Launches
ON RECORD14MISSIONS
14 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1967, the most recent 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
14 orbital launches flew on August 1, the earliest of them in 1967, and 14 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 1. Below are the pictures NASA published on August 1 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
14MISSIONS
14 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1967, the most recent 2026.
2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1911 onward.
5IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for August 1, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

2026
How many moons can you see? The best answer is five: four orbiting Jupiter and Luna orbiting Earth. This multi-moon picture was possible because Earth's Moon moved directly in front of Jupiter last week. The featured image is a series of exposures near alignment taken from Westchester, New York, USA. The sunlit crescent of Earth's Moon, on the lower left, is overexposed, while the Moon's night side, on the upper right, is faintly illuminated by Earthshine. Lined up nearly vertically above our Moon, listed from bottom to top, are Jupiter's bright Galilean satellites: Ganymede, Io, Callisto, and Europa. Callisto, Ganymede, and Io are larger than Earth's Moon, while Europa is only slightly smaller. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is currently orbiting Jupiter and has made close passes near three of these moons.Tomorrow's picture: stairway to heaven
NASA · public domain

2025
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.
© Peter Bresseler — used with the credit NASA publishes

2024
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.
© Petr Horálek — used with the credit NASA publishes

2022
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
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
1911
Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator certificate.
Harriet Quimby ↗1911
Harriet Quimby takes her pilot's test and becomes the first U.S. woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator's certificate.
Harriet Quimby ↗General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
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LISTING
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.
LISTING
The case for leaving Earth, written by someone unsentimental about how hard that is. Suits readers who want the argument rather than the poster.
LISTING
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
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.