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June 4 in spaceflight

22 orbital launches flew on June 4, the earliest of them in 1964, and 19 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on June 4. Below are the pictures NASA published on June 4 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

22MISSIONS

19 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 713 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 4, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on June 4

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

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.

© Zhuoxiao Wang — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

© Chirag Upreti — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on June 4

  1. 713

    The imperial official Artemius is chosen as Byzantine emperor the day after the blinding of previous emperor Philippicus. Artemisius chooses the name of Anastasius II and announces his adherence to Chalcedonian Christianity.

    List of Byzantine emperors ↗

  2. 1942

    World War II: Gustaf Mannerheim, the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army, is granted the title of Marshal of Finland by the government on his 75th birthday. On the same day, Adolf Hitler arrives in Finland for a surprise visit to meet Mannerheim.

    Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim ↗

  3. 1983

    Gordon Kahl, who killed two US Marshals in Medina, North Dakota on February 13, is killed in a shootout in Smithville, Arkansas, along with a local sheriff, after a four-month manhunt.

    Gordon Kahl ↗

  4. 1996

    The first flight of Ariane 5 explodes after roughly 37 seconds. It was a Cluster mission.

    Ariane 5 ↗

Every launch on June 4

22 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Long March 6A | SpaceSail Polar Group #11CASCSUCCESS
  2. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-43SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-22SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-4SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2022New Shepard | NS-21BOSUCCESS
  6. 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 7SpXSUCCESS
  7. 2018Falcon 9 Block 4 | SES-12SpXSUCCESS
  8. 2016Rokot/Briz-KM | Geo-IK-2 No.12L (Kosmos 2517)VKSSUCCESS
  9. 2010Falcon 9 v1.0 | Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit (DSQU)SpXSUCCESS
  10. 2003Kosmos-3M | Parus 94NPSUCCESS
  11. 1996Ariane 5 G | ClusterASAFAILURE
  12. 1991Tsiklon-3 | Okean-O1 6CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1987Molniya-M | US-K 53CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1981Kosmos-3M | Parus 27CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1980Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 25CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1971Kosmos-3M | DS-U2-KCCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1968Kosmos-3M | Sfera 2CCCPFAILURE
  18. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 41CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1967Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 38USAFSUCCESS
  20. 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 6USAFSUCCESS
  21. 1964Molniya 8K78 | Molniya-1 1aCCCPFAILURE
  22. 1964Scout X-4 | Transit VCUSAFSUCCESS

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.