Launches
ON RECORD23MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1963 and the latest in 2024.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1966 · 60 years ago today
Luna 9, the first soft landing
Luna 9 came to rest in Oceanus Procellarum and transmitted the first photographs taken from the surface of another world.
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February 3 in spaceflight
23 launches flew on February 3, the earliest of them in 1963, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 3. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD5ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1966.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on February 3
1966
The Soviet Union's Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, and the first spacecraft to take pictures from the surface of the Moon.
Soviet Union ↗1984
Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
Space Shuttle program ↗1994
Space Shuttle program: STS-60 is launched, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Shuttle.
Space Shuttle program ↗1995
In mission STS-63, astronaut Eileen Collins (pictured) became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.
STS-63 ↗1995
Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Eileen Collins ↗
Launches on February 3Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
23 launches
ONLINE
- 2024Smart Dragon 3 | 9 satellitesCHNRSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-7SpXSUCCESS
- 2018SS-520-5 | TRICOM-1RJAXASUCCESS
- 2012Safir | NavidISASUCCESS
- 2010Soyuz-U | Progress M-04M (36P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2005Atlas | NROL-23LMTSUCCESS
- 2005Proton-M Briz-M | AMC 12KhSCSUCCESS
- 2000Atlas IIAS | Hispasat 1CLMTSUCCESS
- 2000Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 21RFSASUCCESS
- 1995Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-63LSOCSUCCESS
- 1994H-II | Myojo & RyuseiJAXASUCCESS
- 1994Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-60LSOCSUCCESS
- 1993Delta II | GPS IIA-9USAFSUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 36CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Atlas E | DMSP-5D2 F9USAFSUCCESS
- 1984Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-41-BLSOCSUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Molniya-M | Molniya-1 23CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Voskhod | Zenit-2M 25CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Thor Delta M | NATO IIBUSAFSUCCESS
- 1966Thor Delta C | ESSA 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Thor Delta C | OSO 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Molniya 8K78 | Luna-4dCCCPFAILURE
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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- VIEW
LISTING
Cosmos, by Carl Sagan
Sagan's tour of the universe and how we came to understand it. It keeps the science in.
- VIEW
LISTING
Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan
Sagan's case for people leaving Earth one day, and an honest look at how hard that would be.
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LISTING
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
A science-fiction novel from the author of The Martian, built around solving one engineering problem after another.
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LINKS AMAZON.COM
Sources and licences
Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images come only from Wikimedia Commons, which doesn't accept non-free content. Each thumbnail links to its file page, which lists its licence and author.
Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. Many of them belong to the photographer or a partner agency, so we only show the ones credited to NASA alone.