Launches
ON RECORD28MISSIONS
27 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
June 8 in spaceflight
28 launches flew on June 8, the earliest of them in 1961, and 27 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on June 8. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD3ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1966.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on June 8
1966
An F-104 Starfighter collides with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype no. 2, destroying both aircraft during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base. Joseph A. Walker, a NASA test pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, are both killed.
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter ↗2004
The first Venus Transit in well over a century takes place, the previous one being in 1882.
2004 transit of Venus ↗2007
Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-117 carrying two truss segments and solar arrays to the International Space Station.
Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗
Launches on June 8Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
28 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-35SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-8SpXSUCCESS
- 2024SpaceShipTwo | Galactic 07VGSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 8-8SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-1SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Nilesat-301SpXSUCCESS
- 2017Proton-M Briz-M | Echostar 21ILSSUCCESS
- 2007Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-117USASUCCESS
- 2007Delta II 7420-10 | COSMO-SkyMed 1ULASUCCESS
- 2003Soyuz U | Progress M1-10RFSASUCCESS
- 2001Kosmos-3M | Parus 92NPSUCCESS
- 1995Tsiklon-2 | US-PM 6RFSASUCCESS
- 1990Titan 405A | SLDCOM 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1989Molniya-M | Molniya-3 45LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 35CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Yantar-4K1 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 18LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 79CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 61CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Titan IIID | KH-9 10USAFSUCCESS
- 1975Proton | Venera-9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 41-48CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Thor Burner 2 | SESP 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Voskhod | Zenit-2 50CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Voskhod | Zenit-2 39CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Molniya 8K78 | Luna-6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | KH-5 3USAFFAILURE
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.