Launches
ON RECORD19MISSIONS
19 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
February 8 in spaceflight
19 orbital launches flew on February 8, the earliest of them in 1962, and 19 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 8. Below are the pictures NASA published on February 8 in 5 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 1817 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED5IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for February 8, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on February 8
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.
© Aldo S. Kleiman — 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.
© Robert Nemiroff — used with the credit NASA publishes
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
What happened on February 8
1817
An army led by Grand Marshal Las Heras crosses the Andes to join San Martín in the liberation of Chile from Spain.
Army of the Andes ↗1974
The crew of Skylab 4, the last mission to visit the American space station Skylab, returns to Earth after 84 days in space.
Skylab 4 ↗
Every launch on February 8
19 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Electron | IoT 4 You and Me (Kinéis 16-20)RLSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 12-9SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem)SpXSUCCESS
- 2010Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-130USASUCCESS
- 2000Soyuz-U-PVB | IRDT 1RFSASUCCESS
- 2000Delta 7420-10C | Globalstar 60,62,63,64USAFSUCCESS
- 1994Long March 3A | Shi Jian 4CASCSUCCESS
- 1988Delta 3910 | TVEUSAFSUCCESS
- 1985Ariane 3 | Arabsat 1A & Brasilsat A1ASASUCCESS
- 1985Titan 34B | Quasar 6USAFSUCCESS
- 1984Soyuz-U | Soyuz T-10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 44CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MT 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4M 46CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Voskhod | Zenit-4 26CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Diamant A | Diademe D-1CCNESSUCCESS
- 1967Thor Burner 2 | DSAP-4A F2USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Thor Delta | Tiros 4USAFSUCCESS
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.