Launches
ON RECORD20MISSIONS
17 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
July 2 in spaceflight
20 orbital launches flew on July 2, the earliest of them in 1964, and 17 reached orbit. Below are the pictures NASA published on July 2 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
NONE FOUND0ENTRIES
Wikipedia records no spaceflight or astronomy event on this date.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for July 2, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on July 2
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
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.
© Pinholove — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© Michael Teoh — used with the credit NASA publishes
Every launch on July 2
20 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Atlas V 551 | Amazon Leo (LA-08)ULASUCCESS
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-46SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-25SpXSUCCESS
- 2022LauncherOne | Straight UpVOSUCCESS
- 2019Orion Test Booster | Ascent Abort-2NASASUCCESS
- 2017Long March 5 / YZ-2 | Shijian 18CASCFAILURE
- 2014Delta II 7320-10C | OCO-2ULASUCCESS
- 2013Proton-M/Blok DM-03 | Uragan-M No.48, 49 & 50KhSCFAILURE
- 2007Kosmos-3M | SAR-Lupe 2NPSUCCESS
- 1996Pegasus XL | Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS)OSCSUCCESS
- 1992Atlas II | DSCS-3 B12USAFSUCCESS
- 1985Ariane 1 | GiottoASASUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 15LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Molniya-M | US-K 16CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Soyuz U | Energiya 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Tsiklon-2 | US-P 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Europa I | STV 2ELDOFAILURE
- 1965Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-A1 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Thor Delta C | Tiros 10USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | P-698BK Group 2-D 2USAFSUCCESS
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.