± 0.25 K (-179,5 ± 0.25 °C), and the pressure was 1,467 ± 1 hPa. 

   The probe continued to work for at least 3 h 14 min after landing, which was confirmed by the reception of his transmitter carrier signal by radio telescopes on Earth. Half of the captured images of Titan's surface were lost as a result of an anomaly in the communications system software.

Artist's impression of Huygens' descent and landing sequence. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau

Mosaic of Titan's surface from DISR imager onboard Huygens probe at 8 meters per pixel. Credit: ESA/NASA/University of Arizona/D. Machacek

Images of Titan taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on board ESA’s Huygens probe. Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Image of Titan's surface. Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona



© 2026, Andrew Mirecki



14 January 2008

An artist's concept of the MESSENGER spacecraft. Credit: NASA

The MESSENGER spacecraft made its first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008, the closest approach being 201 km at 19:04:39 UT. This was the first Mercury encounter since Mariner 10 in 1975. The flyby hyperbola was inclined 5.0 deg to the Mercurian equator, and the encounter changed MESSENGER's orbit around the Sun from 0.33 x 0.75 au to 0.32 x 0.70 au. After two more flybys, MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011.

First high-resolution image of Mercury transmitted by the MESSENGER. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Sholem Aleichem crater on Mercury, in lower right foreground. To Ngoc Van, Botticelli, and Al-Akhtal craters are toward the horizon: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington


© 2026, Andrew Mirecki

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