Launches
ON RECORD16MISSIONS
14 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1967 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1997 · 29 years ago today
Pathfinder bounces down on Mars
Mars Pathfinder landed inside airbags and released Sojourner, the first rover to drive on another planet.
read more2016 · 10 years ago today
Juno reaches Jupiter
Juno fired its main engine for thirty-five minutes to slow into orbit around Jupiter, inside the strongest radiation belts in the solar system.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
July 4 in spaceflight
16 launches flew on July 4, the earliest of them in 1967, and 14 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 7 spaceflight and astronomy events on July 4. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD7ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1054.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on July 4
1054
Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest star", later identified as the supernova that created the Crab Nebula (pictured).
Chinese astronomy ↗1054
A supernova, called SN 1054, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, Arab, and possibly indigenous American observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
SN 1054 ↗1982
Space Shuttle program: Columbia lands at Edwards Air Force Base at the end of the program's final test flight, STS-4. President Ronald Reagan declares the Space Shuttle to be operational.
Space Shuttle program ↗1998
Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.
Nozomi (spacecraft) ↗2006
Space Shuttle program: Discovery launches STS-121 to the International Space Station. The event gained wide media attention as it was the only shuttle launch in the program's history to occur on the United States' Independence Day.
Space Shuttle program ↗
Launches on July 4Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
16 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Long March 6A | SpaceSail Polar Group #13CASCSUCCESS
- 2024Long March 6A | Tianhui 5 Group 02CASCSUCCESS
- 2024Firefly Alpha | FLTA005 (Noise of Summer)FASUCCESS
- 2021Long March 4C | Fengyun-3ECASCSUCCESS
- 2020Long March 2D | Chuangxin 3A (02)CASCSUCCESS
- 2020Electron | Pics Or It Didn’t Happen (Rideshare)RLFAILURE
- 2006Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-121USASUCCESS
- 2000Proton | Potok 10KhSCSUCCESS
- 1991Delta II | GPS IIA-2USAFSUCCESS
- 1989Kosmos-3M | Nadezhda 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz U | Zenit-8 50CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 35CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 27CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4M 51CCCPFAILURE
- 1968Thor Delta J | RAE 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Voskhod | Zenit-2 51CCCPSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
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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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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.