Launches
ON RECORD25MISSIONS
25 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1966 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
August 8 in spaceflight
25 launches flew on August 8, the earliest of them in 1966, and 25 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 8. 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 1576.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on August 8
1576
The cornerstone of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe's observatory Uraniborg was laid on the island of Hven.
Cornerstone ↗1576
The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory is laid on the island of Hven.
Tycho Brahe ↗1989
Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission: Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.
Space Shuttle program ↗2007
Space Shuttle program: STS-118 Mission: Endeavour takes off on a mission to the International Space Station.
STS-118 ↗
Launches on August 8Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
25 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-38SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Smart Dragon 3 | Geely Constellation Group 04CHNRSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 2C | 5 m S-SAR-02 (Huanjing-2F)CASCSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-20SpXSUCCESS
- 2019Atlas V 551 | AEHF-5 (USA 292)ULASUCCESS
- 2013SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF26VGSUCCESS
- 2013Delta IV M+(5,4) | WGS-6 (USA-244)ULASUCCESS
- 2007Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-118USASUCCESS
- 2003Zenit | Echostar IXSLSUCCESS
- 2001Delta 7326-9.5 | GenesisUSAFSUCCESS
- 1997Ariane 44P | PAS 6ASASUCCESS
- 1996Ariane 44L | Italsat F2 & Télécom 2DASASUCCESS
- 1990Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 49 to 54CCCPSUCCESS
- 1989Ariane 44LP | TV-Sat 2ASASUCCESS
- 1989Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-28LSOCSUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz U | Zenit-8 66CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Proton-K/DM | Raduga 16CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 50CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Soyuz U | Yantar-1KFT 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Pioneer Venus MultiprobeUSAFSUCCESS
- 1971R-36O 8K69M | OGCh 24CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Scout B | Explorer 39NASASUCCESS
- 1967R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Voskhod | Zenit-4 21CCCPSUCCESS
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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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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.