Launches
ON RECORD19MISSIONS
19 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1965 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
May 4 in spaceflight
19 launches flew on May 4, the earliest of them in 1965, and 19 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 4. 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 1988.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on May 4
1988
The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.
PEPCON disaster ↗1989
Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-30 to deploy the Venus-bound Magellan space probe.
Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗
Launches on May 4Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
19 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-84SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 5-6SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 25SpXSUCCESS
- 2019MOMO | Flight 3ISTECHSUCCESS
- 2019Falcon 9 Block 5 | SpX CRS-17SpXSUCCESS
- 2017Ariane 5 ECA | SGDC 1 & Koreasat 7ASASUCCESS
- 2012Atlas V 531 | AEHF-2 (USA-235)ULASUCCESS
- 2011Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat | Meridian 4VKSSUCCESS
- 2011SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF07VGSUCCESS
- 2007Ariane 5 ECA | Astra 1L & Galaxy 17ASASUCCESS
- 2004Zenit | DirecTV 7SSLSUCCESS
- 2002Delta 7920-10L | AquaUSAFSUCCESS
- 2002Ariane 42P | SPOT 5ASASUCCESS
- 1994ASLV | SROSS-C2ISROSUCCESS
- 1989Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-30LSOCSUCCESS
- 1979Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | FLTSATCOM 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1976Delta 2913 | Lageos 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | Lunar Orbiter 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Nike Cajun | Trailblazer PelletNASASUCCESS
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.
- 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.