Launches
ON RECORD28MISSIONS
25 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
August 30 in spaceflight
28 launches flew on August 30, the earliest of them in 1961, and 25 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 30. 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 1983.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on August 30
1983
STS-8: The Space Shuttle Challenger takes off on the first night launch of the shuttle program. Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American in space on this mission.
STS-8 ↗1984
Discovery, the third orbiter of NASA's Space Shuttle program, lifted off on its maiden voyage from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Space Shuttle Discovery ↗
Launches on August 30Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
28 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon Heavy | Nancy Grace Roman Space TelescopeSpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-7SpXSUCCESS
- 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | SAOCOM 1BSpXSUCCESS
- 2019Kuaizhou 1A | KX-09 & TY-1-07 (Xiaoxiang-1-07)EPSUCCESS
- 2019Rokot / Briz-KM | Geo-IK-2 N13L (Kosmos 2540)VKSSUCCESS
- 2012Atlas V 401 | Radiation Belt Storm Probe AULASUCCESS
- 2001Ariane 44L | INTELSAT 902ASASUCCESS
- 1998Proton-K/DM-2M | Astra 2AKhSCSUCCESS
- 1995Proton | Potok 9KhSCSUCCESS
- 1993Delta II | GPS IIA-13USAFSUCCESS
- 1991Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 9CCCPFAILURE
- 1991Mu-3S-II | YohkohISASSUCCESS
- 1990Ariane 44LP | Skynet 4C & Eutelsat-2 F1ASASUCCESS
- 1988Molniya-M | US-K 57CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-41-DLSOCSUCCESS
- 1984Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 51LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Molniya-M | Molniya-3 32LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-8ROISUCCESS
- 1982Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 29CCCPFAILURE
- 1982Tsiklon-2 | US-A 22CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 38CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Feng Bao 1 | JSSW 3CASCSUCCESS
- 1974Scout D-1 | ANSNASASUCCESS
- 1974Voskhod | Zenit-2M 50CCCPFAILURE
- 1973Voskhod | Zenit-2M 41CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Molniya-M | Molniya-1 24CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Voskhod | Zenit-2M 31CCCPSUCCESS
- 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | Discoverer 29USAFSUCCESS
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.