Launches
ON RECORD16MISSIONS
14 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1962 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1962 · 64 years ago today
John Glenn orbits the Earth
John Glenn circled the Earth three times in Friendship 7, the first American to reach orbit.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
February 20 in spaceflight
16 launches flew on February 20, the earliest of them in 1962, and 14 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 20. 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 1962.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on February 20
1962
The Project Mercury stamp, designed by Charles R. Chickering, was released to commemorate the successful space flight of Colonel John Glenn.
Project Mercury ↗1965
The NASA spacecraft Ranger 8 spacecraft transmitted 7,137 photographs of the Moon in the final 23 minutes of its mission before crashing as planned into Mare Tranquillitatis.
Ranger 8 ↗1968
The China Academy of Space Technology, China's main arm for the research, development, and creation of space satellites, is established in Beijing.
China Academy of Space Technology ↗1986
The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
Soviet Union ↗
Launches on February 20Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
16 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-36SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | HTS-113BT (Merah Putih 2)SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Antares 230+ | Cygnus CRS-2 NG-15 (S.S. Katherine Johnson)NGSSSUCCESS
- 2020Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M | Meridian-M No.19LVKSSUCCESS
- 2001Start-1 | OdinVKSSUCCESS
- 1999Soyuz-U | Soyuz TM-29RFSASUCCESS
- 1993Mu-3S-II | AsukaISASSUCCESS
- 1987Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Mu-3S | TenmaISASSUCCESS
- 1980Proton-K/DM | Raduga 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | INTELSAT IV F6USAFFAILURE
- 1968Kosmos-3M | Sfera 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-V 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-A1 6CCCPFAILURE
- 1962Atlas LV-3B | Mercury-Atlas 6NASASUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
SPONSORED
Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Buying through these links doesn't cost you anything extra.
- 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.
- VIEW
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.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search. It isn't a pick of one product.
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.