Launches
ON RECORD17MISSIONS
14 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1957, the most recent 2024.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1957 · 69 years ago today
Sputnik
Sputnik 1 reached orbit and broadcast a tone that anyone with a shortwave radio could hear, opening the space age.
read more2004 · 22 years ago today
The Ansari X Prize is won
SpaceShipOne flew above a hundred kilometres twice within two weeks and took the ten-million-dollar prize.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
October 4 in spaceflight
17 orbital launches flew on October 4, the earliest of them in 1957, and 14 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on October 4. Below are the pictures NASA published on October 4 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD3ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1693 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 4, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on October 4
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.
© Gabriel Zaparolli — used with the credit NASA publishes
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 October 4
Every launch on October 4
17 launches
ONLINE
- 2024Vulcan VC2S | Certification Flight 2ULASUCCESS
- 2022Atlas V 531 | SES-20 & SES-21ULASUCCESS
- 2019Long March 4C | Gaofen-10RCASCSUCCESS
- 2012Delta IV M+(4,2) | GPS IIF-3 (USA-239)ULASUCCESS
- 1991Soyuz-U-PVB | Foton 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1990Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 8CCCPFAILURE
- 1984Molniya-M | US-K 38CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 153-160CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 3CCCPFAILURE
- 1972Voskhod | Zenit-4M 43CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Molniya-M | Luna-7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1964Thor Delta C | Explorer 21USAFSUCCESS
- 1960Thor DM-21 Ablestar | Courier 1BUSAFSUCCESS
- 1960Scout X-1 | ST-2NASASUCCESS
- 1959Little Joe | LJ-6NASAPARTIAL
- 1959Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1957Sputnik 8K74PS | Sputnik 1CCCPSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
SPONSORED
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.