Launches
ON RECORD14MISSIONS
14 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1959 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
August 13 in spaceflight
14 launches flew on August 13, the earliest of them in 1959, and 14 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 13. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1898.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on August 13
1898
Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.
Carl Gustav Witt ↗1969
The Apollo 11 astronauts enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York City. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.
Apollo 11 ↗
Launches on August 13Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
14 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Long March 5B/YZ-2 | SatNet LEO Group 08CASCSUCCESS
- 2025Vulcan VC4S | USSF-106ULASUCCESS
- 2025Ariane 62 | Metop-SG A1ASASUCCESS
- 2014Atlas V 401 | WorldView-3ULASUCCESS
- 2005Soyuz-FG | Galaxy 14RFSASUCCESS
- 2003Pegasus XL | SCISAT-1OSCSUCCESS
- 1998Soyuz-U | Soyuz TM-28RFSASUCCESS
- 1992Long March 2E | Optus B1CASCSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 21CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 48CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Scout D-1 | Explorer 46NASASUCCESS
- 1969Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Thor DM-21 Ablestar | Transit-O 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1959Thor Agena A | Discoverer 5USAFSUCCESS
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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.
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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.
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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.