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March 21 in Universe History: Space Missions, Satellites and Exploration

March 21, 2026
2019 On 21 March 2019 local time in French Guiana, Arianespace launched Vega from Europe’s Spaceport, delivering ASI’s PRISMA satellite to a sun-synchronous orbit. The AVUM stage performed two burns for injection and then executed a disposal burn for reentry, enabling hyperspectral imaging for environmental monitoring, agriculture, and pollution tracking.
All names in this article
Alphonsus Arianespace ASI AsiaSat 3S Atlas-Agena AVUM Baikonur BOLT-2 BurstCube Cape Canaveral Cassini CRS-30 Dragon Drew Feustel Europe’s Spaceport Expedition 1 Expedition 55 Expedition 56 Falcon 9 French Guiana High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager Imaging Science Subsystem Ingenuity International Launch Services JPL Kennedy L4 Lagrange point Leonardo Marina Vasilevskaya Mars 1 MDIS Mercury MESSENGER Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport NASA Planetary Data System National Reconnaissance Office NROL-123 Oleg Artemyev Oleg Novitskiy OneWeb PDS4 Standards Reference Perseverance PRISMA Proton Ranger 9 Ricky Arnold Rocket Lab Electron Saturn Soyuz Flight ST28 Soyuz MS-08 SpaceX SPICE Starsem Terrier-Improved Malemute Titan Tracy Dyson Vega Wallops Wallops Island Asia Russia Air Force Research Laboratory Earth Io Mars Moon Sun International Space Station Space Shuttle Discovery STS-102

March 20 in Universe History: Space Missions, Astronomy and Exploration

March 20, 2026
1964 On March 20, 1964, the convention establishing the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) entered into force, creating a joint European framework to pool resources for space science. ESRO’s programs, tracking and data facilities, and cooperative governance later fed into the 1975 merger that formed the European Space Agency for broader civil-space activities.
2015 On March 20, 2015, a total solar eclipse occurred as the Moon’s umbra skimmed Earth at a glancing angle on the March equinox. Totality passed south of Greenland to near the North Pole, crossing the Faroe Islands and Svalbard, while a broad partial eclipse was visible across Europe and beyond.

March 20 Major Events in World History

March 20, 2026
1890 Otto von Bismarck is dismissed as Chancellor of the German Empire on 20 March 1890 by Emperor Wilhelm II, ending Bismarck’s dominant role in German and European politics.
1964 The European Space Research Organisation, precursor to the European Space Agency, is established on 20 March 1964.
1999 LEGOLAND California, the first Legoland park outside Europe, opens in Carlsbad on 20 March 1999, expanding the international Legoland theme park franchise.
2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland begins erupting on 20 March 2010, initiating three months of activity that cause massive disruptions to European air travel.