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March 30 in spaceflight

27 orbital launches flew on March 30, the earliest of them in 1961, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on March 30. Below are the pictures NASA published on March 30 in 3 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

27MISSIONS

24 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1961, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

2ENTRIES

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

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

3IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 30, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on March 30

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.

© Matias Tomasello — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on March 30

  1. 1982

    Space Shuttle program: STS-3 mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

    Space Shuttle program ↗

  2. 2017

    SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket.

    SpaceX ↗

Every launch on March 30

27 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-44SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 16 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2026Kinetica 2 | Demo Flight (Qingzhou Prototype Spacecraft)CASSUCCESS
  4. 2025Spectrum | Maiden FlightISARFAILURE
  5. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Eutelsat 36DSpXSUCCESS
  6. 2023Long March 2D | PIESAT-1 x 4CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2022Long March 11 | Tianping-2 A/B/CCASCSUCCESS
  8. 2021Long March 4C | Gaofen-12-02CASCSUCCESS
  9. 2021Starship SN11 | 10 km FlightSpXFAILURE
  10. 2018Falcon 9 Block 4 | Iridium-5SpXSUCCESS
  11. 2017Falcon 9 Full Thrust | SES-10SpXSUCCESS
  12. 2015Long March 3C/YZ-1 | BDS I1-SCASCSUCCESS
  13. 2012Proton-K/DM-2 | US-KMO (Kosmos-2479)KhSCSUCCESS
  14. 2006Soyuz-FG | Soyuz TMA-8RFSASUCCESS
  15. 2002Proton-K/DM-2M | INTELSAT 903KhSCSUCCESS
  16. 1998Delta II | Iridium 55 to 60USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1993Tsiklon-2 | US-PM 1RFSASUCCESS
  18. 1993Delta II | GPS IIA-10USAFSUCCESS
  19. 1988Soyuz U | Yantar-4KS1 9CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1983Kosmos-3M | Parus 37CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 14CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1978Proton | TKS-VA 5 & 6CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1972Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 11 (23L)CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1967Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 40USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1966Atlas D | OV1-4 & 5USAFSUCCESS
  26. 1965Blue Scout Jr | OAR 22-4USAFSUCCESS
  27. 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | Discoverer 22USAFFAILURE

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.