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November 2 in spaceflight

21 orbital launches flew on November 2, the earliest of them in 1964, and 19 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on November 2. Below are the pictures NASA published on November 2 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

21MISSIONS

19 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1947 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 2, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on November 2

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

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.

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.

© Marcelo Rivera — used with the credit NASA publishes

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

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.

NASA · public domain

What happened on November 2

  1. 1947

    In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built until Scaled Composites rolled out their Stratolaunch in May 2017.

    Howard Hughes ↗

  3. 2000

    As members of Expedition 1, American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko (all pictured) became the first resident crew to arrive at the International Space Station.

    Expedition 1 ↗

  4. 2000

    Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted.

    Expedition 1 ↗

Every launch on November 2

21 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025LVM-3 | CMS-03 (GSAT-7R)ISROSUCCESS
  2. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Bandwagon 4 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2023SpaceShipTwo | Galactic 05VGSUCCESS
  4. 2022Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | EKS 6 (Tundra 6) (Kosmos 2563)VKSSUCCESS
  5. 2019Antares 230+ | Cygnus CRS-2 NG-12 (S.S. Alan Bean)NGSSSUCCESS
  6. 2016H-IIA 202 | Himawari-9MHISUCCESS
  7. 2012Proton-M / Briz-M Enhanced | Luch 5B & Yamal-300KKhSCSUCCESS
  8. 2010Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat | Meridian 3VKSSUCCESS
  9. 2009Rokot / Briz-KM | SMOSELSSUCCESS
  10. 1997VLS-1 | SCD-2AAEBFAILURE
  11. 1994Tsiklon-2 | US-PM 5RFSASUCCESS
  12. 1993Kosmos-3M | Parus 81NPSUCCESS
  13. 1982Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 68CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1979Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 11CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1973Molniya-M | US-K 2CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 25CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1967Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | KH-4A 44USAFSUCCESS
  18. 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 34USAFSUCCESS
  19. 1966R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 6CCCPFAILURE
  20. 1965UR-500 | Proton 2CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 13USAFSUCCESS

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.