Launches
ON RECORD24MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1959 and the latest in 2024.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
February 17 in spaceflight
24 launches flew on February 17, the earliest of them in 1959, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 17. 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 1959.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on February 17
1959
Vanguard 2 (model pictured), the first weather satellite, was launched to measure cloud cover distribution.
Vanguard 2 ↗1959
Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2: The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
Project Vanguard ↗1965
Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the crewed Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the "Sea of Tranquility" would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
Ranger program ↗1996
NASA's Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
NASA ↗
Launches on February 17Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
24 launches
ONLINE
- 2024GSLV Mk II | INSAT-3DSISROSUCCESS
- 2024H3-22 | VEP 4, CE-SAT-1E & TIRSATMHISUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 2-5SpXSUCCESS
- 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 4SpXSUCCESS
- 2016H-IIA 202 | Astro-H (Hitomi)MHISUCCESS
- 2015Soyuz-U | Progress M-26MRFSASUCCESS
- 2007Delta II 7925-10C | THEMISULASUCCESS
- 1998Soyuz-U-PVB | Yantar-1KFT 19RFSASUCCESS
- 1997Atlas IIAS | JCSAT RLMTSUCCESS
- 1996Delta 7925-8 | NEAR ShoemakerUSAFSUCCESS
- 1993Proton | Uragan 51 to 53KhSCSUCCESS
- 1992Kosmos-3M | Parus 75NPSUCCESS
- 1989Soyuz U | Zenit-8 77CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Proton | Uragan 23 to 25CCCPFAILURE
- 1982Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Mu-3S | Tansei-4ISASSUCCESS
- 1978Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 17CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 13USAFFAILURE
- 1971Thor Burner 2 | DSAP-5A F3USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Diamant A | Diapason D-1ACNESSUCCESS
- 1965Atlas Agena B | Ranger 8USAFSUCCESS
- 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-5 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1959Vanguard | Vanguard IIUSNSUCCESS
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.