Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
20 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2025.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1976 · 50 years ago today
Viking 2 lands on Utopia Planitia
Viking 2 set down on the northern plains of Mars and ran its biology experiments for more than three years.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
September 3 in spaceflight
22 orbital launches flew on September 3, the earliest of them in 1965, and 20 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on September 3. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 3 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD1ENTRY
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1976 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 3, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on September 3
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
2026
NASA Science
This stairway in Chile brings you only a little bit closer to heaven. But ooh, the sky above it makes you wonder. For example, you may wonder about the dark lane of our own Milky Way galaxy rising behind the expansive Atacama Desert in Chile, the band of zodiacal light on the upper left, the green and red airglow just above the horizon, the star Spica in the zodiacal light stripe, and, at the very top on the right, the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy. The Desert Staircase sculpture is in the foreground, and this image was timed to catch the picturesque peering perch just in front of the near-vertical Milky Way band. Upon close inspection of the horizon you can find, left to right, some Andes Mountains, the Licancabur volcano, and the town lights of San Pedro de Atacama. The featured wide-angle composite was captured in July 2025.Tomorrow's picture: open space
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.
© Wang Letian — 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.
© Satwant Kumar — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on September 3
1976
Viking program: The American Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
Viking program ↗
Every launch on September 3
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-22SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-8SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Long March 4B | Yaogan 43 Group 02CASCSUCCESS
- 2021Firefly Alpha | FLTA001 (Maiden Flight)FAFAILURE
- 2020Starship SN6 | 150m HopSpXSUCCESS
- 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 11SpXSUCCESS
- 2020Vega | SSMS PoCASASUCCESS
- 2016Falcon 9 Full Thrust | Amos 6 (Failure before launch)SpXFAILURE
- 1995Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-22RFSASUCCESS
- 1993Atlas I | UHF F/O F2GDSUCCESS
- 1990Long March 4A | Feng Yun 1BCASCSUCCESS
- 1987Proton-K/DM | EkranCCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz U | Zenit-8 52CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 22CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 37 (Kosmos 1775)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 24CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982N-I | Kiku-4NASDASUCCESS
- 1981Titan IIID | KH-11 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1980Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 14LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 66CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Thor Burner 2 | DSAP-5A F2USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos 65S3 | Strela-1 20 to 24CCCPSUCCESS
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.