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March 16 in spaceflight

25 orbital launches flew on March 16, the earliest of them in 1962, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on March 16. Below are the pictures NASA published on March 16 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

25MISSIONS

24 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

2ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1926 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 16, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on March 16

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.

© Neil Corke — 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.

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.

NASA · public domain

What happened on March 16

  1. 1926

    History of rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

    Rocket ↗

  2. 1966

    Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. It would perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

    Gemini 8 ↗

Every launch on March 16

25 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Kuaizhou 11 | 8 satellitesEPSUCCESS
  2. 2025Angara 1.2 | 3 x Rodnik (Kosmos 2585, 2586, 2587)VKSSUCCESS
  3. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-44SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2023Electron | Stronger Together (Capella 9-10)RLSUCCESS
  5. 2020Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Glonass-M No. 60 (Kosmos 2545)VKSSUCCESS
  6. 2020Long March 7A | TJS-6 (Maiden Flight)CASCFAILURE
  7. 2019Delta IV M+(5,4) | WGS-10ULASUCCESS
  8. 2017Falcon 9 Full Thrust | Echostar 23SpXSUCCESS
  9. 1998Atlas II | UHF F/O F8LMTSUCCESS
  10. 1989Soyuz-U2 | Progress 41CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1989Soyuz-U-PVB | Zenit-8 78CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1984Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 60CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1984Proton-K/DM | EkranCCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1983Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 56CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1983Soyuz-U | Zenit-6U 74CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1981Titan IIIC | DSP 9USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1979Titan IIID | KH-9 15USAFSUCCESS
  18. 1978Titan IIID | KH-9 14USAFSUCCESS
  19. 1976Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 9CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1974Thor Burner 2A | DMSP-5B F5USAFSUCCESS
  21. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 39CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1967Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-I 2CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1966Titan II GLV | Gemini VIIINASASUCCESS
  24. 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | GATV 8USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1962Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-2 1CCCPSUCCESS

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.