Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
21 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1957 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1957 · 69 years ago today
Laika
Sputnik 2 carried the dog Laika into orbit with no way of bringing her back.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
November 3 in spaceflight
22 launches flew on November 3, the earliest of them in 1957, and 21 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on November 3. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD4ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1957.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on November 3
1957
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, carrying the space dog Laika as the first living creature to enter orbit around Earth.
Sputnik 2 ↗1957
Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.
List of spacecraft called Sputnik ↗1973
Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.
Mariner program ↗
Launches on November 3Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Kinetica 2 | SpaceSail Polar Group #17CASSUCCESS
- 2025Long March 7A | Yaogan 46CASCSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 7A | TJSW-10CASCSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Hotbird 13GSpXSUCCESS
- 2021Long March 2C/YZ-1S | Yaogan-32-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2019Long March 4B | Gaofen-7 & othersCASCSUCCESS
- 2018Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Glonass-M No. 57 (Kosmos 2529)VKSSUCCESS
- 2016Long March 5 / YZ-2 | Shijian 17CASCSUCCESS
- 2016SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity CC03VGPARTIAL
- 2015Long March 3B/E | Zhongxing-2C (Chinasat-2C)CASCSUCCESS
- 2003Long March 2D | Fanhui Shi Weixing (18)CASCSUCCESS
- 1994Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-66LSOCSUCCESS
- 1990Proton | Gorizont 21CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 22CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Mariner 10USAFSUCCESS
- 1972Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 16CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Titan IIIC | DSCS-2 1 & 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1968Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | KH-4B 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Voskhod | Zenit-4 36CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Titan IIIC | Gemini BUSAFSUCCESS
- 1960Juno II | Explorer 8NASASUCCESS
- 1957Sputnik 8K74PS | Sputnik 2CCCPSUCCESS
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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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.