Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
20 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1958, the most recent 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
March 26 in spaceflight
22 orbital launches flew on March 26, the earliest of them in 1958, and 20 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on March 26. Below are the pictures NASA published on March 26 in 5 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 1954 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED5IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 26, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on March 26
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
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
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
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.
© Josep Drudis — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on March 26
1954
Nuclear weapons testing: The Romeo shot of Operation Castle is detonated at Bikini Atoll. Yield: 11 megatons.
Nuclear weapons testing ↗
Every launch on March 26
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-17SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-7SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Long March 3B/E | Tianlian 2-04CASCSUCCESS
- 2025Electron | Finding Hot Wildfires Near You (OroraTech OTC-P1)RLSUCCESS
- 2024Long March 6A | Yunhai 3-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2023LVM-3 | OneWeb 18ISROSUCCESS
- 2020Atlas V 551 | AEHF-6ULASUCCESS
- 2015H-IIA 202 | IGS Optical 5MHISUCCESS
- 2013Proton-M Briz-M | Satmex-8ILSSUCCESS
- 2009Soyuz-FG | Soyuz TMA-14RFSASUCCESS
- 1993Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 13RFSASUCCESS
- 1991Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 58CCCPSUCCESS
- 1990Delta 6925 | GPS-2 7USAFSUCCESS
- 1987Atlas G Centaur | FLTSATCOM F6USAFFAILURE
- 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 29CCCPFAILURE
- 1976Delta 3914 | Satcom 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1976Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 57CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-2M 55CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Proton-K/DM | Raduga-GVMCCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 1 (12L)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Scout A | Transit-O 8USAFSUCCESS
- 1958Juno-I | Explorer 3ABMASUCCESS
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.
- 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.