Launches
ON RECORD27MISSIONS
26 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1966 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
March 31 in spaceflight
27 launches flew on March 31, the earliest of them in 1966, and 26 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on March 31. 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 1966.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on March 31
1966
The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.
Soviet Union ↗2005
The dwarf planet Makemake is discovered by a team led by astronomer Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory.
Dwarf planet ↗2016
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station.
NASA ↗
Launches on March 31Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
27 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-80SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Soyuz 2.1b | Resurs-P No.4RFSASUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-45SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 4C | Yaogan 34-04CASCSUCCESS
- 2022New Shepard | NS-20BOSUCCESS
- 2019Long March 3B/E | Tianlian 2-01CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Long March 4C | Gaofen 1-02, 1-03 & 1-04CASCSUCCESS
- 2016Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-02 (63P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2015Rokot / Briz-KM | Gonets M-21, Gonets M-22, Gonets M-23, Kosmos 2504VKOSUCCESS
- 2014Long March 2C | Shijian 11-06CASCSUCCESS
- 2012Long March 3B/E | APStar-7CASCSUCCESS
- 2003Delta II | GPS IIR-9USAFSUCCESS
- 1993Soyuz-U2 | Progress M-17RFSASUCCESS
- 1991Proton | Almaz-1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Proton-K/DM | Gorizont 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Proton | KvantCCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 75CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 34CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 41CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Molniya-M | US-K 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 96CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat-4A 6USAFSUCCESS
- 1978Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Soyuz 11A511M | Zenit-4MT 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Molniya-M | Venera-9aCCCPFAILURE
- 1966Molniya-M | Luna-10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Thor Burner 1 | DSAP-2 F3USAFSUCCESS
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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.