Launches
ON RECORD6MISSIONS
6 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1974 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
February 13 in spaceflight
6 launches flew on February 13, the earliest of them in 1974, and 6 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 13. 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 1633.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on February 13
2004
The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ↗2012
The first Vega rocket was launched by the European Space Agency from the Guiana Space Centre.
Vega (rocket) ↗2012
The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
European Space Agency ↗
Launches on February 13Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
6 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-12SpXSUCCESS
- 2018Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-08 (69P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2012Vega | Multipayload mission, 9 satellitesESASUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 33CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 18CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Titan 24B | KH-8 41USAFSUCCESS
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.
- 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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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.