Launches
ON RECORD32MISSIONS
29 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1966 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
May 17 in spaceflight
32 launches flew on May 17, the earliest of them in 1966, and 29 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on May 17. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD1ENTRY
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1969.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on May 17
1969
Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
Venera program ↗
Launches on May 17Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
32 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Long March 8 | SpaceSail Polar Group #9CASCSUCCESS
- 2025Electron | The Sea God Sees (iQPS Launch 2)RLSUCCESS
- 2025Zhuque-2E | 6 satellitesLSSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 3B/E | Beidou-3 G4CASCSUCCESS
- 2020Atlas V 501 | OTV-6 (X-37B) (USSF-7)ULASUCCESS
- 2019Long March 3C | Beidou-2 G8CASCSUCCESS
- 2014Delta IV M+(4,2) | GPS IIF-6 (USA-251)ULASUCCESS
- 2012Proton-M Briz-M | Nimiq 6ILSSUCCESS
- 2012H-IIA 202 | GCOM-W1MHISUCCESS
- 2012Soyuz-U | Kobalt-M No.8 (Kosmos-2480)VKOSUCCESS
- 1998Delta II | Iridium 70, 72 to 75USAFSUCCESS
- 1996Pegasus Hybrid | Miniature Sensor Technology Integration 3 (MSTI-3)OSCSUCCESS
- 1995Ariane 44LP | INTELSAT 706ASASUCCESS
- 1989Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 46CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Ariane 2 | Intelsat 513ASASUCCESS
- 1985Proton | Uragan 10 & 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 21LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Proton-K/DM | Potok 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 37CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 78CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Diamant BP4 | Castor & PolluxCNESSUCCESS
- 1974Kosmos-3M | DS-U3-IK 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Delta 2914 | SMS 1USAFFAILURE
- 1974Tsiklon-2 | US-A 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 62CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Voskhod | Zenit-2M 28CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Scout B | ESRO 2BESROSUCCESS
- 1967R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | GATV 9USAFFAILURE
- 1966Voskhod | Zenit-4 18CCCPFAILURE
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.
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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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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.