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August 24 in spaceflight

23 orbital launches flew on August 24, the earliest of them in 1958, and 21 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 24. Below are the pictures NASA published on August 24 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

23MISSIONS

21 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1958, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1932 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for August 24, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on August 24

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

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

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

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

© Robert Nemiroff — 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.

© Robert Nemiroff — used with the credit NASA publishes

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 August 24

  1. 1932

    Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).

    Amelia Earhart ↗

  4. 2016

    Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, is discovered by the European Southern Observatory.

    Proxima Centauri b ↗

Every launch on August 24

23 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 No. 19VKSSUCCESS
  2. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-33SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2022Long March 2D | Beijing-3BCASCSUCCESS
  4. 2021Long March 3B | TJSW-7CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2021Long March 2C/YZ-1S | RSW-01 - 03CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2018Long March 3B / YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M11 & M12CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2017Falcon 9 Full Thrust | Formosat 5SpXSUCCESS
  8. 2016Ariane 5 ECA | Intelsat 33e & Intelsat 36ASASUCCESS
  9. 2011Soyuz-U | Progress M-12M (44P)RFSAFAILURE
  10. 2010Long March 2D | TianHui-1CASCSUCCESS
  11. 2001Proton | US-KMO 5KhSCSUCCESS
  12. 1993Soyuz-U-PVB | Resurs-F 19VKSSUCCESS
  13. 1984Proton-K/DM | EkranCCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1984Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 62CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1981Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 30CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1981Tsiklon-2 | US-A 19CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1977Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 129-136CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 4CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1977Tsiklon-2 | US-P 5CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4M 54CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1967Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 9CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1966Molniya-M | Luna-11CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1958Juno-I | Explorer 5ABMAFAILURE

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.