June 21

What happened on June 21 in aviation and space history.

• June 21, 2004

  SpaceShipOne: first private crewed spaceflight

  Space milestone — On 21 June 2004 pilot Mike Melvill took the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne past the edge of space on flight 15P, becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 435th person to reach space. The air-launched, hybrid-rocket-powered craft was developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a joint venture between Paul Allen and Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites. Later that year SpaceShipOne won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service.

• June 21, 2025

  Operation Midnight Hammer: B-2 Spirit strike on Iranian nuclear facilities

  Milestone — On the night of 21-22 June 2025, seven B-2 Spirits took off from Whiteman Air Force Base and flew more than 13,000 km to Iran to drop 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer. It was the first operational use of the GBU-57 and one of the longest and highest-profile combat missions flown by the type since Kosovo.