Launches
ON RECORD20MISSIONS
19 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1959 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
August 21 in spaceflight
20 launches flew on August 21, the earliest of them in 1959, and 19 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 21. 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 1993.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on August 21
Launches on August 21Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
20 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-39SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Angara 1.2 | Kosmos 2591-2594VKSSUCCESS
- 2021Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 9ASASUCCESS
- 2009Ariane 5 ECA | JCSAT-12 & Optus D3ASASUCCESS
- 2002Atlas V 401 | Hot Bird 6LMTSUCCESS
- 2001Soyuz U | Progress M-45RFSASUCCESS
- 1997Delta II | Iridium 22 to 26USAFSUCCESS
- 1996Pegasus XL | Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST)OSCSUCCESS
- 1991Soyuz-U-PVB | Resurs-F2 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 36CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKT 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Titan 33B | Jumpseat 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4M 53CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Tsiklon-2 | US-A 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Atlas SLV-3C Centaur | CopernicusUSAFSUCCESS
- 1968X-15 | Flight 197USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Titan II GLV | Gemini VNASASUCCESS
- 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-5 12USAFSUCCESS
- 1959Little Joe | LJ-1NASAFAILURE
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.
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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.