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March 5 in spaceflight

24 orbital launches flew on March 5, the earliest of them in 1958, and 20 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 8 spaceflight and astronomy events on March 5. Below are the pictures NASA published on March 5 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

24MISSIONS

20 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1958, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

8ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1616 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 5, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on March 5

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

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

© Robert Barsa — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on March 5

  1. 1616

    Nicolaus Copernicus's book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.

    Nicolaus Copernicus ↗

  2. 1811

    Peninsular War: A French force under the command of Marshal Victor is routed while trying to prevent an Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese army from lifting the Siege of Cádiz in the Battle of Barrosa.

    Peninsular War ↗

  4. 1978

    The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

    Landsat 3 ↗

  5. 1979

    Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.

    Venera 11 ↗

  6. 1981

    The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, was launched by Sinclair Research, and went on to sell more than 1.5 million units around the world.

    ZX81 ↗

  7. 1981

    The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 11⁄2 million units around the world.

    ZX81 ↗

Every launch on March 5

24 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Electron | Insight At Speed Is A Friend Indeed (BlackSky Gen-3 4)RLSUCCESS
  2. 2026KAIROS | Flight 3Space OneFAILURE
  3. 2022Long March 2C | Yinhe-1 (x6)CASCSUCCESS
  4. 2011Atlas V 501 | OTV-2 (X-37B) (USA-226)ULASUCCESS
  5. 2010Long March 4C | Yaogan-9CASCSUCCESS
  6. 1999Pegasus XL | Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE)OSCSUCCESS
  7. 1985Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 48CCCPSUCCESS
  8. 1984Ariane 1 | Intelsat 508ASASUCCESS
  9. 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 54CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1982Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat 504USAFSUCCESS
  11. 1981Tsiklon-2 | US-A 17CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1981Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 16CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1978Delta 2910 | Landsat 3USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1974Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 69CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1974Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 16 (30L)CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1971Kosmos 11K63 | Zenit-2M 17CCCPFAILURE
  17. 1971Voskhod | DS-P1-Yu 40CCCPFAILURE
  18. 1969Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 4CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1969Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 19CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1968Scout B | Explorer 37NASASUCCESS
  21. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2 59CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1968Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-I 3CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1967Atlas SLV-3 | PRIME 2USAFSUCCESS
  24. 1958Juno-I | Explorer 2ABMAFAILURE

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.