Skip to content
DELTA-V

MARKED ON THIS DATE

ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR

May 30 in spaceflight

26 orbital launches flew on May 30, the earliest of them in 1962, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 30. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 30 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

26MISSIONS

24 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1971 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

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

Published on May 30

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.

© Robert Nemiroff — used with the credit NASA publishes

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

What happened on May 30

  1. 1971

    Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.

    Mariner program ↗

  3. 1998

    Nuclear Testing: Pakistan conducts an underground test in the Kharan Desert. It is reported to be a plutonium device with yield of 20kt TNT equivalent.

    Nuclear weapons testing ↗

  4. 2020

    Crew Dragon Demo-2 became the first commercial mission to the International Space Station.

    Crew Dragon Demo-2 ↗

  5. 2020

    Crew Dragon Demo-2 launches from Kennedy Space Center, becoming the first crewed orbital spacecraft to launch from the United States since 2011 and the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.

    Crew Dragon Demo-2 ↗

Every launch on May 30

26 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Long March 2D | 4 x SatNet test satellitesCASCSUCCESS
  2. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-41SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | GPS III SV08SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2024Ceres-1 | 5 satellitesGESUCCESS
  5. 2024Long March 3B/E | Paksat MM1(R)CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2024Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-27 (88P)RFSASUCCESS
  7. 2023Chollima-1 | Malligyong-1aNADAFAILURE
  8. 2023Long March 2F/G | Shenzhou 16CASCSUCCESS
  9. 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | SpX-DM2 (Demonstration Mission 2)SpXSUCCESS
  10. 2019Proton-M/Briz-M | Yamal-601KhSCSUCCESS
  11. 2016Long March 4B | Ziyuan 3-02 & ÑuSat-1 & -2 (Fresco and Batata)CASCSUCCESS
  12. 1998Long March 3B | Zhongwei 1CASCSUCCESS
  13. 1991Soyuz-U2 | Progress M-8CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1988Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 10CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1985Proton | Tselina-2 2CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1985Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 12CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1984Tsiklon-2 | US-P 18CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1977Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 3CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1975Voskhod | Zenit-2M/NKh 1CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1974Titan IIIC | ATS 6USAFSUCCESS
  21. 1974Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 26CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1971Atlas SLV-3C Centaur | Mariner 9USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1968Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 14CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1967Scout B | ESRO 2AESROFAILURE
  25. 1966Atlas Centaur D | Surveyor 1USAFSUCCESS
  26. 1962Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-4 4USAFSUCCESS

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.