Launches
ON RECORD11MISSIONS
11 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1970, the most recent 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1977 · 49 years ago today
Voyager 2 launches first
Voyager 2 left Earth sixteen days before Voyager 1, on the slower path that would take it past all four outer planets.
read more1975 · 51 years ago today
Viking 1 departs
Viking 1 left Earth carrying an orbiter and a lander, on the first mission to successfully land and operate on Mars.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
August 20 in spaceflight
11 orbital launches flew on August 20, the earliest of them in 1970, and 11 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 20. Below are the pictures NASA published on August 20 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD4ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1909 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED6IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for August 20, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on August 20
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
2026
NASA Science
Scientists are melting holes in the bottom of the world. In fact, almost 100 holes melted near the South Pole are now being used as an astronomical observatory. Astronomers with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory lowered a long string knotted with basketball-sized light detectors into each vertical lake. The water in each hole soon refreezes. The detectors attached to the strings are sensitive to blue light emitted in the surrounding clear ice. Such light results from fast-moving secondary particles liberated when high-energy neutrinos emitted by powerful processes out in the universe collide with ice molecules. IceCube has now detected many illuminating neutrinos. Pictured in 2010, one of the last of IceCube's detector strings is lowered into the freezing abyss, making IceCube the largest neutrino detector ever created. In recognition of unprecedented discoveries, it was announced earlier this week that a founding leader of the IceCube Collaboration will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.Tomorrow's picture: Moons Planet
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.
NASA · public domain
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.
© Robert Nemiroff — used with the credit NASA publishes
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.
© Balint Lengyel — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on August 20
1909
Pluto (pictured) was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.
Pluto ↗1955
Battle of Philippeville: In Algeria, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
Philippeville massacre ↗
Every launch on August 20
11 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Electron | The Lightning God Defends (iQPS Launch 8)RLSUCCESS
- 2025Soyuz 2.1b | Bion-M No. 2RFSASUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-5SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 4C | Gaofen-12 04CASCSUCCESS
- 2015Ariane 5 ECA | Eutelsat 8 West B & Intelsat 34ASASUCCESS
- 1991Soyuz-U2 | Progress M-9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Tsiklon-2 | US-A 29CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 19LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Titan IIIE | Voyager 2LMTSUCCESS
- 1975Titan IIIE | Viking 1LMTSUCCESS
- 1970Kosmos-3M | DS-P1-M 1CCCPSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.
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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.
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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.
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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.