Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/March

• 7 March 2009 – The space observatory Kepler is launched by NASA to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars
• 13 March 1781 – William Herschel observes Uranus, which he initially believes to be a comet, eventually leading to Uranus being identified as a planet
• 14 March 1986 – The European robotic spacecraft Giotto becomes the first satellite to observe a comet up close when it flies through and photographs Halley's Comet
• 16 March 1926 – Using a mixture of gasoline and liquid oxygen, Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket
• 18 March 2011 – MESSENGER becomes the first spacecraft to orbit around the planet Mercury
• 23 March 1912 – Wernher von Braun, a German-American aerospace engineer and space architect is born