Launches
ON RECORD18MISSIONS
17 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1967 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
May 31 in spaceflight
18 launches flew on May 31, the earliest of them in 1967, and 17 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 31. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD3ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1986.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on May 31
1986
The Ariane 2 rocket is launched on its maiden flight, carrying Intelsat VA F-14, but the mission ends in failure.
Ariane 2 ↗2008
Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-124 carrying the second portion of the Japanese Kibō module to the International Space Station.
Space Shuttle Discovery ↗2013
The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries.
Asteroid ↗
Launches on May 31Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
18 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-18SpXSUCCESS
- 2025New Shepard | NS-32BOSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 2-10SpXSUCCESS
- 2020Long March 2D | Gaofen-9-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2008Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-124USASUCCESS
- 2007Long March 3A | Xinnuo 3CASCSUCCESS
- 2005Soyuz-U-PVB | Foton-M No. 2RFSASUCCESS
- 1995Atlas II | UHF F/O F5LMTSUCCESS
- 1990Proton | KristallCCCPSUCCESS
- 1989Proton | Uragan 34 & 35CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F43 28L 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Ariane 2 | Intelsat 514ASAFAILURE
- 1983Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 78CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981SLV-3 | Rohini RS-D-1ISROSUCCESS
- 1979Kosmos-3M | Parus 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 77CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Thor SLV-2 Agena D | Poppy 7A,B,C,DUSAFSUCCESS
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.