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March 22 in spaceflight

29 orbital launches flew on March 22, the earliest of them in 1967, and 28 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on March 22. Below are the pictures NASA published on March 22 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

29MISSIONS

28 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1967, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

6ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1982 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 22, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on March 22

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.

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.

NASA · public domain

What happened on March 22

  1. 1982

    NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.

    NASA ↗

  2. 1995

    Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned from the space station Mir aboard Soyuz TM-20 after 437 days in space, setting a record for the longest spaceflight.

    Astronaut ↗

  3. 1995

    Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to earth after setting a record of 438 days in space.

    Astronaut ↗

  5. 1997

    Comet Hale–Bopp (pictured) reached its closest approach to Earth at 1.315 AU.

    Comet Hale–Bopp ↗

Every launch on March 22

29 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Smart Dragon 3 | 10 x CentiSpace-1CHNRSUCCESS
  2. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-62SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2026Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-33 (94P)RFSASUCCESS
  4. 2023Kuaizhou 1A | Tianmu-1 03-06EPSUCCESS
  5. 2022Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M | Meridian-M No.20LVKSSUCCESS
  6. 2021Electron | They Go Up So Fast (Rideshare)RLSUCCESS
  7. 2021Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M | CAS500-1 & rideshareGKLSSUCCESS
  8. 2019Vega | PRISMAASASUCCESS
  9. 2014Ariane 5 ECA | Astra 5B & Amazonas 4AASASUCCESS
  10. 2006Pegasus XL | ST-5 FWDOSCSUCCESS
  11. 1996Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-76LMSOSUCCESS
  12. 1995Soyuz-U-PVB | Yantar-4K2 73VKSSUCCESS
  13. 1995Atlas IIAS | INTELSAT 705LMTSUCCESS
  14. 1995Kosmos-3M | Parus 83NPSUCCESS
  15. 1994Soyuz U | Progress M-22RFSASUCCESS
  16. 1991Molniya-M | Molniya-3 55LCCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1990Soyuz U | Zenit-8 90CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1988Kosmos-3M | Parus 62CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1985Atlas G Centaur | Intelsat 510USAFSUCCESS
  20. 1985Proton-K/DM | EkranCCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1982Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-3ROISUCCESS
  22. 1981Soyuz-U | Soyuz 39CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1976Titan 24B | KH-8 46USAFSUCCESS
  24. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-2M 36CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1972Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 14CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1969Voskhod | Zenit-2 72CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1968Tsiklon-2A | US-AO 4CCCPSUCCESS
  28. 1967R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 8CCCPFAILURE
  29. 1967Voskhod | Zenit-4 27CCCPSUCCESS

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.