Launches
ON RECORD23MISSIONS
21 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1958 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
August 24 in spaceflight
23 launches flew on August 24, the earliest of them in 1958, and 21 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 24. 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 2006.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on August 24
2006
The International Astronomical Union passed a resolution redefining the term planet and classifying Pluto as a dwarf planet.
International Astronomical Union ↗2016
Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, is discovered by the European Southern Observatory.
Proxima Centauri b ↗2017
The National Space Agency of Taiwan successfully launches the observation satellite Formosat-5 into space.
List of government space agencies ↗
Launches on August 24Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
23 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 No. 19VKSSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-33SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Long March 2D | Beijing-3BCASCSUCCESS
- 2021Long March 3B | TJSW-7CASCSUCCESS
- 2021Long March 2C/YZ-1S | RSW-01 - 03CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Long March 3B / YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M11 & M12CASCSUCCESS
- 2017Falcon 9 Full Thrust | Formosat 5SpXSUCCESS
- 2016Ariane 5 ECA | Intelsat 33e & Intelsat 36ASASUCCESS
- 2011Soyuz-U | Progress M-12M (44P)RFSAFAILURE
- 2010Long March 2D | TianHui-1CASCSUCCESS
- 2001Proton | US-KMO 5KhSCSUCCESS
- 1993Soyuz-U-PVB | Resurs-F 19VKSSUCCESS
- 1984Proton-K/DM | EkranCCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 62CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 30CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Tsiklon-2 | US-A 19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 129-136CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Tsiklon-2 | US-P 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4M 54CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Molniya-M | Luna-11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1958Juno-I | Explorer 5ABMAFAILURE
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
SPONSORED
Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Buying through these links doesn't cost you anything extra.
- 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.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search. It isn't a pick of one product.
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.