Launches
ON RECORD23MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1960 and the latest in 2022.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
February 26 in spaceflight
23 launches flew on February 26, the earliest of them in 1960, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 26. 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 -747.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on February 26
-747
According to Ptolemy, the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonassar (name in Akkadian pictured) began, marking a new era characterized by the systematic maintenance of chronologically precise historical records.
740s BC ↗-747
According to Ptolemy, the epoch (origin) of the Nabonassar Era began at noon on this date. Historians use this to establish the modern BC chronology for dating historic events.
Ptolemy ↗1616
Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.
Galileo affair ↗
Launches on February 26Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
23 launches
ONLINE
- 2022Long March 4C | L-SAR 01BCASCSUCCESS
- 2011Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 (Kosmos 2471)VKSSUCCESS
- 2009Zenit | Telstar 11NSLSUCCESS
- 2005H-IIA 2022 | Himawari-6 (MTSAT-1R)JAXASUCCESS
- 2001Soyuz U | Progress M-44RFSASUCCESS
- 1999Ariane 44L | Arabsat 3A & Skynet 4EASASUCCESS
- 1998Pegasus XL | Broadband Advanced Technologies Satellite (BATSAT/Teledesic T1) & Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE)OSCSUCCESS
- 1992Ariane 44L | Superbird B1 & Arabsat 1CASASUCCESS
- 1991Kosmos-3M | Parus 71CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Molniya-M | US-K 56CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Delta 3924 | GOES 7USAFSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 29CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 21CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 53CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Delta 3910/PAM | Westar 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1977Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 37CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Soyuz 11A511L | T2K 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Voskhod | Zenit-4 51CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Thor Delta E1 | ESSA 9USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Saturn IB | Apollo AS-201NASASUCCESS
- 1965Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1960Atlas Agena A | Midas 1USAFFAILURE
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.
- 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.
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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.