Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
20 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1963 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
April 3 in spaceflight
22 launches flew on April 3, the earliest of them in 1963, and 20 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 3. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
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 April 3
1966
Luna 10 (replica pictured) entered orbit around the Moon, becoming the first space probe to orbit an astronomical body other than Earth or the Sun.
Luna 10 ↗
Launches on April 3Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M | Meridian-M No.21LVKSSUCCESS
- 2026Tianlong-3 | Demo FlightSPFAILURE
- 2025Long March 6 | Tianping-3A-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2014Soyuz STA/Fregat | Sentinel-1AASASUCCESS
- 2014Atlas V 401 | DMSP-5D3 F19ULASUCCESS
- 2013SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF24VGSUCCESS
- 2012Delta IV M+(5,2) | NROL-25 (FIA-R) (USA-234)ULASUCCESS
- 2009Proton-M | Eutelsat W2AKhSCSUCCESS
- 1996Atlas IIA | INMARSAT III F-1LMTSUCCESS
- 1995Pegasus Hybrid | Orbcomm F1 - F2 & OrbView-1OSCSUCCESS
- 1990Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 51CCCPFAILURE
- 1990Shavit | Ofeq-2ISASUCCESS
- 1985Soyuz U | Zenit-8 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Soyuz-U | Soyuz T-11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Kosmos-3M | DS-P1-M 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Soyuz U | Kosmos 638CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Proton | Salyut-2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Voskhod | Zenit-4M 33CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Voskhod | Zenit-2M 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2 60CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | SNAPSHOT-1USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Thor Delta B | Explorer 17USAFSUCCESS
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.