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February 22 in spaceflight

19 orbital launches flew on February 22, the earliest of them in 1961, and 16 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 22. Below are the pictures NASA published on February 22 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

19MISSIONS

16 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1961, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

2ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1632 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for February 22, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on February 22

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

NASA Science

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

NASA Science

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.

© Vincenzo Mirabella — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

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.

© Kyunghoon Lim — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

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

NASA Science

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

NASA Science

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.

NASA · public domain

What happened on February 22

  1. 1632

    Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the dedicatee, receives the first printed copy of Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.

    Ferdinando II de' Medici ↗

  2. 1995

    The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.

    CORONA (satellite) ↗

Every launch on February 22

19 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-104SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2025Long March 3B/E | ChinaSat 10RCASCSUCCESS
  3. 2019SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity VF-01VGSUCCESS
  4. 2019Falcon 9 Block 5 | Nusantara Satu & GTO-1 (Beresheet, S5)SpXSUCCESS
  5. 2018Falcon 9 Full Thrust | PAZ & Microsat-2a, Microsat-2bSpXSUCCESS
  6. 2017Soyuz-U | Progress MS-05 (66P)RFSASUCCESS
  7. 1996Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-75LMSOSUCCESS
  8. 1990Ariane 44L | Superbird B & BS 2xASAFAILURE
  9. 1989Kosmos-3M | Parus 64CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1986Ariane 1 | SPOT 1 & VikingASASUCCESS
  11. 1980N-I | Ayame 2NASDASUCCESS
  12. 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 28CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1978Atlas F/SVS | Navstar 1USAFSUCCESS
  14. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 74CCCPFAILURE
  15. 1972Luna | Luna-20CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1967Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 39USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1966Voskhod | Voskhod-3KV 3CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1965Voskhod | Voskhod-3KD 1CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1961Thor DM-21 Ablestar | Transit 3B & LOFTI-1USAFPARTIAL

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.

  • 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.

    VIEW

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.