Launches
ON RECORD17MISSIONS
17 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
March 9 in spaceflight
17 launches flew on March 9, the earliest of them in 1961, and 17 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on March 9. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD4ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1961.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on March 9
1961
Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a dog and a human dummy, and demonstrating that the Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
Korabl-Sputnik 4 ↗
1997
Comet Hale–Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.
Comet Hale–Bopp ↗
Launches on March 9Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
17 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Long March 3B/E | TJSW-15CASCSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 4C | Tianhui-6 A/BCASCSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | OneWeb 17SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-10SpXSUCCESS
- 2020Long March 3B | Beidou-3 G2CASCSUCCESS
- 2019Long March 3B/E | Zhongxing 6C (Chinasat 6C)CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Soyuz STB/Fregat | O3b FM13-16ASASUCCESS
- 2016Ariane 5 ECA | Eutelsat 65 West AASASUCCESS
- 2008Ariane 5 ES | ATV-1 "Jules Verne"ASASUCCESS
- 2007Atlas V 401 | STP-1ULASUCCESS
- 1996Pegasus XL | REX IIOSCSUCCESS
- 1992Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 18NPSUCCESS
- 1974Scout D-1 | MirandaSERCSUCCESS
- 1973Titan IIID | KH-9 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 30USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Thor SLV-2 Agena D | Poppy 6A,B,C,DUSAFSUCCESS
- 1961Vostok-K | Sputnik 9CCCPSUCCESS
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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.
- VIEW
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.