Launches
ON RECORD29MISSIONS
26 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1958 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
August 28 in spaceflight
29 launches flew on August 28, the earliest of them in 1958, and 26 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 28. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD6ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1789.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on August 28
1789
With the first use of his 1.2-metre (3.9 ft) telescope, then the largest in the world, William Herschel discovered a new moon of Saturn, later named Enceladus (pictured).
William Herschel ↗1993
The NASA spacecraft Galileo flew by the asteroid 243 Ida and took photographs that later revealed the first known asteroid moon (both pictured).
Galileo (spacecraft) ↗1993
NASA's Galileo probe performs a flyby of the asteroid 243 Ida. Astronomers later discover a moon, the first known asteroid moon, in pictures from the flyby and name it Dactyl.
NASA ↗1999
The Russian space mission Soyuz TM-29 reaches completion, ending nearly 10 years of continuous occupation on the space station Mir as it approaches the end of its life.
Soyuz TM-29 ↗2016
The first experimental mission of ISRO's Scramjet Engine towards the realisation of an Air Breathing Propulsion System is successfully conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
ISRO ↗
Launches on August 28Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
29 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-11SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 8-6SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-23SpXSUCCESS
- 2021Astra Rocket 3 | STP-27AD1ASFAILURE
- 2015Proton-M Briz-M | Inmarsat-5 F3ILSSUCCESS
- 2014SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise CF02VGSUCCESS
- 2013Delta IV Heavy | NROL-65 (USA-245 / KH-11)ULASUCCESS
- 2002Ariane 5 G | Atlantic Bird 1 & Meteosat 8ASASUCCESS
- 2000Proton | Raduga-1 5KhSCSUCCESS
- 1997Proton-K/DM-2M | PAS 5KhSCSUCCESS
- 1994H-II | Kiku-6JAXASUCCESS
- 1990Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 23CCCPSUCCESS
- 1990H-1 | Yuri 3AMHISUCCESS
- 1990Molniya 8K78M-PVB | US-K 66CCCPSUCCESS
- 1989Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Zenit-2 | GVM Tselina-2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Molniya-M | US-K 48CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Titan 34D | KH-11 7USAFFAILURE
- 1984Titan 34B | Quasar 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1981Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 25CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 21CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Molniya-M | US-K 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 65CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Soyuz | Kosmos 238CCCPSUCCESS
- 1964Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1964Thor SLV-2 Agena B | Nimbus 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Little Joe II | QTVNASASUCCESS
- 1958Project Pilot | NOTS 6USNFAILURE
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.