Launches
ON RECORD15MISSIONS
15 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1959, the most recent 2025.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1972 · 54 years ago today
Pioneer 10 sets out for Jupiter
Pioneer 10 left Earth carrying a plaque, on the first mission to cross the asteroid belt and reach the outer planets.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
March 3 in spaceflight
15 orbital launches flew on March 3, the earliest of them in 1959, and 15 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on March 3. Below are the pictures NASA published on March 3 in 4 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1953 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED4IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 3, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on March 3
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
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
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
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.
NASA · public domain
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 March 3
1953
A De Havilland Comet (Canadian Pacific Air Lines) crashes in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 11 people.
De Havilland Comet ↗
Every launch on March 3
15 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 12-20SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 2-7SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-9SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Starship SN10 | 10 km FlightSpXSUCCESS
- 1987Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 59CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz-U2 | Progress 28CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Molniya-M | US-K 24CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Atlas F/MSD | Parcae 3A,B,C & MSD 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Atlas SLV-3C Centaur | Pioneer 10USAFSUCCESS
- 1971Long March 1 | Shijian 1CASCSUCCESS
- 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Saturn V | Apollo 9NASASUCCESS
- 1967Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-M 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1959Juno II | Pioneer 4NASASUCCESS
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.
- VIEW
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.
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.