Launches
ON RECORD25MISSIONS
25 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1958, the most recent 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
March 17 in spaceflight
25 orbital launches flew on March 17, the earliest of them in 1958, and 25 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on March 17. Below are the pictures NASA published on March 17 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD1ENTRY
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1958 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 17, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on March 17
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.
© Nico Carver — used with the credit NASA publishes
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
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.
© Robert Nemiroff — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© David Alemazkour — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© Donald Mitchell — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on March 17
1958
The United States launches the first solar-powered satellite, which is also the first satellite to achieve a long-term orbit.
Vanguard 1 ↗
Every launch on March 17
25 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-46SpXSUCCESS
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-24SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Ceres-1 | 8 satellitesGESUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | SES-18 & SES-19SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 2-8SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 3B/E | Gaofen 13-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2022Long March 4C | Yaogan 34-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Long March 2D | LKW-4 (Land Survey Satellite-4)CASCSUCCESS
- 2017H-IIA 202 | IGS Radar 5MHISUCCESS
- 2009Rokot / Briz-KM | GOCEELSSUCCESS
- 2002Rokot / Briz-KM | GRACEELSSUCCESS
- 1994Soyuz-U-PVB | Yantar-4K2 71VKSSUCCESS
- 1992Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-14RFSASUCCESS
- 1988Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 72CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Vostok 8A92M | IRS-1ACCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 55CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 34CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 86CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 75CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Titan 24B | KH-8 34USAFSUCCESS
- 1970Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 3 (14L)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Kosmos-3M | Sfera 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 36CCCPSUCCESS
- 1958Vanguard | VanguardUSNSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
SPONSORED
General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
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- 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.
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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.
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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.