Launches
ON RECORD21MISSIONS
19 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1968, the most recent 2020.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
2018 · 8 years ago today
Falcon Heavy's first flight
Falcon Heavy flew for the first time and landed both side boosters at Cape Canaveral within seconds of each other.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
February 6 in spaceflight
21 orbital launches flew on February 6, the earliest of them in 1968, and 19 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 6. Below are the pictures NASA published on February 6 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1959 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for February 6, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on February 6
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
2026
NASA Science
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
NASA · public domain
2025
NASA Science
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
© Lorand Fenyes — used with the credit NASA publishes
2024
NASA Science
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
NASA · public domain
2023
NASA Science
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
NASA · public domain
2022
NASA Science
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
NASA · public domain
2021
NASA Science
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
© Lukasz Zak — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on February 6
1959
At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
Cape Canaveral ↗
Every launch on February 6
21 launches
ONLINE
- 2020Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 2ASASUCCESS
- 2018Falcon Heavy | Demo (Test Flight)SpXSUCCESS
- 2014Ariane 5 ECA | ABS-2 & Athena-FidusASASUCCESS
- 2013Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat | 6 x Globalstar-2SSASUCCESS
- 2011Minotaur I | NROL-66 (RPP) (USA-225)OSCSUCCESS
- 2009Delta II 7320-10C | NOAA-19 (NOAA N)ULASUCCESS
- 1990Kosmos-3M | Duga-K 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Tsiklon-3 | Meteor-2 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Soyuz U | Zenit-8 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 28CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Kosmos-3M | AUOS-Z-R-P-IK 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979N-I | AyameNASDAFAILURE
- 1977Titan IIIC | DSP 7USAFSUCCESS
- 1975Delta 2914 | SMS 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1975Diamant BP4 | StarletteCNESSUCCESS
- 1975Molniya-M | Molniya-2 12CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 22CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Apollo LM | Apollo 14NASASUCCESS
- 1970Proton | Luna-16cCCCPFAILURE
- 1969Thor Delta M | INTELSAT III F-3USAFSUCCESS
- 1968Voskhod | Zenit-4 38CCCPSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
SPONSORED
General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Links here cost you nothing extra.
- VIEW
LISTING
Cosmos — Carl Sagan
Still the best single argument for why any of this matters, and it leaves the arithmetic in. For a reader who wants the science, not just the awe.
- VIEW
LISTING
Pale Blue Dot — Carl Sagan
The case for leaving Earth, written by someone unsentimental about how hard that is. Suits readers who want the argument rather than the poster.
- VIEW
LISTING
Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir
Hard-SF problem solving in The Martian's key — for anyone who liked the engineering more than the peril. The only novel on this list.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search, not a specific recommendation.
LINKS AMAZON.COM
Sources and licences
Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images are drawn only from Wikimedia Commons, which does not accept non-free content — each thumbnail links to its file page, where its licence and author are recorded.
Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day; NASA imagery is generally not subject to copyright, but individual APOD entries are frequently the property of the photographer, and each caption says which applies.