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April 8 in spaceflight

26 launches flew on April 8, the earliest of them in 1961, and 25 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 8. Pick another date to see what happened on it.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

26MISSIONS

25 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1993.

Pictures from this date

NONE

0IMAGES

There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.

What happened on April 8

  2. 2002

    The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-110, carrying the S0 truss to the International Space Station. Astronaut Jerry L. Ross also becomes the first person to fly on seven spaceflights.

    Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗

  3. 2005

    A solar eclipse occurs, visible over areas of the Pacific Ocean and Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.

    Solar eclipse of April 8, 2005 ↗

  4. 2008

    On board Soyuz TMA-12, Yi So-yeon became the first Korean astronaut.

    Soyuz TMA-12 ↗

Launches on April 8Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.

26 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Long March 6A | SatNet LEO Group 21CASCSUCCESS
  2. 2025Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-27RFSASUCCESS
  3. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Axiom Space Mission 1SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2021Long March 4B | Shiyan-6-03CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2016Falcon 9 Full Thrust | SpX CRS-8SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2010Dnepr 1 | Cryosat-2ISCKSUCCESS
  7. 2008Soyuz-FG | Soyuz TMA-12RFSASUCCESS
  8. 2003Titan IVB | Milstar 6USAFSUCCESS
  9. 2002Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-110USASUCCESS
  10. 1996Proton-K/DM-2M | Astra 1FKhSCSUCCESS
  11. 1993Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-56LSOCSUCCESS
  12. 1992Soyuz U | Yantar-4KS1M 2RFSASUCCESS
  13. 1987Tsiklon-2 | US-P 26CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1984Long March 3 | DFH-2 2CASCSUCCESS
  15. 1983Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 76CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1983Proton-K/DM | Raduga 12CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1982Kosmos-3M | Parus 32CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1975Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 76CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1970Titan IIIC | Vela 6A & 6BUSAFSUCCESS
  20. 1970Voskhod | Zenit-4 70CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1970Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | Nimbus 4USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1967Proton / UR-500 K/D | Kosmos 154CCCPFAILURE
  23. 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | OAO 1USAFSUCCESS
  24. 1966Atlas Centaur D | Surveyor M-2USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1964Titan II GLV | Gemini IUSAFSUCCESS
  26. 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-5 2USAFSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.

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  • 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.

    VIEW

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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.

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