Launches
ON RECORD19MISSIONS
19 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
May 4 in spaceflight
19 orbital launches flew on May 4, the earliest of them in 1965, and 19 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 4. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 4 in 3 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 1988 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED3IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 4, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on May 4
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
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
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.
NASA · public domain
What happened on May 4
1988
The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.
PEPCON disaster ↗1989
Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-30 to deploy the Venus-bound Magellan space probe.
Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗
Every launch on May 4
19 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-84SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 5-6SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 25SpXSUCCESS
- 2019MOMO | Flight 3ISTECHSUCCESS
- 2019Falcon 9 Block 5 | SpX CRS-17SpXSUCCESS
- 2017Ariane 5 ECA | SGDC 1 & Koreasat 7ASASUCCESS
- 2012Atlas V 531 | AEHF-2 (USA-235)ULASUCCESS
- 2011Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat | Meridian 4VKSSUCCESS
- 2011SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF07VGSUCCESS
- 2007Ariane 5 ECA | Astra 1L & Galaxy 17ASASUCCESS
- 2004Zenit | DirecTV 7SSLSUCCESS
- 2002Delta 7920-10L | AquaUSAFSUCCESS
- 2002Ariane 42P | SPOT 5ASASUCCESS
- 1994ASLV | SROSS-C2ISROSUCCESS
- 1989Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-30LSOCSUCCESS
- 1979Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | FLTSATCOM 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1976Delta 2913 | Lageos 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | Lunar Orbiter 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Nike Cajun | Trailblazer PelletNASASUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
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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.