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February 3 in spaceflight

23 orbital launches flew on February 3, the earliest of them in 1963, and 22 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 3. Below are the pictures NASA published on February 3 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

23MISSIONS

22 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1963, the most recent 2024.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

6ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1944 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for February 3, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on February 3

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

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2025

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2024

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2023

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© David Ibarra Gomez — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2022

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Juan Luis Cánovas Pérez — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2021

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

What happened on February 3

  1. 1944

    World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.

    World War II ↗

  2. 1966

    The Soviet Union's Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, and the first spacecraft to take pictures from the surface of the Moon.

    Soviet Union ↗

  4. 1994

    Space Shuttle program: STS-60 is launched, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Shuttle.

    Space Shuttle program ↗

  5. 1995

    In mission STS-63, astronaut Eileen Collins (pictured) became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.

    STS-63 ↗

  6. 1995

    Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    Eileen Collins ↗

Every launch on February 3

23 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2024Smart Dragon 3 | 9 satellitesCHNRSUCCESS
  2. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-7SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2018SS-520-5 | TRICOM-1RJAXASUCCESS
  4. 2012Safir | NavidISASUCCESS
  5. 2010Soyuz-U | Progress M-04M (36P)RFSASUCCESS
  6. 2005Atlas | NROL-23LMTSUCCESS
  7. 2005Proton-M Briz-M | AMC 12KhSCSUCCESS
  8. 2000Atlas IIAS | Hispasat 1CLMTSUCCESS
  9. 2000Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 21RFSASUCCESS
  10. 1995Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-63LSOCSUCCESS
  11. 1994H-II | Myojo & RyuseiJAXASUCCESS
  12. 1994Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-60LSOCSUCCESS
  13. 1993Delta II | GPS IIA-9USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1988Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 36CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1988Atlas E | DMSP-5D2 F9USAFSUCCESS
  16. 1984Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-41-BLSOCSUCCESS
  17. 1976Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 20CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1973Molniya-M | Molniya-1 23CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-2M 25CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1971Thor Delta M | NATO IIBUSAFSUCCESS
  21. 1966Thor Delta C | ESSA 1USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1965Thor Delta C | OSO 2USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1963Molniya 8K78 | Luna-4dCCCPFAILURE

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Links here cost you nothing extra.

  • LISTING

    Cosmos — Carl Sagan

    Still the best single argument for why any of this matters, and it leaves the arithmetic in. For a reader who wants the science, not just the awe.

    VIEW

  • LISTING

    Pale Blue Dot — Carl Sagan

    The case for leaving Earth, written by someone unsentimental about how hard that is. Suits readers who want the argument rather than the poster.

    VIEW

  • LISTING

    Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir

    Hard-SF problem solving in The Martian's key — for anyone who liked the engineering more than the peril. The only novel on this list.

    VIEW

BROWSE opens an Amazon search, not a specific recommendation.

LINKS AMAZON.COM

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.