Skip to content
DELTA-V

ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR

August 28 in spaceflight

29 orbital launches flew on August 28, the earliest of them in 1958, and 26 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 8 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 28. Below are the pictures NASA published on August 28 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

29MISSIONS

26 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1958, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

8ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1789 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for August 28, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on August 28

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.

© Robert Eder — 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.

NASA · public domain

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 August 28

  1. 1789

    With the first use of his 1.2-metre (3.9 ft) telescope, then the largest in the world, William Herschel discovered a new moon of Saturn, later named Enceladus (pictured).

    William Herschel ↗

  4. 1993

    The NASA spacecraft Galileo flew by the asteroid 243 Ida and took photographs that later revealed the first known asteroid moon (both pictured).

    Galileo (spacecraft) ↗

  5. 1993

    NASA's Galileo probe performs a flyby of the asteroid 243 Ida. Astronomers later discover a moon, the first known asteroid moon, in pictures from the flyby and name it Dactyl.

    NASA ↗

  6. 1999

    The Russian space mission Soyuz TM-29 reaches completion, ending nearly 10 years of continuous occupation on the space station Mir as it approaches the end of its life.

    Soyuz TM-29 ↗

  8. 2016

    The first experimental mission of ISRO's Scramjet Engine towards the realisation of an Air Breathing Propulsion System is successfully conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

    ISRO ↗

Every launch on August 28

29 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-11SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 8-6SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-23SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2021Astra Rocket 3 | STP-27AD1ASFAILURE
  5. 2015Proton-M Briz-M | Inmarsat-5 F3ILSSUCCESS
  6. 2014SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise CF02VGSUCCESS
  7. 2013Delta IV Heavy | NROL-65 (USA-245 / KH-11)ULASUCCESS
  8. 2002Ariane 5 G | Atlantic Bird 1 & Meteosat 8ASASUCCESS
  9. 2000Proton | Raduga-1 5KhSCSUCCESS
  10. 1997Proton-K/DM-2M | PAS 5KhSCSUCCESS
  11. 1994H-II | Kiku-6JAXASUCCESS
  12. 1990Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 23CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1990H-1 | Yuri 3AMHISUCCESS
  14. 1990Molniya 8K78M-PVB | US-K 66CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1989Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 11CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1987Zenit-2 | GVM Tselina-2CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1986Molniya-M | US-K 48CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1985Titan 34D | KH-11 7USAFFAILURE
  19. 1984Titan 34B | Quasar 5USAFSUCCESS
  20. 1981Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 25CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1979Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 21CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1979Molniya-M | US-K 12CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 65CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1973Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 20CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1968Soyuz | Kosmos 238CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1964Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 1CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1964Thor SLV-2 Agena B | Nimbus 1USAFSUCCESS
  28. 1963Little Joe II | QTVNASASUCCESS
  29. 1958Project Pilot | NOTS 6USNFAILURE

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.